Black IPA - tweaked Northern Brewer recipe

[Banjo-guy]

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I put your changes into BeerSmith,
It falls more in the zone of an IPA.

Thanks!

[Beer-lord]

I've found that with black IPA's, keeping the IBU's under 70 will help any flavor conflicts and let the dark flavors come through. I think the balance between the malts and hops are more important in blacks but that might just be my taste buds.
Let us know how it turns out.

[wollffy]

While it may not be a Black IPA, adding a fair amount of Chocolate malt (targeting an SRM that would be in between copper and brown) would put you into Red IPA territory... Kind of like a Red Rocket or other California Red...

Just sayin' since you already have it...

Red IPA!
I got to learn about this..

[Banjo-guy]

I brewed this today. Everything went really well.
I made one dumb mistake. I wanted to rehydrate the US 05. I started in sterile water at 65 degrees. That's a lot lower than the usual 90-100 range. I figured it out after 5 minutes. I dumped the whole thing into the LBK. The wort was about 68 degrees. Quite a bit of the yeast was still dry so I hope it will be ok.
There always seems to be one thing that I mess up.

[Beer-lord]

I wouldn't consider that a mess up. In fact, the temperature was close so there won't be a shock to the yeasties. Dry yeast is pretty forgiving.
And, I gave up rehydrating dry yeast ages ago. I've never looked back.
Glad it went well. Can't wait to hear how it ends up.

[Banjo-guy]

Thanks for your help on the Black IPA. The sweet wort tasted great! I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Banjo-guy]

I'm going to dry hop this today. I have a choice of:
1. 1 oz. Falconer's Flight
2. 1 oz Citra
3. 1 oz Liberty
4. 1/2 oz Willamette
5. .25 oz US Golding

The batch size is 2.5 Gallons.

Is 1 ounce too much? Which hop(s) look best?
I'm thinking 5 days and then cold crash.

[Beer-lord]

On one of my favorite blacks, I use WIlliamette in the boil and dry hopped so being biased with mine, I'd say use all the Williamette and 1/2 oz of FF and you'll be good. Just dry hop 5-7 days and that's all you'll need do for a black.
Can't wait to hear how it ends up for you.

[Banjo-guy]

Thanks Beer Lord. I was going to use all FF, but I'll go with your suggestion. The sample tastes great. I can't wait for this one to carb.

[Beer-lord]

I don't see all FF as being a problem. I think the mix of 2 is great. We're talking aroma here so even though both of these hops have different flavor profiles, not much of that is going to be given off during dry hopping. Either way, if you like blacks, I think you'll be making this again. I can't get enough of black IPA's.