First AG ever making a Black IPA

[Maxxyjazz]

Hi,
I'm going to do my first all grain beer in a few weeks. So right now I'm trying to get a recipe sorted. I think I'm going to make a black IPA style beer. I've been messing around with the brewers friend software and I have this as a rough recipe.

est batch 20.8litres

4kg Golden promise style
1kg chocolate

60g Amarillo
60g Mosaic

20g of each at 15 min
20g of each at 1min
20g of each to dry hop.

What I'm struggling to work out is the mash process. For instance how much water do I mash with and then how much do I sparge with?
It'll be fly sparge. I've seen some videos and read some recipes that sparge for an hour. Is it the time that matters or just getting to your boil size?


Any help much appreciated

M

 

[GHW]

Hi,
I'm going to do my first all grain beer in a few weeks. So right now I'm trying to get a recipe sorted. I think I'm going to make a black IPA style beer. I've been messing around with the brewers friend software and I have this as a rough recipe.

est batch 20.8litres

4kg Golden promise style
1kg chocolate

60g Amarillo
60g Mosaic

20g of each at 15 min
20g of each at 1min
20g of each to dry hop.

What I'm struggling to work out is the mash process. For instance how much water do I mash with and then how much do I sparge with?
It'll be fly sparge. I've seen some videos and read some recipes that sparge for an hour. Is it the time that matters or just getting to your boil size?


Any help much appreciated

M

I'm no expert at mash volumes as I do biab but I would recommend plugging your recipe into a recipe builder software as I suspect your ibus (bitterness) will be very low without a 60m hop addition.

Software will also help you with water volumes. Brewers friend (online version) and it's like are helpful tools that are worth getting to grips with.

Also that's a lot of choc malt. Search black ipa on the forum and compare to how much others have used.

 

[MickDundee]

I'm no expert at mash volumes as I do biab but I would recommend plugging your recipe into a recipe builder software as I suspect your ibus (bitterness) will be very low without a 60m hop addition.

Software will also help you with water volumes. Brewers friend (online version) and it's like are helpful tools that are worth getting to grips with.

Also that's a lot of choc malt. Search black ipa on the forum and compare to how much others have used.

He's already said he's using Brewers Friend.

He perhaps hasn't checked that the "matches style" logo has appeared though as I agree it doesn't look like it'll be bitter enough! I haven't got a clue about the chocolate malt as I only really like pale, Amber and red beers.

 

[Notlaw]

20% chocolate malt is WAAAYY high. I think max 5% is the usual, but as its the only specialty grain you're using, you might be ok...

For mash volume, I think you normally work on about 3L/Kg, so I'd have though around 15l, but I could be wrong there as that doesn't leave much to sparge with.

For bitterness, you really need a 60m hop as well, but I wouldn't use either of those ones. Get some magnum or northern brewer or warrior or something else thats cheap for bittering. Without that 60m addition, you'll end up really sweet.

 

[mike-os]

again no expert but would agree with the above posts....seems a lot of chocolate for an ipa

might want to add some crystal/cara too

needs a bittering hop at 60 mins too

ok heres a play i had:

4.5kg base malt
550g chocolate ...... i would suggest reducing this by half and going with black or maybe carafa 2?
250 crystal dark (140l)

hops as above with either 15g Magnum at 60 mins or 15g mosaic or 20-25g amarilo

this is exactly on the profile for a black pa according to brewers friend

OG 1057, fg 1013, ABV 5.9% IBU 53 ish... depends on hops,
colour pretty much on the money

mash at 65c for 60-90 minutes 2.5l/kg grain, strike water will want to be about 70-75c, (calculator on line) dont let it get too hot you can add a l of boiling water if its a little low once you have mashed in

sparge at 77c to give pre boil volume of about 25-26l would be my guess ( first sparge will be more like 80-83c to raise the grain temperature assuming you will batch sparge))

 

[IainM]

I would drop the chocolate even further, to maybe 200g. Black IPAs shouldn't be dominated by bitter or roasty flavours. You can up the darkness with a dehusked grain, which brings all the colour of a highly roasted malt but without the bitterness. Good choices would be Carafa Special III, Blackprinz, or Midnight Wheat. I would also up the quantity of hops quite a bit. As others have said, play around in the Brewers Friend recipe designer. For a black IPA you would want an SRM around 30, and a IBUs to be just under the number of gravity points (for instance, if your OG is 1.052, you want IBUs of around 52 or under, ish).

 

[Maxxyjazz]

Cheers for all that, really useful.

