Black IIPA

[JimH]

How does that sound?

Sounded pretty good to me while I was brewing a stout and drinking Hop Stoopid with my buddy yesterday. We were thinking of crafting something unique. His favorite beers are stouts and IPA, so, we thought of crossing the two, sort of a Black IPA. Then we were drinking Bell's Hop Slam and thought, "Hey, IIPA!"

[Beer-lord]

Here's a recipe for a good one. I've never made this one but I've had a number of them and they are (were) good.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/stone-1 ... ne-282914/
The secret to this one is the candi sugar.

[FrozenInTime]

That looks like a pretty interesting brew! Might have to think about it this summer for a mid winters beer.

[Kealia]

22 minutes for Beer-lord to jump on this one......that's about 12 minutes longer than I thought it would take

[Beer-lord]

22 minutes for Beer-lord to jump on this one......that's about 12 minutes longer than I thought it would take

If you continue to pick on me, I'll continually send you my many different versions of my black IPAs. That'll shut you up.

[Kealia]

Nener nener nener....you can't touch me way out here in California!

[BlackDuck]

Jim...make sure you check out Beer-lord's Ace of Spades thread. It looks like a pretty good black IPA!!!

[Beer-lord]

Nener nener nener....you can't touch me way out here in California!

But come the end of June, I'll be close (in Santa Barbara) and if you're real bad, I'll stay longer and aggravate you!

Jim, I think I've just about done all the variants of a black IPA.....from the one's that are close to a porter-stout to the one's that are just black and hoppy and all in between.
I grabbed the recipe for Ace of Spades from Northern Brewer just because I liked what it had in it. The recipe is listed in the Advanced Recipes section
One of my favorites is one I got from the HBT forum....Men in Black. I can send you that one too if you want to see how they all differ. Or, come on down here and we'll grab a Dr. Hoptagon. For sure, once you go black IPA, you'll never go back, hey, hey, hey!

[JimH]

I will definitely check out the Ace of Spades.

Paul, what would you suggest? Are black IPAs that are basically hopped up stouts any good? Or would you prefer more of a darker IPA? I did have an IPA once that wasn't a black IPA, but it did use Chocolate malt. It was pretty good, so I think something like that could work as well.

[Beer-lord]

Jim, its still very confusing to me just what a true, black IPA is. Seems if it has lots of hops and is black, that's all that is needed to call it a black IPA.

I sent a few Ace of Spades to my friends who moved to California and they got them yesterday. Last night I got a call and they said it was cool when they got it but put it in the fridge a few hours and tried one. He called to tell me he loved it and when I told him it was almost gone he told me to brew it again. I can't say I like it any more or less than the others I've done but it is one I'd do again.
And, I do find that unlike regular IPA's, but like many dark beers, time helps this one alot. But, because of the hops and aroma that can get lost, waiting too long changes things.

Let me know what you end up doing.

[BlackDuck]

I would agree with Paul on his thoughts on what a Black IPA is. Since there is no actually BJCP stats to define it yet. At this point it would be up to you on how you would like to brew it. If you like porters, or ales that are a little malty, chocolatey, roasty, etc. Then you could surely design the recipe to have those characteristics along with the hop bitterness, flavor and aroma of an IPA. On the other hand, if you don't care for the porter style then you could attempt to brew it without those characteristics, but use some sort of a dark malt to get it dark without imparting the roastiness to it.

For me, I'm not a huge fan of porters....so I will still work on a Black IPA that is more like a traditional IPA, just black in color.