21B Specialty IPA: Black IPA
Black Riwaka IPA
Grain bill
| Gladfield Ale Malt | 6 kg | 86.1% |
| Weyermann Munich Type 1 | 0.35 kg | 5% |
| Gladfield Medium Crystal Malt | 0.35 kg | 5% |
| Weyermann Carafa Type 3 | 0.27 kg | 3.9% |
Adjuncts
| Irish Moss | 1 tsp @ 15 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | WP | DH#1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Jade | 17g | · | · |
| Riwaka | · | 55g | 95g |
| Simcoe | · | 55g | 95g |
| Mosaic | · | 55g | 45g |
Yeast
| Mangrove Jack's M44 US West Coast | 2 packets |
Water additions
| Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum) | 10 g |
About This Beer
Owen’s first Black IPA — a Home Brew West kit designed from James Kemp’s recipe, and the start of a style he would return to several times. The kit’s own description sets the brief well: “heavily aromatic with pine resin, mango, passionfruit and citrus”, the first impression a smooth, full caramel maltiness before pine and citrus hops hinting at red berries and tropical fruit take over, with bitterness that is present but never grassy or astringent. When Owen re-brewed the recipe from May 2022 he swapped the Carafa for Gladfield Dark Chocolate and shortened the boil; this December 2020 version is the original kit, brewed as written.
The malt bill is a pale IPA base gone dark: Gladfield Ale Malt under Munich, Medium Crystal for caramel body, and 270 g of Weyermann Carafa Type 3 to take it jet black with coffee-and-roast depth — the Carafa is dark enough to colour the beer without dragging it into stout territory. The hops are the whole point: Riwaka, Simcoe and Mosaic, with Pacific Jade for bittering. Owen pushed the kit’s 130 g each up to 150 g Riwaka, 150 g Simcoe and 100 g Mosaic.
Brew Day
A proper step mash, and Owen’s earliest on record: grains in at 50°C for a 30-minute rest, up to 68°C for 60 minutes of saccharification, then 75°C for ten before sparging. Mash water was 22.3 litres with 10 g of gypsum, sparge 12.7 litres at 75°C for 35 litres total, landing at 30.5 litres pre-boil. A long 90-minute boil: Pacific Jade at 60 minutes, Irish Moss at 15, then 55 g each of Riwaka, Simcoe and Mosaic at flameout into a 20-minute whirlpool.
Fermentation
Two packets of Mangrove Jack’s M44 US West Coast, pitched at 20–23°C and fermented around 19–20°C. The remaining hops — Riwaka 95 g, Simcoe 95 g, Mosaic 45 g — went in as a day-five dry hop before cold conditioning. (The kit sheet’s method is cut off after the whirlpool, so the dry-hop timing is inferred from Owen’s later Black IPA.)
The figures shown — OG 1.071, FG 1.015, 7.3% ABV, 60 IBU — are the kit’s expected values at 80% mash efficiency; the volumes are Owen’s handwritten brew-day measurements.