I think I will reduce the chocolate malt by half so 0.5kg.
I have some special b left over, will that work if added in a small amount? Maybe 0.5kg
Hop wise, I think I have some Northern Brewer as well. So I'll add them for the boil. 30-35g will take the IBU over the OG (depending whether I use some special B)


Yeast wise I was going to use a mangove jacks British ale. as I have always had a good result with this brand.


I have been using brewers friend as I said, but still getting used to it. Lots of things to take into account.


M

p.s In fact most of my ingredients are left over from other beers. Cheap skate ha ha

 

[GHW]

He's already said he's using Brewers Friend.

He perhaps hasn't checked that the "matches style" logo has appeared though as I agree it doesn't look like it'll be bitter enough! I haven't got a clue about the chocolate malt as I only really like pale, Amber and red beers.

Oh yeah, doh. Still good advice tho

 

[Notlaw]

Cheers for all that, really useful.

I think I will reduce the chocolate malt by half so 0.5kg.
I have some special b left over, will that work if added in a small amount? Maybe 0.5kg
Hop wise, I think I have some Northern Brewer as well. So I'll add them for the boil. 30-35g will take the IBU over the OG (depending whether I use some special B)


Yeast wise I was going to use a mangove jacks British ale. as I have always had a good result with this brand.


I have been using brewers friend as I said, but still getting used to it. Lots of things to take into account.


M

p.s In fact most of my ingredients are left over from other beers. Cheap skate ha ha

Instead of the MJ British Ale, try the M44 West Coast one. It should let the hops come through a bit more.

 

[Halfacrem]

As it's your first AG, why not start off with a tried and tested recipe for the style of beer you're looking for? I appreciate that forming a recipe is part of the fun, but wouldn't it be an idea to learn a bit about forming a recipe before jumping into the deep end? Maybe I'm just not adventurous enough, but to me the final product is the most important part. Just my view :)

 

[Maxxyjazz]

As it's your first AG, why not start off with a tried and tested recipe for the style of beer you're looking for? I appreciate that forming a recipe is part of the fun, but wouldn't it be an idea to learn a bit about forming a recipe before jumping into the deep end? Maybe I'm just not adventurous enough, but to me the final product is the most important part. Just my view :)

You are probably right.

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

I used 250g chocolate and 200g carafa III in mine. As before, you need a bittering hop and a neutral yeast like Us-05.

Some of the later bottles after the dry hops died down were fairly chocolaty, not sure I'd want any more.

 

[MyQul]

Perhaps Black Prinz or Midnight Wheat instead of choccy.

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

Perhaps Black Prinz or Midnight Wheat instead of choccy.

I keep seeing people talk about black prinz, but never seen it. Might have to do a bit of research.

 

[MyQul]

I keep seeing people talk about black prinz, but never seen it. Might have to do a bit of research.

It's a de-bittered black malt

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Blackprinz-Malt-500g-Crushed.html

 

[Dads_Ale]

I used cars 3 in my BIPA with some of it cold steeped. As said before you do not want too much roasty flavour as this does not work imo. I will post my recipe when Bach home Sunday.
Also the hops do fade quite quickly so it needs to be drunk young.

Personally I would gou for something easier for a first AG as this is a difficult beer to get right. You need to get the equipment right rather than having to worry about the recipe.

Good luck 😀

 

[Birkin]

Firstly, for your first AG I wholeheartedly recommend looking out a tried and tested recipe in your preferred style.

For the mashing, I had efficiency issues and did a lot of reading.

In my experience a thinner mash works well, I go with about 15 litres of strike water plus 3 litres for the space in my mash tun below the false bottom / strainer.

When mashing, take your time doughing in, be sure to break up any dough balls. With a thin mash I found my long plastic spoon was fine for this, with a thicker mash you'd need a mash paddle.

 

[sjb86]

I work at a London microbrewery - a black IPA is in our seasonal range, and was actually the first beer i brewed here.

We use a small quantity of Carafa type 3 in the sparge process only - so mash with your pale malts (a little cara and wheat aswell in our case)...as you would with an IPA, then after recirculating pre-sparge, throw the dry carafa 3 grains on top and sparge over them. They'll contribute a lot of colour and some roastiness but none of the bitterness or overbearing chocolate/coffee flavour you'd get mashing with a large quantity of roasted malt.

In my view a black IPA should be an IPA that is black, (so hop forward, dark but low roastiness) rather than a hoppy stout.

In terms of quantities, 2.5% Carafa.

Hope that helps.