Pale Ale to Black Pale Ale

Northern Brewer General
1

I have a standard pale ale recipe that I would like to try to make into a black pale ale. Here is the recipe for 12 gallons. OG 1.053

2 - row - 18.0 - 80%
Carapils - 0.75 - 3.3%
Crystal 20 - 1.50 - 6.7%
Crystal 10 - 2.25 - 10%
Cascade .50 oz 60 min
Cascade 1.0 oz 30 min
Cascade 2.5 oz 10 min
Cascade 3.0 oz 0 min
cascade 3.75 oz WP
Cascade 4.0 oz dry hop warm
Cascade 4.0 oz dry hop cold

I am thinking of adding 1.0 Lbs chocolate and .5 Lbs of roast barley and removing the dry hops.

Any thoughts?

2

With that much chocolate and roasted malt wouldn’t that be closer to a porter or stout than a black pale ale/IBA/CDA? We’ve done a few recipes with success that featured Carafa III to get the color without the roasty flavor.

3

Scratch that; I looked at the weights, not the percentages and I didn’t realize you were doing 12 gallons…Maybe that’s not so heavy on the chocolate and roast but personally I’d still stick with the carafa III but I guess its what you out of your beer.
Northern Brewer’s Lakefront IBA clone kit is really good FYI.

4

[quote=“cam0083”]Scratch that; I looked at the weights, not the percentages and I didn’t realize you were doing 12 gallons…Maybe that’s not so heavy on the chocolate and roast but personally I’d still stick with the carafa III but I guess its what you out of your beer.
Northern Brewer’s Lakefront IBA clone kit is really good FYI.[/quote]

I was looking for some roast flavor. The percentages are 4% chocolate and 2% roast barley. Are you thinking the roast will be overpowering?

5

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not an expert in this area having limited experience writing recipes (so obviously someone else feel free to correct me if wrong) but that would put you at 6% of you grist. NB’s BIPA for reference is at 3% and their Lakefront clone is less than a percent. Just for reference their Breakfast Stout is at 12% which is pretty mild for a stout.

I wouldn’t say it would be overpowering but it would be more than what I’ve used before. By no means does that sound bad, it actually sound tasty to me, but it does kind of combine the categories to a small degree. If you want a tad of roasty flavor though go for it, if not, I just wanted to point out that there are the debittered dark malts that get you color without much roast flavor.

6

I doubt the roastiness would be an issue given the amount of hops in the recipe.

:cheers:

7

I just found out I only have 11 oz of Chocolate and no carapils. I do have carafa I special, carafa III special, black patent and some wheat. Any ideas? So far this is what I am thinking.

2 - row - 18.0 lbs
Crystal 20 - 1.50 lbs
Crystal 10 - 1.50 lbs
Wheat malt - 1.0 lbs
Chocolate - 11oz
roast barley - 0.50 lbs
Carafa III special - 4oz

8

I’ve brewed quite a few black ales. One of my fave styles actually and I would probably use carafa III and maybe some special B instead of chocolate. It will still give it the color and the mouthfeel, but it won’t taste like a stout.