Imperial Black IPA coloring question

[old_tx_kbb]

I'd appreciate any helpful suggestions on how to darken my Black IPA without adding more Sinamar.

I've brewed a 5 gallon batch of a 10% Imperial Black IPA that has a great taste, but it didn't get as dark as I wanted.

The OG was 1.086 and the FG is 1.010.

To get the darkness I used 2 oz. of black barley at 500° to 600° L and 4oz. of liquid Weyermann's Sinamar. The fermentation is complete and the dry hopping is also complete. But the color is maybe a 20 or 21 SRM.

To make it darker, I'm thinking about steeping 6 oz. of de-husked Carafa III at 450° to 490° L or 6 oz. of Dingemans de-bittered black malt at 500° to 600° L. Bring the liquid to a boil or at least 180° F, cool it, then move the liquid into a secondary fermenter and transfer the original batch to the secondary. Six ounces should only add 7 points of sugar to the batch, and it's definitely a hop bomb right now....so I don't think the added sugar will affect the current sweetness that much.

I'm having guests over tomorrow and don't want to be embarrassed serving them a medium dark brown Black IPA....I'd rather it be BLACK....

Thanks for any help you offer.

 

[old_tx_kbb]

Due to the lack of any responses....I'm going to take a shot and hope for the best.

Maybe it's just me...but I get fewer and fewer responses to my posts and questions on this forum....makes me wonder why even post.

 

[brew_ny]

or you can try a couple of ozs of roasted barley

it will give you lots of dark color

all the best

S_M

 

[chickypad]

I'm confused, this batch is finished and you're drinking it but you're going to transfer it to secondary and then serve it to your friends tomorrow? If it's kegged I'm not sure why you wouldn't just be adding any additions directly to the keg. I'm also wondering if that small amount of steeped grain is really going to be enough to change the color of an entire 5 gallons, as you'll be adding a little extra water too. Seems like it'd be a lot easier and more predictable just to add more sinamar to the keg. Or you could always just serve it up to your guests as an India brown ale

 

[old_tx_kbb]

The batch has finished fermenting, but I haven't exactly been drinking it. I sample my beers as they go thru the process. I dry hopped in the keg...so there's a lot of hop gunk in it. That's why I was planning on transferring from that keg...to get the hop debris out of the beer. I steeped 6 ounces of Carafa III, because this "original" Imperial Black IPA was more of a medium brown. If I had more Sinamar I would have used it, but I was out and couldn't get it on short notice. So I used the Carafa III instead. I added the cooled Carafa tea into a fermenter and transferred the unfinished beer from the keg to the fermenter. This allowed me to see the color change easily. I'm crash cooling the "new and improved" Imperial Black IPA, and am about to keg it...and then I'll force carbonate it tonight. It'll be ready for my out of town guests tomorrow. And yep, I think I went from a SRM of 21 to at least an SRM of 25...like a nice Stout instead of an India Brown ale. I didn't taste any extra sweetness in my new sample, but their was some marked roast malt flavors.

 

[panfishrfun]

Midnight wheat malt will give you a high SRM without adding a whole lot of flavor

 

[atom]

just call it a dark ipa instead of black...

 

[tgmartin000]

+1 to midnight wheat.