What Did I Overdo?

I made a Cascadian Dark ale using the Hopville calculator. I've only had a couple of black IPA's, but they have been lacking roasty character. Mine is like a hoppy porter/stout. It's not overly roasty, but it's prominent.

5.5 gal yield

6 lbs pilsen LME
1 lb wheat DME
1.25 lbs light DME
3/4 lb crystal 60
3/4 lb carafa II special (dehusked)
1/2 lb special roast
1 oz Warrior (13.7%) @ 60 mins
1.5 oz Cascade (6.2%) @ 20/5 mins
1 oz Cascade 11 day dry hop
WLP 001

It's quite good, but it wasn't supposed to be so roasty. My guess would be that I wasn't given dehusked carafe II.

The non-dehusked carafa II is more bitter and lives a bit of astringency...that alone wouldn't make a difference in the roastyness of the beer. It could be a mixture of too much carafa as well as the special roast(which is a grain used in a lot of porters/stouts). If you're using beersmith(or another tool) what percent are those 2 malts of your entire recipe?

5% Special Roast
7% Crystal 60/Carafa II Special

rodwha said:

5% Special Roast
7% Crystal 60/Carafa II Special

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The max in batch for carafa is 5%. You generally want to keep crystal malts at 5% or less in hoppy beers as well.

I was unaware that under 5% crystal malts was ideal in hoppy beers. I had read somewhere that up to 20% in beer was OK, and so I've generally used 1 lb for most.

Why is 5% the max in a hoppy beer? Kinda masks the hops?

rodwha said:

I was unaware that under 5% crystal malts was ideal in hoppy beers. I had read somewhere that up to 20% in beer was OK, and so I've generally used 1 lb for most.

Why is 5% the max in a hoppy beer? Kinda masks the hops?

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Exactly. I recently read Mitch Steele's book on IPAs, and he says not to use carapils and limit specialty malts to 5%..otherwise you mask the hop flavor.

Why no carapils?

rodwha said:

Why no carapils?

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For the same reason. It masks the hop flavor. Honestly, I feel that carapils is a waste of money anyways. I never use it and get excellent head retention.

I sometimes suffer from a lack of good retention, and I've typically used pilsen LME and ~1 lb of wheat DME.

I later learned that it was bad to use dish soap, and so I've quit with most things. I still wash my pots, spoons, etc in the dishwasher, as well as my glasses, though I take them out during the dry cycle and scrub them in my sanitizer, rinse, and return to the dry cycle.

I've seen a great improvement, but I still find an occasional poor head retention brew from time to time.

Now I've decided that I'll use wheat DME for my starter only (1/4 lb), which I dump in my beer.

Just looking at the recipe this looks like a big beer. What was your sg? Might want to let this condition and mello it out. Taste again at a later time?

On Hopville's brew calculator it was supposed to be 1.059 OG/ 1.014 FG. What I got, though my methods aren't correct in that I use my hydrometer in the fermentor so I'm looking down at it a little, ~1.069/1.013. I figured it was ~7% ABV.

It was taken over by Brewtoad, and I've checked a few of my recipes against their calculator, and the numbers are much closer. I'm also planning on buying an FG hydrometer for a more accurate number.

rodwha said:

On Hopville's brew calculator it was supposed to be 1.059 OG/ 1.014 FG. What I got, though my methods aren't correct in that I use my hydrometer in the fermentor so I'm looking down at it a little, ~1.069/1.013. I figured it was ~7% ABV.

It was taken over by Brewtoad, and I've checked a few of my recipes against their calculator, and the numbers are much closer. I'm also planning on buying an FG hydrometer for a more accurate number.

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I'd let it sit for a month then test and see if it mellows. Might need some time. I had a stout that I came out way off and had huge coffee like flavors. Too 5 months for that to blend and mellow.

5% is total for the roast malts combined, as for crystal I aim for 5-8% in ipa, 8 being the absolute limit

I have also done a bit of chocolate in with black patten malt in a cda and had excellent results. I kept the hops more toward the floral earthy spicy variety with chocolate , with very little citrus

Which hops have you found you like best for it?

It didn't seem this roasty at first. Seemed to pick it up after a week. It's not bad, but not what I had in mind.

If I wait long won't I lose some aroma and the dry hop effect?

I did warrior @60, centennial @20 and cluster @0. I know cluster is dated, but as I said, I didn't want to overdo the citrus

I didn't realize that hops would fight with the crystal. I've been reworking many of my recipes, and fixing that with the IPAs.

rodwha said:

I didn't realize that hops would fight with the crystal. I've been reworking many of my recipes, and fixing that with the IPAs.

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I've done ipa's with no crystal at all