Black IPA | Style overview

History

We know that dark hoppy beers are not a new thing in the history of beer. During the 19th century British breweries exported East India porters/Export Porters which were hoppier and stronger than their regular counterparts. With the higher alcohol and hop content, these beers could withstand spoilage during the long shipping time, as they were exported to locations around the world.

Examples of such beers:

  • Barclay Perkins, Export Porter

  • J. W. Lees, Manchester Star

Other breweries, such as J.W. Lees, Barclay Perkins, Bass and Whitbread, also exported such beers.

The story of Black IPA started at the Vermont Pub & Brewery with Greg Nooan and Glenn Walters. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact year as the sources vary widely, but most likely it was first brewed around the early 1990s. The beer was called Tartan IPA, and it was a rich, hoppy Scotch Ale. Glenn Walters iterated on the recipe and created a Black and Bitter, later renamed to Blackwatch IPA. At first, this beer was available only on tap.

In 1995, John Kimmich joined the team and while browsing the archives came across the recipe of the Blackwatch IPA. He made some important changes to it. He added Carafa Special 3 to the beer to reduce the roastiness and astringency. Even today, this malt is still one of the most characteristic ingredient of this style..

There are three (+1) dominant styles of Black IPA:

  • El Jefe by The Alchemist: Named after his cat, this Black IPA famously utilizes Carafa Special 3, with a sizable amount of Simcoe, which results in a dark, piney ale.

  • Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA by Stone Brewing: The original name was 11th Anniversary Ale, but got rebranded later. A jet black, 90 IBU beer based on a Double IPA. This beer uses Carafa Special 3 to achieve this kind of malt flavor and color. It has orange, pine and coffee flavors.

  • Blackened Brutal Bitter (a.k.a Skullsplitter) by Rogue Ales: This beer took a different approach and focused on its darker malts instead of the hop characteristics. There was no dry hopping and had only 5.5% ABV. This beer soon became known as a Cascadian Dark Ale.

  • Wookey Jack by Firestone Walker: A noteworthy mention by Matt Brynildson, brewmaster at Firestone Walker, who put a nice twist into the style. He changed the hopping to be more dank and put rye into the grain bill to add spiciness. The result became a classic among Black IPAs.

Naming Controversy

The first official name of the style comes from the Brewers Association; they used the American-Style India Black Ale, later shortened to American-Style Black Ale. Other names were coined for the style, such as Cascadian Dark Ale, India Black Ale, India Dark Ale and Black IPA.

Before we dive into all these names, I want to talk about the argument that Black IPA is not really a style, as it’s just an American Stout or an American Brown Ale. I don’t think that this is really the case, it’s not a Brown Ale, as it’s much darker. As for the stout argument, this beer style is much hoppier than American stout and also uses dehusked black malts to avoid the characteristic roastiness of a stout.

Let’s break down all the parts and go through them one by one.

  • American-Style/American: What does American-Style even mean? Sometimes the hoppier variant of an existing beer style is called American, such as American Stout. In other cases, it does not imply an extra hoppy variant, like the American Lager. And then, what about such classic American styles as the California Common or the Cream Ale? They are not even marked as American. As I’m not an American, I will not define this term as it would feel inappropriate, but I don’t think that American only mean hoppy.

  • India: As this beer style originates from the early 1990s America, it has nothing to do with India. This term is most likely used as a helping hand for the consumer/marketing to show that this beer is, in fact, hoppy.

  • Dark/Black: This indicates what we should expect from the beer colorwise.

  • Ale: As with the color, straightforward.

  • Cascadian: The beer does not originate from the cascade region however, this could suggest the usage and characteristics of the cascade hop, which can be found in many Black IPA. Later we will go back to this and Cascadian Dark Ale as it’s one controversial point.

  • IPA: Even though we already discussed ale and India previously, I left the IPA acronym as a whole. A beer cannot be pale and black/dark at the same time, like Black IPA suggests, however my (and many others) opinion is that IPA no longer means the same as when it was first brewed. Nowadays IPA is used to imply that the beer is hop forward, and for that I think it’s acceptable as a descriptor for this kind of beer.

Now let’s go through the names:

  • American-Style India Black Ale / American-Style Black Ale: As I mentioned before, I don’t think that this is the best name for the style as this implies that American only mean hoppy. On the other hand, the beer originates from the states, so it makes perfect sense.

  • India Black Ale / India Dark Ale: I really don’t like this as the term it does not use India as part of the IPA acronym and this style has nothing to do with India.

  • Cascadian Dark Ale: There are two major debates regarding Cascadian Dark Ale (from now on: CDA). The first one is that the beer focuses on the flavors and aromas of the cascade hop. This is a valid point, however, this is true for many other styles too, so I don’t think that this approach is the best.

    The other argument is that this beer doesn’t taste like an IPA, thus it should not be called Black IPA. I never really understood this argument. For me, a Black IPA is in fact tastes like an IPA.

