Black IPA and fruits: help!!

[MorBeer83]

Hi everybody!
Today the brewer of a craft brewery near home asked me to make a black IPA together. He liked my last black ipa and wants to do something similar, but...with a twist: he proposed me to add fruit. As if b.i.p.a. isn't a hard style to deal with :smack:
So now I'm full of doubts about it, for example when we should add the fruit: I'm not concerned about the pectins and the haze they could develop if we add them in the boil (the beer is dark and clarity doesn't matter that much); I'm mostly concerned about what will remain of the fruit flavour and how it will blend with hops and the roasted character of the beer.
These thoughts lead me to another doubt: which fruit can we use?
I suggested maybe a combination of multiple fruits like mango and raspberry for example (I think mango is terrific for an ipa and raspberry would work well with the roasted flavours).
What do you think guys?
Another idea is to try different juices in different glasses blended with my black ipa; I know that fermentation will change the character of the fruit but don't you think this will at least give us a starting point?
I'll wait for your awesome contribute as always :rockin:

Thank you in advance, cheers from Italy buddies!

Moreno

 

[xpops]

hmm. fruit in a black ipa - that's a new one! i think your idea of testing with fruit in a glass of your existing brew is a good idea. Like you mentioned, a BIPA on it's own can be a tough style and i'm having a tough time thinking of what kind of fruits could be added. There's just so much going on already with a good BIPA.

on that note - i recently had a high gravity Coconut BIPA....i've never had coconut in a beer, and i have to say it was amazing! maybe consider something other than fruit?....

 

[jerbrew]

Random thought but maybe a hint of blueberry would be nice with the toasty earthy taste in a BIPA. You could just add a bit of "essence" in at kegging, like this. I've had a few coffee bean types I've roasted that had a hint of blueberry at the end that was fun and unexpected.

Blackberry might be interesting if done well too. or maybe a bit of both. With the essence you could play around with is the glass and scale up to full batch size at packaging pretty easy.

 

[kh54s10]

What makes a Black IPA a hard style to deal with?? I have done a few and approached them like any other.

I like the idea of trying them in the glass.

Another route would be to brew a batch then do one gallon secondaries on different fruits.

I would add the fruit to secondary and not to the boil.

Other than maybe a little orange peel added to the boil, a very little, I don't care for fruited beers. The exception so far was a blueberry stout. You had to think about it to identify the blueberry when drinking it though. The flavor added was very subtle, even with 6+ pounds of blueberries (crushed) and 1/2 bottle of blueberry extract in a 5 gallon batch.

I had a variety pack from Two Roads Brewing. It included Road Jam. A raspberry wheat. I love wheat beers and I love raspberry. NOT TOGETHER!!!!

 

[MorBeer83]

Thank you guys, I can always count on the amazing "tribe" we have here.
Berries intriguing me...
You are right, bipa is not the hardest style out there, but it instil me fear and respect, maybe because is hard to find exemples here in Italy to study the style.
I'll try for now adding juices to glass and I let you know!
The idea of kegging with extract is good, we did this with an imperial stout we made together for valentine's day, with chili extract ( made by me from my chili) and cocoa nibs, and it worked well.
We just had a little problem of stratification of the spicy, but I think it's a chili thing and it won't happen with other types of extract.
Cheers and thanks again!