Black Metal IPA Homebrew - Recipe and Results

While corpse paint and eviscerating guitar riffs might not be your thing, a dark and dangerously smooth IPA probably is. As a tribute to all the metal band collab beers we’ve reviewed, and as a final farewell to winter, the Brew family brought forth a beautiful and bombastic Black Metal IPA.

Black IPAs have been seeing a fad-like craze in the past few years, so we thought, why not? We had some dark grains from brewing an oatmeal stout and a rum porter. From there, the Black IPA was an easy transition, and it is also an easy transition from a dark beer winter to an aromatic, hoppy, and light beer spring and summer.

So, here’s the mash that set the stage for our 1-gallon Black IPA recipe.

I must admit first that the grain ratios we used are a little off. This was a bit of a classic Brew family ‘accidental ale.’ We were short on a few things and tried to make up for it with what we had, with some interesting results, I might add, but we’ll get to that later.

Mash:

• 2-row- 2lbs- 78%

• Caramel 60L- 2.6oz.- 6.5%

• Chocolate Malt- 2.6oz.- 6.5%

• Special B- 2.0 oz.- 5%

• Black Malt- 1.6 oz.- 4%

Special B was added because we had it on hand… and it is in it’s own way a dark Belgian Crystal malt with some deep caramel and raisiny flavors. That’s my justification for adding it. Moving on!

We mashed the grains for one hour at around 150℉, then sparged with 170℉ water. It came out beautifully dark and ready for the boil.

Boil:

75-minute Boil (Citra 0.25 oz, Centennial 0.5 oz, Amarillo 0.25 oz)

• 75 min (Start of boil) - Add ½ Citra (0.125 oz.)

• 60 min - Add ½ Citra (0.125 oz.)

• 45 min - Add ⅓ Centennial (0.167 oz.)

• 30 min - Add ⅓ Centennial (0.167 oz.)

• 15 min - Add ⅓ Centennial (0.167 oz.)

• 5 min - Add ½ Amarillo (0.125 oz.)

• 0 min (Flame out) Add ½ Amarillo (0.125 oz.)

We quite enjoy adding the hops at fifteen minute increments in a beer like this to add a lot of bitterness from the citra, flavor from the Centennial, and flavor/aromatics from the Amarillo. It gives the beer a nice depth, which is essential in beers with deeper malt bills, like this one.

We cooled the beer down to 70℉, pitched our S-05 yeast and let it ferment between 65-68℉ for two weeks before we bottled it with dark corn syrup as our priming sugar. Then onto the tedious waiting before we get to hear this Black metal baby sing (scream!).

First Impressions:

• On the eyes--Dark as night, opaque. Little to no head formation.

• On the nose--I get the chocolate and toffee (Special B) most prevalently. It has some nice hoppy aromas when you can get past the enticing malt and chocolate sweetness. It is very strong but pleasant.

• On the palate--Beautiful bitterness and strong dark chocolate. It has some really nice floral and citrus notes before the stroke of citrus bitterness from the early addition Citra hits like a blast beat. It is quite fruity until the dark malt forges ahead with some forward chocolate and toffee flavors. It has a lot of intensity and complexity, which is all you can hope for in a Black IPA.

Verdict:

This one was a unique brew. Like I said, we used what we had to make it close to what we wanted. I am quite happy with the hop profile, but a nice dry-hop addition of any of the hops we used would have gone a long way for the aromatics. If I were to make this again, I would work on the malt percentages a little more, probably reduce the amount of Black malt and even out the percentages of other malt, while also upping the 2-row a slight amount. I might also add some Carapils for head retention and body, and maybe some flaked oats for smoothness.  

Overall, it was damn good. A lot goes into making a Black IPA, and it was simply a lot of fun to brew, especially with all the head-banging metal playing in the background. I would certainly make this one again with minor adjustments. If you have some leftover stout and porter malts give it a go and tell us what you think.

Rock on!

Brew on!

Cheers!

Mr. Brew