My first stab at designing a recipe: Black IPA - Thoughts?

[Graham.C]

No problem. I am in Moncton often (once every other week or so). Just a link in the brewnosers beer mule/train FYI.

[akr71]

I'm frequently in Moncton too - probably this Saturday. If you need anything PM or email me.

[Cheesehead]

Thanks again Graham and Andy. I'll be in F'ton this weekend and getting some from Berley. Let me know next time you guys are in town and want to meet up at Marky's.

[Cheesehead]

I brewed this tonight and came within .002 of target OG. I've missed 2 of my first 3 batches by a lot so pretty pumped with this. Can't wait to try it, the hops smell fantastic.

[Jimmy]

I brewed this tonight and came within .002 of target OG. I've missed 2 of my first 3 batches by a lot so pretty pumped with this. Can't wait to try it, the hops smell fantastic.

Any idea what was causing you to miss your gravity? What type of efficiency did you end up with from the mash on this one?

[Cheesehead]

Really no idea. For the 1st 3 batches I've done I've followed recipes from a non-BIAB brewers but that shouldn't make a difference should it? I haven't been calculating efficiency.

Over the weekend I tried a sample from the brewer who created the original recipe that I used (other than the yeast) 2 batches ago which was an Extra Special Bitter, mine ended up being ordinary. It was unbelievable how different the 2 beers were with identical ingredients. The taste and even the color was way off.

For today's batch I customized one using one I found online to start with and customized volumes based on the calculator from BIABrewer.info (I used Garrions OG as a target as I love their Black IPA). I looked back at some of the other batches I've done on the same spreadsheet and it had suggested larger grain volumes that what I had used to get the target OG.

I'm pretty sure you've answered this in emails we've exchanged (but I can't find it) - how much do you let your mash temp go down? My target was 152 and I re-heated I think 3 or 4 times (once it was down around 140). I brewed in my garage so not sure if cold air was throwing off my thermometer or not - it was giving me some wacky readings a couple of times today. Also I did a mash out for the 1st time today (at 168) based on how things turned out I'll be doing it on a regular basis going forward.