The case of the vanishing hops

[conneryis007]

So I brewed what I hoped would be a Black IPA. Beersmith estimated that it would come out to 114 IBU's. This does not taste anywhere near that... I tried a modified hop burst technique. I know that I' m a hophead, but this is not what I was expecting. I would guess it is at half the IBUs that beersmith calculates. I know that the dark malts overpower all flavors and mask some of the IBU's, but I was going for a double/imperial IPA!

Recipe: 10 gallons black IPA

30 lbs 2 row
2 lbs crystal 40
4 lbs chocolate malt cold steeped 24hrs

2oz chinook 30mins (31 IBU)
4 oz chinook 20mins (49.3 IBU)
4 oz comet 10mins (21.6 IBU)
4 oz comet 5min (11.9 IBU)

Yeast: WLP001 california ale yeast
Biggest goof of my recent brewing career: pitched at 130 because I turned off the water when the plate chiller read 70 degrees F (recirculating back into the BK...lessons about thermal mass coupled with basic thermodynamics/how plate chiller works)
Fermented at 68 degrees in my fermentation chamber (after it cooled from extreme pitching temps in about 10 hours (my fermentation chamber only heats not cools (working on this!))
OG:1.074
FG:1.023

This beer is great and super tasty. Am i just not used to the Hop Burst technique flavor? This beer is very roasted malt upfront (roasty taste, not tannin bitter) and then hop bitter after flavor. Does the dark malt mask more IBUs than I expected? Am I able to achieve a more upfront IPA hop taste upfront using the hop burst, or is this only achieved with beginning of the boil hop additions?

THANKS! Sorry for the long/overly detailed/ kinda drunk off this beer post!

Looking to turn this into one of my regular/house beers and want to know what you think I can to to create a more hop forward taste. Dry Hop? First hop at beginning of boil? Less dark malt?

 

[Cyclman]

With your first hops at 30 min, you're going to get lots of hop smell, flavor, but not so much bitterness. Bittering hops go in earlier, typically 60 min. Early hop for bittering, late hop for flavor, dry hop for smell. More or less.

 

[SPR-GRN]

with your first hops at 30 min, you're going to get lots of hop smell, flavor, but not so much bitterness. Bittering hops go in earlier, typically 60 min. Early hop for bittering, late hop for flavor, dry hop for smell. More or less.

+1

 

[abrix]

It's not clear from your post whether you want more IBUs, more hop flavor, more hop aroma or all of the above. If it's IBUs, there are a couple of possibilities:

1) It may be that the formula that BeerSmith is using overestimates the utilization of late-hop additions.
2) Your alpha acid utilization is less than average for some reason. (In this case, though, you'd also perceive your other beers to be less bitter than calculated.)
3) The high-ish finishing gravity is reducing the perceived bitterness.

If it's (1) or (2) and you're satisfied with the hop flavor and aroma, you might consider throwing in an ounce of Galena or something similarly clean and high-alpha at 60 or 90 minutes.

For number (3) consider mashing lower or subbing out 5-10% of your base malt for sucrose.

 

[mewithstewpid]

that be a good deal o' chocolate malt

usually black IPAs are brewed with a debittered black or a carafa II or carafa III as to only impart the black color and not so much the roasty or chocolaty-ness of stouts. That would be my guess, that the chocolate malt is just overpowering the hops, but remember the hop-bursting technique imparts a smoother bitterness, so while the IBUs may be high, they are less "harsh" on the palate.

and yes, definitely dry hop.


-Rich