Dry hopping my black IPA
I make no bones about my love of hoppy beers. Since I live in an a part of the world where over-hopped beers are something of a rarity (yes there are excellent local examples and, yes, the LCBO has brought in the odd decent IPA lately) it makes sense for me to brew my own. Over the past few weeks I have brewed two very different IPA styles: a black IPA and an imperial IPA.
For the black IPA my grain bill was made up of two-row pale malt and chocolate malt, with citra, simcoe and cascade hops bringing my bitterness in at about 71 IBU. The yeast was Wyeast German Ale and I dry hopped for about a week on chinook leaf hops. This one has been in the bottle for about ten days so it is too early to sample, though it did have a chocolatey orange quality to it on bottling day. OG was 1.066 and FG was 1.008, so this one is fairly strong.
Stronger still is the the imperial IPA I cooked up last weekend. Clocking in at an OG of 1.084 this is the biggest beer I have made so far. Had to use DME to bump up the gravity, but I am expecting this one to finish out at around 10% ABV. The recipe and brewing schedule appear below.
Imperial IPA
14 lbs. two-row
1 lb. melanoidin
0.75 lb. carafoam
3 lbs. light DME
Mash at 154°F for 2 hrs.
Boil time: 90 min.
0.5 oz. chinook @ 60 min.
0.5 oz. chinook @ 45 min.
0.5 oz. simcoe @ 30 min.
0.5 oz. amarillo @ 20 min.
0.5 oz. simcoe @ 15 min.
0.5 oz. amarillo @ 10 min.
1 tsp. Irish moss @ 15 min.
Wyeast London Ale (from two starters)
OG: 1.084
Estimated IBU: 82
Always interested in the pursuit of hoppy beers in Toronto! Two questions – what would be a commercial black IPA to compare it to? And, what is Melanoidin and carafoam?
thanks
Paul
Paul – to be honest I have never tried a commercially brewed black IPA (there are a few listed on Ratebeer). I had read about black IPA and it sounds like a new style that has emerged over the last couple of years. Since there are no locally available examples I decided to take a crack on my own. The one I made is very fruity with a kind of chocolate orange finish. If I was to brew it again I would probably go with black patent malt rather than the chocolate and maybe back off on the fruity hops in favour of more “piney” varieties. I’m still pretty satisfied with the finished product though.
Melanoidin malt is meant to – allegedly – simulate the effects of a decoction mash without performing a decoction and impart the malty flavours you get from the decoction process. Carafoam is meant to add body, mouthfeel and head retention.