Black IPA! - 1st Post from Dave

As a new contributor to the Semper Fermentum crew, I wanted to give a quick rundown of my brewing background, and then on to what is kicking in my carboys right now. I have been brewing exactly half my life now, which equals 22 ½ years (brewing, not my life). I started in 1988, when my brother returned from a trip to England with a John Bull homebrew kit purchased with the last few Pounds in his wallet. We loosely followed the directions, let it bubble for a couple weeks, paid no heed to sanitation, and bitterly sipped the fouled wort that was our finished product. Easy to say that my first batch really sucked, but I saw potential in the craft, especially given the state of brewing at the time. The big three brewers (A-B, Miller, Coors) ruled the shelves, but Anchor Steam, Sam Adams, Pete’s Wicked and a small handful of others were setting sail for what would be a great expansion over the next 15 years.

Over the following 10 years, I became a founding member of Maryland Ale & Lager Technicians, one of Maryland’s larger homebrew clubs, was a founding officer of the Freestate Homebrewer’s Guild, published many articles in the local brewing newsletter, and eventually found ways to win several local homebrewing competitions. I have had the privilege to meet some of the industry legends during trips to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Savor in Washington, D.C., regional brewer’s festivals, beer dinners, as well as on their home turf - in their brewhouses. I found that the community of brewers is very generous with their time and information. It truly is a love affair more than a hobby, one that will generate a passion in the craft that hopefully will last a lifetime. For some, it ends up being not only their passion, but also their vocation. I have made it my calling to share my knowledge and enthusiasm with anyone who would listen, many times successfully encouraging them to join the ranks of “Craft Brewer”. Enough about me…let’s talk Ale!

Yesterday was a beautiful Annapolis spring day. Real cool early, but sunny and with the potential to be awesome. In other words, break out the brewing gear! I have brewed using the all-grain method for about 15 years, but time restraints caused by being a business owner, Dad, soccer coach, etc., have nudged me more toward the partial-mash/extract camp for a few years. Yesterday’s batch was what I will call an India Black Ale. Think of a well-hopped IPA, but dark as night. This year’s GABF in Denver showed a couple new wrinkles in brewing. We saw a few of these black ales that were twists of traditional style guidelines. Your eyes are preparing you for Guinness, but your nose and palate tell you Dogfish Head or Sierra Nevada. It’s a fun confusion the first time someone samples the new ale. The ale darkness is caused by CaraFa malt, a very dark specialty malt that loses the bitterness associated with stouts and porters by way of a tumbling that rids it of most of its husk. We also played with the bittering by using seven separate hop additions. Fermentation is courtesy of my favorite yeast, Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast. Wyeast 1056 is a very clean and efficient yeast with vigorous action within 24 hours. So far in the primary fermenter, it smells and tastes right on the money. I will give an update when it finishes. Here is the recipe. Happy brewing!!!

This is for 10 Gallons…size the recipe for however much you are brewing:

13 lbs. light liquid malt extract

1 lb. CaraFa malt, crushed

1 lb. 20 lovibond Crystal malt, crushed

1 lb. 20 lovibond CaraMunich malt, crushed

1 oz. Magnum hops (60 Minutes)

1 oz. Simcoe hops (30 Minutes)

2 oz. Cascade (20 Minutes)

1 oz. Tettnang hops (10 Minutes)

2 oz. UK Kent Goldings hops (5 minutes)

2 oz. Amarillo hops (1 minute)

3 oz. Cascade hops (dry hopping in secondary)

I did a 40 minute steep of the crushed grains at 160 degrees. To that I added the malt extract, brought to a boil, and began the hop additions as noted above. I used an immersion chiller to bring the 10+ gallons down to about 90 degrees, and siphoned the wort to two 6-gallon carboys. I had stepped up my liquid yeast the night before into a 20 oz. bottle with 1 cup dry malt extract in solution. Add the yeast once the wort is cool, and give it a swirl. By this morning the airlocks were clicking away with beautiful fermentation!

Next time, I will give an update of this brew, as well as a few tricks we use to ensure our hard work returns a top flight product worthy of passing out to your friends.