BeerBorg

I'm less than thrilled with the first attempt at this recipe, which I'm formulating as a gift to my future son-in-law and his groomsmen. It's a black IPA, and I found the base recipe online. I followed the grain bill, but changed the hops a little.

In addition to an apparent infection (potential gushers, although not too bad if it's chilled for several days), I'm not all that pleased with it. There's bitterness that I attribute to the darker specialty grains, and less influence of hops.

That's to be expected, I realized too late, when your malt bill is more complex. In spite of the IBUs, the perception of bitterness changes as the balance of the malt shifts. So now I need to not only make some changes in the malt bill, but also in the hop bill, and maybe even the hop schedule. I'm going to make another batch of this for my next 2.5 gallon batch in two weeks. I won't decide if I'm going to do FWH or continuous hopping until I feel I've got the basic recipe nailed down.

Wish I had the expertise to offer you some great advice. Lord knows I owe you . Maybe someday. I can only offer you words of encouragement that there's no doubt you'll get it worked out and it will be an awesome gift to your SIL.
Btw, sure missing ya on the "other" site. Hope your doing well.

Hey Dave what about steeping your dark grains separately? I think that is supposed to make them less astringent and keep the PH in balance.

I think we've discussed the use of Midnight Wheat and how it doesn't give much of anything other than color. There's just a hint of roastiness in it.
I forgot what you used but if you used Carafa III, you can move down to Carafa II which I think has less harshness.

Dave,

Hopefully you aren't stressed about this. I'm sure you'll figure out exactly what you need to do to get the beer you are looking to brew. And if you don't, remember that we are our own worst critics. Everybody else will likely rave about how good it is while you are fixated on some detail that you didn't think you nailed.

This is one of my favorite styles to drink, kind of the "best of both worlds" when done well. Several local breweries make versions that I find quite tasty.

In my recipe I use a fairly standard ipa recipe with Chrystal 60, and I add about 5% Carafa II for color and about 1.5% Chocolate malt to give it just a hint of roast. I find it delicious, and judges gave it a 36.5 in competition, so I don't think I'll be messing with the malt bill much on future batches.

For what it's worth.

Man, what a bunch of great responses.

Birdie, I hadn't even thought of steeping the specialty grains. I've always just tossed them into the mash because it's easier. But steeping may remove some astringency. I'll give it a try next batch.

Paul, I did use the Midnight Wheat in lieu of Black Patent, or whatever the original recipe called for. I'm not sure that's the issue.

Ron, thanks for the reminder to RDWHAHB. I'm probably putting a lot more pressure on myself about this than I should. I also want my future SiL to have some input, though, and this first batch isn't even something I'd want him to sample, since it's the preliminary run. But maybe his input will help me focus more on how to go.

BradyFumbled, that's a good suggestion. I'll keep it in mind, although I'd like to work with the recipe I've got first, before branching out. I've got some time before I need to nail this down.

The Borg is just incredible! Honestly, you guys are the best!