Brew day - Black Mamba Rye IPA

One week after the Iron Brewer Challenge it is time for another brew-day - this time without weird adjuncts. On today's menu is the Black Mamba Rye IPA - a bold, strong black IPA featuring a hefty dose of rye malt and the crispness that brings to a beer. In addition, todays brew sees the end of the Cascade hops (about 1oz) that I grew last summer. Indeed, this beer is a celebration of Cascade - other than a bit of Warrior for bittering & a touch of a late addition, all of the hop flavour and aroma will be from Cascade.

This recipe is largely one of my creation and is meant to be simple - the classical Black IPA grains of Victory malt (or Special malt; I have victory on-hand), dehusked dark malt (Carafa Special II), mixed with a 2.5:1 mix of pale malt and rye; typical of many rye-based beers.  The mash is low-and-slow, to give a dry-finishing beer. With the rye this may lead to a too-dry finish, but I have taken two steps to balance that out - I hope.  The first is relying on cascade as a hop - it should give a spicy/citrusy character that will provide a balancing fruitness to the beer.  I am then accentuating that using the legendary Conan yeast, which should provide some additional fruity esters - notably apricot - to further balance the crispness of the rye and the highly fermentable wort.

Recipe & brew-day notes below the fold

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The Recipe:

Black Mamba IPA

American IPA (Black)

Type: All Grain	Date: 30 Mar 2014
Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l	Boil Size: 30.27 l
Boil Time: 75 min	End of Boil Volume 23.40 l
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 0.25 kg Rice Hulls (Briess) (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 3.4 % 4.60 kg Canadian 2 Row Pale Malt (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 62.1 % 1.81 kg Rye Malt (Weyermann) (3.0 SRM) Grain 3 24.5 % 0.45 kg Carafa II (Weyermann) (415.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.1 % 0.28 kg Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.8 % 26.00 g Warrior [17.70 %] - First Wort 75.0 min Hop 6 56.7 IBUs 1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 - 28.00 g Cascade - Garden Grown  - Boil 2.0 min Hop 8 1.4 IBUs 7.00 g Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 9 1.0 IBUs 1.0 pkg Conan (Heady Topper/Alchemist Brewery) Yeast, from bank. Yeast 10 - 28.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.074 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.059 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG	Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.6 %
Bitterness: 59.0 IBUs	Est Color: 29.6 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 7.40 kg
Sparge Water: 18.38 l	Grain Temperature: 18.0 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C	Tun Temperature: 18.0 C
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 19.55 l of water at 72.4 C 64.4 C 75 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (3.12l, 15.26l) of 75.6 C water
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Created with BeerSmith

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Brew-day Notes:

1. Mashed in dead-on 65C. Because its a cooler day I wrapped a hammock and jacket around my MLT to keep the heat in. Temperature cooled less than half a degree over this time, despite the below-freezing weather! Conversion tested as complete at the 1 hour mark, but I mashed an additional 15 minutes to ensure a highly fermentable wort.
2. Added ~5L of water at boiling to mash-out, then collected the first batch sparge.  This was followed by a second 13L batch sparge at 75C.  Pre-boil gravity was 1.053; slightly lower than the expected 1.055, but I also appear to have an extra litre of wort or so, perhaps accounting for the difference.
3. All pellet hop additions were done using my new hop-spider, but the whole hops were added directly into the copper.
4. I ended up missing my OG by quite a bit - I only got 1.059 where I was expecting something around 1.070. I suspect it may have been the rye - its kernels are smaller than barley, so it may have crushed poorly. This means this beer may taste more bitter than planned, although it should still be well within style.

I think the lessor here is next time mill the rye separately; it may need a double milling; or even an adjustment to the mill gap, to get a proper mill.