Cascadian Dark Ale aka Black IPA

As part of my New Year’s traditions, and in an effort to get back in shape after the holidays, I forgo alcohol consumption during the month of January. This year was the first year I was able to actually make it the entire month without cheating. It was especially challenging this year considering I had 4 homebrews nearing completion during this time and would be unable to taste them.

Yesterday I finally got to try one of my brews, a Black IPA that I made back in December and bottled in early January. This has to be one of my favorite brews so far. It has absolutely incredible malty undertones with a strong hoppy finish. Later that night I went to one of my favorite Brewpubs in the area, Hopworks, who had a Black IPA on tap as on of their current seasonal selections. Naturally I had to try this just for the comparison alone. Surprisingly the two brews compared almost identically. The subtle difference was that mine has more of a hoppy flavor as I’m a big hop head.

I’ve made a lot of beers so far but haven’t had anything to compare them to until now. I am really excited that I’ve managed to make something comparable to large brewery. I haven’t made the same beer twice yet but this one might be the first I do that with. You can find the recipe I used to make my brew below. I’d like to give many thanks to the guys at Main Brew for this and all their help.

9.5 lbs. Light Malt extract

5 oz. 55L English Crystal Malt

3 oz. 120L Crystal Malt

6 oz. Carafa Malt

2 oz. Raost Barley

1.0 oz. Zeus Hops for entire 60 min boil.

1.0 oz. Zeus Hops added at last 20 min of boil.

0.5 oz Citra Hops added to last 15 min of boil.

0.5 oz Citra Hops added to last 10 min of boil.

0.5 oz Citra Hops added to last 5 min of boil.

0.5 oz Citra Hops dry-hopped.

SafAle US-05 Yeast.

Let sit in the secondary for 2.5 weeks, 3 weeks in the bottle.