BeerSmith™ Recipe Cloud

Taste Notes

I'm giving this beer a 42/50 for taste and attempt at "style" although the style qualifications of a Black IPA are disputable. Critique of the Black & 10 IPA: - The hops aroma and bitterness in this beer are amazing! I give credit to Avery, one of my favorite breweries in the American craft scene, for inspiring me with their Maharaja. I took their hop schedule (consisting of Columbus for bittering, a combo of Simcoe and Centennial in the kettle for aroma, and dry hopping with Chinook, Centennial, and Simcoe). As a personal modification, I choose to use an oz. of the Simcoe hops directly in the keg. As the only major defect in the beer in my eyes, there is some hop sediment in the bottle of glasses taken from the keg currently. On the other hand, maybe this is a true hophead's wet dream seeing evidence of the keg dry hops. - Although being a dark IPA, the roastiness is very subtle and pleasant. This was a quite feat in and of itself because I used chocolate (350L) malt, traditionally found in Stouts and Porters, along with Special B (180L), a signature malt of Belgium beer. These grains provided their color and subtle flavor character without overpowering the beer with roasty or caramel notes, which is highly important for an IPA to let the hop flavors shine through. This was achieved through the process of "cold steeping" the dark grains, sterilizing, and adding the resulting solution to the fermenter a few days into primary fermentation. In addition to the Belgium, I used Special 50 roast to provide "bready" flavor to accentuate the rye malt. The rest of the grain bill consisted of a base bill of American 2-row, rye malt, and white wheat. I did an all-grain single infusion mash at 152 degrees using a 1.250 grist/water ratio at 60 min. - At 10% alcohol by volume, this beer is already very drinkable without seeming "alcoholic" after less than a month from brewing. It's almost dangerous because in the last two days I have been so lulled away by the hop and malt profile (yes, I'm a bit biased because it's a personal endeavor) that I forget it's a high gravity beer...you feel two glasses quite well. I chose a typical Safale-05 yeast that hits the target gravity well and drops out of solution when the job is done without providing too much of its own character in this beer; for this Dark IPA style I wanted the hops and malt to shine. Being a bit unorthodox and perhaps a bit cheap, I used plain cane sugar to boost the ABV in the beer. The result worked well without the beer becoming cidery or plagued by fusel, “hot” alcohols. I pitched a large 24-hour yeast starter and fermented at ambient temperature (around 73 degree F) for the first day to allow the yeast to make a dent in the high OG (around 1.084) wort. Then, I transferred the fermenter to a chilling chamber to finish out at an ambient temperature of 65 degrees. Finally, I cold crashed at 35 degrees. - This beer shines because while providing the strong malt character expected of a beer this dark, it allows to hops to take center stage. The wheat and rye in the base bill give this beer better head than a fat chick. I want to speak to the beer in my mind fulfilling it's lofty purpose of being a true to "style" Black IPA, which is a bit of an oxymoron in the beer world because there is a debate as to whether Black IPA is truly a style of beer. It's on the beer Western frontier so to speak, but that's is partially why I chose to make it. I went to iTap here in Saint Louis with my boyfriend Colin to try an assortment of both darker IPA's and regular IPA's. Two beers really stood out to us, the Maharaja by Avery in Colorado and the Grainstorm by Boulevard in KC. The Maharaja had the most pleasant floral hoppiness matched with bitterness to bite, necessary as it's ABV is over 10%. It was brewed in terms of color and malt a traditional IPA. The Boulevard's Grainstorm on the other hand had the best malt flavor using a grain bill heavy in rye malt and "Midnight Wheat" to achieve its dark flavor. It's hop profile was not to my personal liking, although I am respectfully descending, because the hops were quite "dank", but this isn't my preference. Finally, I added my own personal touch by incorporating Belgian specialty malt. I've always been a fan of high gravity Belgium beers and wanted to add a crisper after taste to linger with hoppiness.

Notes

Inspiration: I want the great malt/rye flavor I tried in the Boulevard Grainstorm and the hop flavor profile from the Maharaja IPA. Substitions (Contest restrictions & ingredients available): Could use quite as many hops as the original Maharaja, but we are still good. Special Techniques: Cold-steeping the chocolate grain to obtain color with less bitterness Adding sugar to boost the alcohol and less the body a bit which will be balanced by the thick-mash (1.0 qt / grain lb)