The Two-Headed Dark Devil (Imperial Dark IPA) - 05.15.2011

The Dark/Black IPA is sort of a new style of beer.  It is as hoppy as an IPA but black/dark like a porter and more malty.  Also known as an American Black Ale.  It being a relatively new style becoming more popular, I had to do some experimenting. I first had to do some research as to what this "new" and "upcoming" style was and is.  So I went down to the local liquor store and pick up a sample.  I chose Stone's "Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale".  I didn't write down a review of it, but I like it.  It had a good balance of Malty and roasty notes and was well hopped.  The hop aroma came through more than a porter, much like drinking an IPA with a brown ale or porter.  It was delicious.

The story behind my choice to do this beer is as follows.  I brewed a HEAVY (probably overly) hopped beer (that may have gotten an infection or it was just the enamel ripping off my teeth that gave the off flavor) that when I transferred to a secondary fermenter, I did a 5 gallon and (2) two 1/2 gallons.  I did this because I was doing some experimenting, as any engineer would want to do.  I was curious about flavors and infusing them into my beer.
One of the 1/2 gallons I added some oak chips that I had soaked for 1-2 days in bourbon.  The final product of this beer, was quiet delicious and it's too bad it only made about (6) six 12-ounce bottles.  It gave the IPA a nice oak-y flavor and you could taste the bourbon.  My thinking behind doing this was to imitate the style of the original IPA flavor.  The style of the Indian Pale Ale was when the English wanted to bring beer to the troops in India.  So to preserve the beer for the long journey, they added more hops and at the time beer was stored in barrels.  So these pale ales where hoppier than the typical English Pale ale and had more of an oak-y flavor because of the time spent in the barrels. Sorry for the short history lesson, but I not only enjoy to drink the different styles, I love to find out how they came to be.  It's like learning a new piece of history because a lot of the styles out there today are that way because they were brewed a certain way with different ingredients due to the part of the globe where they originated.  So I wanted to try to make a tribute to this style of beer and it worked out.  My only regret is there was a limited supply.
The other 1/2 gallon, I was curious how a habenaro would taste with the spiciness of the hops in a beer.  The final product left me with again only (6) six 12-ounce bottles, but it was quiet interesting and delicious.  As one of my friends (best-man actually) put it as "it's a sipping beer".  And there was requests to do it again.  Basically, I just pan fried a frozen fresh habenaro from my father's garden and dropped it in the 1/2 gallon fermenter.  While there was only a limited supply, the demand for more arose. So I tasked myself to brew again.

Now that I had the idea to brew an IPA with some hot pepper again, I also was intrigued by a Black Ale.  My brain began to turn and the idea for "Dark Devil" was born.  I wanted this beer to be dark and "evil" if you will (hotness from pepper).  Again, I did not want to do a full 5 gallon batch of spicy sipping beer, but I wanted to do more than a few bottles.  So I decided to split the batch once again, but into two equal 3 -gallon secondaries, hence the "Two-Headed Dark Devil". One will be made from the burning darkest deepest parts of hell and the other will be it's smooth other half aged on Oak.  Born the same but a different path they will take.

So I had the idea and I had to wait for my breakfast stout to get out of the primary so I could give my creation life.  Then I remembered reading online about reusing yeast from a previous batch and either pitching all of it or some to a fresh wort.  It was advised to start with a light low hopped ale to the darker and more stronger flavored beer because as you reuse the yeast the next beer will take up some of that flavor.  I saw this as a perfect way to get some roasty dark flavors from the breakfast stout! Call me crazy but sometimes you have to be.  Also, the yeast that I used for the Stout, Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale is to be used for stouts or Strong Ales. While it is a little unorthodox to use Irish Ale yeast for an IPA, I am not one to follow the rules all the time (and yes this has resulted in bad beer but hey, you will never know unless you risk it).

Let's begin the birth of this monster.

The Recipe:

Specialty Grains:

• 1 lbs Briess Vienna

Extracts:

• 6.6 lbs LME - Golden Light
• 3.3 LME - Amber (to give a red hue)

Hops and Hop Schedule:

• 3 oz of Cascade Hops (Pellets) AA%: 7.5% (Bittering)
• 1 oz @ 60 minutes
• 1oz @ 45 minutes
• 1 oz @ 30 minutes
• 2 oz of Amarillo Hops (Pellets) AA%: 7.2% (Flavor and Aroma)
• 1 oz @ 15 minutes
• 1 oz @ 5 minutes

Yeast:

• Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale: Harvested from Breakfast Stout II
• Once racked from the primary, I added (cooled) 1 pint of boiled water to the primary fermenter to loosen the yeast cake and poured it into a 1/2 gallon jar, a growler.
• Waited 2 hours to settle and decanted some of the liquid and poured a little more water to loosen it up again and poured into another 1/2 gallon jar.  Typically, one would see the separation of yeast cake and settled yeast  over time but the yeast was quiet dark so I had to take my chances.  This processes is known as yeast washing.  But I wanted some of the flavors from the stout into this Dark Devil.

This was actually the fastest I ever brewed from start to finish, 2:15 clean-> sanitize -> boil -> hops -> cool -> yeast+wort -> clean up.  I was really quiet impressed with myself.  So I started as usual, 2.5 gallons of water bringing to a boil with the grains in a mesh bag steeping them carefully watching the temperature for 30 minutes.  At the end of the "mashing" period, I dumped the grains in a strainer and "sparged" the grains with 1/5 gallons of water that I brought up to ~155 F. Then added the LME and brought to a boil.  Once boiling commenced, I followed the hop schedule as noted above. At 10 minutes I added Irish Moss as a clarifying agent.  I cooled the wort as fast as possible in an ice bath, then dumped it through a strainer into the fermenter.  This yielded probably more than 6 gallons.  Took the OG at 1.067 and added the yeast.

And on the first day, the beast was born with but a single head and a deep dark red color, breathing loudly from the darkest forgotten places in hell as he grows with power and madness.

Maybe I will actually come up with a cool tag line/story that I can put on the beer and give to my friends.

Update: It is fermenting.  This morning I found the top of the pail blown off and Kreusen foam at the rim of the pail. It smelled like an explosion of hops in my basement and replaced the cover.

Update 5.21: So I have come up with a new name for this beer, Angels and Demons Ale,  the Angel Ale will be the IPA without the chili pepper and the demon ale is the IPA with the chili pepper.