    An interesting point that some sources make is that CDA is so different from a Black IPA that these are two different styles of beer. These sources claim that while Black IPA feels like an IPA with minimal black malt flavor, black to jet black color and an ABV up to 9%. CDA has a more brownish color, less focus on hops and bitterness, while having more focus on dark malt flavors and has a lower abv around 6.5%.

    Now this is very hard for me. As a Hungarian, my exposure to this style is limited compared to an American. I tasted many Black IPAs from around the world and had the chance to taste some brews from the US too, however I never came across a beer labeled as CDA. For this reason, I will leave this debate up to those who have more experience with CDA.

  • Black IPA: This makes the most sense to me. This was the first name I saw and before I tasted my first Black IPA, I knew what type of beer it’s going to be. Just to be clear, I know it implies that it was brewed for India and that it’s black and pale at the same time. We could make the same argument about American IPA (American India Pale Ale). However, as I said before, I think that the IPA acronym means something different than the sum of its words and it’s used to imply that the beer is going to be hoppy (also sells better).

Style

Alcohol content should be between 5.5% and 9%, with mild dark malt characteristics. The color can be as black as possible. IBU should be at least 50 to balance out the dark malts. A BU/GU of 0.844 preferred. Hop flavor is dominant in this style, operating mostly with citrus, stone-fruit, pine, earthy, floral and resinous flavors/aromas. A clean yeast is preferable, although English strains can be used. The body is light and refreshing to emphasize the hops, with a dry finish.

Recipe Building

Malt

My goal is to achieve a light bodied, but very dark IPA. I don’t want too much chocolate, biscuit, caramel, coffee or burnt notes. To achieve this, I keep the maltbase fairly simple, the bulk of it is made of maris otter, but you can use golden promise or pale ale malts too. If you want to add more depth, you can add some vienna, munich and rye malt. To achieve the color, I usually use a small amount of dehusked black malt, such as Weyermann Carafa Special III, Briess Blackprinz, Briess Midnight Wheat or Simpsons Black Malt. Adding the black malts only during the sparge or cold steeping them for a day and adding only the liquid to the beer can minimize the roasted flavors. To add even more color, I add black rice to the beer (thanks to Clawhammer Supplies for the idea, you can find the forbidden lager video in the sources). This will add great head retention while keeping the body light. Using Weyermann’s Sinamar would be a good option, too. If you don’t want any rice in your beer, I advise on using some amount of wheat malt or other malt that helps to achieve a better head retention.

Hops

Classic American hops dominate this style, like Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe, Chinook, Warrior and CTZ. In my opinion the dark malts in a Black IPA are complemented the best by piney, resinous and citrusy notes, so my go to varieties are: CTZ, Simcoe and Cascade.

Yeast

In my opinion, neutral yeast is the best for this style, so my recommendation is some strain of American ale yeast, like Chico. That being said, many people enjoy a Black IPA fermented with English Ale yeast, however it will give a bit more fruity tone to the beer and some haziness. If you don’t have the means to ferment at a fixed temperature, you could use Voss Kveik. Kveik will definitely move the beer in a more citrusy direction, but this can be balanced by piney hops. I would recommend using Lutra, Spro or other pseudo lager strains to keep the beer clean. Keep in mind that most Kveik strain are diastatic, which means that they have a gene called STA1. This allows the yeast to break down complex sugars, which will mean higher attenuation and lower final gravity.

Conclusion

While researching this style, I had the feeling that there is more controversy regarding the name of the style than how the style should be brewed. I found this somewhat funny, but reassuring at the same time. This means that there is a consensus on what a Black IPA should be. I think a Black IPA should be dry, hop-forward (mostly resinous, piney and citrusy flavors from the hops) with as little as possible dark malt flavor and fermented with a neutral yeast (if possible). It is important to highlight that a certain amount of caramel, chocolate or coffee notes are in style, as are English yeast notes. However, not for me and this will show in my recipe.

Tipsy Hawk Brewing Black IPA

Stats:

  • OG: 1.073 SG

  • FG: 1.016 SG

  • Color: 101.3 SRM

  • IBU: 61.9

  • BU/GU: 0.851

Grains

  • 78.3% Simpsons Golden Promise

  • 17.4% Black Rice

  • 4.3% Simpsons Black Malt

Hops

  • 48.8 IBU - CTZ - First Wort

  • 6.3 IBU - CTZ - Steep 30m, 64℃ (147.2℉)

  • 3.1 IBU - Simcoe - Steep 30 minutes, 64℃ (147.2℉)

  • 2.9 IBU - Cascade - Steep 30 minutes, 64℃ (147.2℉)

  • 0 IBU - Simcoe - Dry-Hop for 3 days

  • 0 IBU - Cascade - Dry-Hop for 3 days

Yeast

  • LalBrew BRY-97

Temperatures

  • 66.7℃ (152.06℉) - 60 minutes

  • 75.6℃ (168.08℉) - 10 minutes

  • 100℃ (212℉) - 30 minutes

  • 64℃ (147.2℉) - 30 minutes

Sources