Competition Recipe with Native Ingredients

[Funky Skunk Brewing]

So in late February we will be sending some beers to the Best Florida Beer Championship including one category that is made up of beers using native ingredients in the grain bill. After doing some research we've come up with a recipe that will incorporate Gulf of Mexico seaweed (Kelp) and create a black IPA we're calling Darkelp IPA. I've seen some seaweed ales in the past and thought this would be something to take a run at for the competition. So here is what we came up with for the brew:

5 Gallon Batch of Darklep IPA

Grain Bill
6 lbs. American 2-Row
1.25 lbs. German Carafa II
1 lb. Crystal 40L
1 lb. Crystal 80L
1 lb. American Chocolate Malt
4 ozs. Black Patent Malt
12 ozs. Dried Seaweed

1 oz. Centennial @60
.5 ozs. Centennial @45
.5 ozs. Cascade @30
.5 ozs. Cascade @15
.5 ozs. Cascade @5

Profile
IBU - 68
SRM - 48
Estimated OG - 1.053
Estimated FG - 1.013
ABV - 4.1%

[bucknut]

If going for a black ipa, I'd use Carafa special III and drop the chocolate, and the ease back on the crystal malts. You want to be sure it does't come out like a hoppy stout. Also the abv is low I'd bump that up a bit, how did you come up with your abv? I'm at work so I don't have the software to check it the #'s.

[Funky Skunk Brewing]

If going for a black ipa, I'd use Carafa special III and drop the chocolate, and the ease back on the crystal malts. You want to be sure it does't come out like a hoppy stout. Also the abv is low I'd bump that up a bit, how did you come up with your abv? I'm at work so I don't have the software to check it the #'s.

Q-Brew gave the ABV% on the recipe. This grain bill is a modified version of Williams Brothers Brewing's Kelpie Ale they have brewed in the past. I contacted their brewery a few weeks back and was able to get some insight in to how they came up with the grain bill and what they would have done differently. After that conversation this is what we arrived at. We're only brewing a five gallon batch for the competition, so if it tastes or looks off we can always dump it and try something different.

Interested to see how ti turns out with the modifications and talking to Williams Brothers. Also, their ABV was only 4.3 with their grain bill, so this is not all that far off as it was intended in their first brewings of this beer. It's more geared towards a Scottish Gruit/Ancient Herbed Ale than an actual Black IPA. This recipe is a cross of their original and a Black IPA recipe we have as well and the hops may be changing in the near future before we actually brew this beer. But like I said, we'll see how it turns out and go from there. Thanks for your input as well