"Black IPA" or "How I could have Ruined my Ruination"

"A hot mess, I'm hot off the press, you yesterdays news, dude you just not fresh..." MURS "I'm innocent"

And powered by MURS let's talk about the hot new style everyone and their mom is brewing...Black IPA.

I asked the innocent question at work a month or so back of, " I want to brew. What should I make?" A chorus of "RUINATION!" came over the cube walls. Now don't get me wrong, I looove my Ruination clone, but I've already made it three times this year, and I wanted something a bit different...so I pulled up my Ruination recipe and attempted to ruin it.

My version of Ruination is typically very faithful to the original, with a big, but smooth bitterness from magnum, and lots of late centennial. Lately my centennial supply was low, so I've subbed in some amarillo for thbe dryhop, and some of the late additions. It changes it slightly, making it seem slightly sweeter. I'm still up in the air which way I prefer...grapfruit or the slight tangerineness with the amarillo...but I digress...

My typical Ruination recipe is 15lbs 2row, 1 lb munich 10l, 1lb crystal 20. (Note, double check recipe). What I did was simply swap out the munich for debittered carafa II, and change the crystal to a darker crystal 60. I wanted some roastiness, and maybe a bit more crystal flavor to come through in the final product.

Grain -
15 lbs 2row
1lb carafa II
1lb crystal 60

Hops -
0.5oz Magnum
1oz centennial 15mins
1oz amarillo 15 mins
1oz centennial 10 mins
1oz amarillo 10mins
1oz centennial 5 mins
1oz amarillo 5mins
2oz amarillo flameout
1oz centennial flameout

Yeast -
Us-05

You may be wondering why no dry hops...three reasons really. First of all, I typically just hop in the keg since my IPAs don't last long. This one isn't planned to be drank for a few weeks, so I didn't want to risk any grassy flavors. Secondly, I didn't have the muslin bag I needed for dryhopping. But most importantly, when I tasted it I actually loved that it had minimal hop aroma. if I didn't know it was a BIPA I would have thought it was just another stout, and then there is a huge wallop of hop flavor on that first sip. The roastiness melds close to perfectly with the citrusy hops flavors...even the hop-hating gf really liked it.

It is still not carbed, but the first impression is great. I had a couple small glasses last night, and I was really enjoying this. It won't replace the standard Ruination, but it will definitely be part of the rotation.