AG#22 Tricks of the Shade – Black IPA

It was an impromptu brewday yesterday.  It was a nice moment when I realised that I had all the components necessary to create beer, excluding free time, but went for it anyway.  I had intended to brew a Christmas Belgian Stout as per my last post, but the yeast starter didn’t make it.  Sad times.  I’ll revisit that another time.  Instead I decided to give brewing a Black IPA a third shot.  My previous efforts AG#5 (Nebulous) and AG#18 (Transatlanticism) both yielded good results, but not the kind of Black IPA I was looking for.  Both of my previous brews were roasty versions of the style, more what some would describe as a hoppy porter.  For my third attempt I had planned to steep the dark malts overnight and add the resulting wort to the boil.  However, due to the impromptu brew, I decided on adding the Carafa III just before the sparge.  As usual, the figures below reflect the recipe.  I did OK, but did collect more wort at a higher gravity than planned.  Most likely due to several things, including; not factoring in the Carafa III, boiling for slightly longer and I think my software has malt extract values that might be lower than the actual values?

Original Gravity (OG): 1.051
Final Gravity (FG): 1.008
Alcohol (ABV): 5.7%
Colour (SRM): 7.7 (EBC): 15.2 (this is the colour without the dark malts)
Bitterness (IBU): 55.0 (Average)

3.750 kg (75%) Golden Promise Pale Malt
0.300 kg (10%) Caramalt
0.200 kg (10%) Munich I
0.150 kg (5%) Biscuit
0.350 kg Carafa III (added before sparge)

27g Columbus (16.5% Alpha) @15 minutes from the end (boil)
13g Simcoe (16.2% Alpha) @15 minutes from the end (Boil)
30g Galaxy (14.4% Alpha) @10 minutes from the end(Boil)
30g Simcoe (16.2% Alpha) @5 minutes from the end (Boil)
100g Crystal (3.3% Alpha) @0 minutes (Steep at flame out)
20g Galaxy (14.4% Alpha) @0 minutes (Steep at flame out)

Water treatments:  Campden tablet (HLT), 1 tsp gypsum (mash).  My weighing scales aren’t great and I only need 3-4g, which is a tsp (approx).  Same rule for the epsom salts and gypsum in the boil.  Since my outing to Roosters, I was testing the PH at various stages of the process.  Those in the brackets are the target range:

HLT 5.6
Start of mash 5.4 (5.2-5.5)
First runnings 5.0 (4.8-5.2)
Pre boil 5.5 (5.1-5.4)
Post boil 5.0 (4.9-5.3)
Beer after fermentation (3.7-4.2)

Strike temp of 74C, 12.5L liquor for 5kg grain.  Mashed in at 66C (single step infusion).  Mashed for 75 minutes and temp remained constant.  Sparged at 78C (strike temp 85C), 23.30L liquor. I didn’t take any gravity readings as I was trying to be a dad and a brewer at the same time.  I used this brew to try out using biscuit malt, to give me an idea of what to expect for future brews.  It gave the first runnings a really deep amber colour, even though it was only 5% of the bill.  I suppose of the Carafa doesn’t dominate then it may even add to the malt aroma too.

The boil was scheduled for 90 minutes, but due to life getting in the way it was more like 110 minutes.  No drama here is nothing was scheduled to happen until 15 minutes from the end.  In went the Immersion Chiller, protofloc and first addition of Columbus.  Closely followed by additions of Simcoe, Galaxy and Crystal.

My next time-pressure induced mistake was running to the FV too soon and ending up with 33C wort.  As I couldn’t pitch at this temp, I sealed the FV and stood it outside to think about what it had done.  An hour or so later I pitched the US-05 at 23C and left the FV in the cold kitchen so it’s temp continued to fall (18C this morning, and moved to a warmer room).   I collected 24L of wort post boil with SG of 1.058.

I’ll be dry hopping in the FV with Galaxy, before making this my first kegged beer just in time for Christmas.  Any advice on dry hopping in the keg would be great, thanks.

Update: 09/11/12 down to 1.020. Dry hopped with 80g Galaxy. Great aroma from the FV. Colour is a dark muddy brown rather than black, but tastes good so I’m happy enough.

Update: 12/11/12 down to 1.016.

Update: 15/11/12 removed dry hops from FV (6 days).

Update: 20/11/12 kegged (and 5 bottles) 1.012 (6.1%)

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