Accidental Black IPA - Hop issues

[Conor]

OK... yesterday was meant to be my first attempt at an IPA. So I was following this recipe http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/my-2-time-gold-winning-american-ipa-81478/

Anyway..long story short I use an Eltrctrim mashing bin. It's worked brilliantly for me, but with so much grain in the bucket I couldnt keep the element clear so some grain burnt. This gave the wort a stringent, burnt flavour. Nothing serious but was afraid it would come through in the finished beer. So in a stroke of genius (insanity?) I converted to a black IPA. So added in a bit of extra crystal and chocolate malt. Not ideal but from tasting the finished wort, it's pretty good. Colour is dark brown rather then black, but signs are good.

5.5kg pale (marris otter)
.75kg 100 Crystal
.5kg Chocolate
.5 carapills
.5 wheat malt
.5 vienna

multi rest mash, 1.5hours total. Efficiency 69%

Hops:

Chinook 25g 30min
Cascade 40g 30min
Williamette 25g 15min
Cascade 45g 15min
Williamette 25g 5min
Cascade 30g Dry in secondary
Chinook 20g Dry in secondary

OG: 1072
FG: est 1015
IBU: 50
SRM: 37
ABV: ~7.3%


One issue though... I was using a grain bag for the hops during the boil, and on tasting there isnt nearly as much bitterness or aroma as I would have expected from the above recipe. Do you get less extraction if you use a bag rather then loose hops? I think with the extra malt I need to up the bitterness and aroma anyway (gravity comes out at 1072 due to extra malt)

I'm planning to dry hop, but also think it may be worth boiling up a hop tea for more bitterness. I have williamette and chinook left. Thoughts? Aim is rescuing a passable beer at this stage!

[irish_goat]

Maybe wait until it finishes fermenting and take a sample then before deciding on adding anything. You could then boil some Chinook and add that at the end if you wanted. Also if you plan on dry hopping that will up the perceived bitterness.

[Bazza]

Hi again, Conor.

Just a quick question: how long was your boil? From your recipe I see you only started adding hops at 30 mins. If you were boiling for an hour, say, you really needed to be adding bittering hops right from the start of the boil. 30 mins is much less effective at extracting bitterness while from 15 mins onwards you're more into flavour & aroma territories.

-Barry

[Conor]

That's what the original recipe said, and all the responses from it say it's a cracker. I normally do boil the first addition for an hour. Think this recipe is all about aroma and less bitterness, which is more to my taste. I'll taste it after a week and see how balanced it is. Will definitely be adding dry hopping.