How to Brew Black IPA

TL;DR: Curious about how to brew Black IPA at home? This unique style, also known as Cascadian Dark Ale, blends the piney, citrusy hop character of an American IPA with the dark, smooth malt backbone of a stout—without the heavy roasted bitterness. If you've ever asked, "How do I brew Black IPA at home?" or "How to start brewing Black IPA?", you’re in the right place.

To brew your own Black IPA, you need the right IPA ingredients—including dehusked dark malts for color without astringency and classic Pacific Northwest hops like Centennial, Chinook, Simcoe, and Citra for resinous hop flavor. The Black IPA brewing process also involves precise dry hopping, fermentation control, and oxygen management to maintain a crisp, hop-forward flavor with a smooth finish.

With Craft a Brew’s Black IPA Beer Recipe Kits, available in 1-gallon and 5-gallon sizes, brewing Black IPA at home has never been easier. Our kits include all the essential ingredients, plus step-by-step instructions to guide you through the home Black IPA brewing process. Whether you're an experienced homebrewer or just learning how to home brew Black IPA, this guide will walk you through everything from brew day to bottling.

  • Overview
  • Download The Guide
  • What You’ll Need to Make IPA
  • Step-by-Step IPA Recipe
  • Watch the Video
  • Troubleshooting & Tips
  • Customize Your IPA

Getting Started with Brewing a Black IPA

If you’ve ever wondered how to brew Black IPA at home, you’re in the right place! This unique style brings two worlds together with piney, citrusy hop flavor and jet black appearance. Often referred to as Cascadian Dark Ales, Black IPAs tend to favor Pacific Northwest hop varieties for resinous & piney hop character. Unlike stouts or porters, which feature heavy caramel and chocolate notes and often are sharp, roasty & astringent, a Black IPA uses debittered dark malts to achieve dark color without the heavy roasted stout flavor you’d expect in a dark beer. Whether you're a first-time homebrewer or an experienced craft beer enthusiast, learning how to brew your own Black IPA is a rewarding experience that results in a one-of-a-kind brew.

For those wondering, “How can I make IPA with a twist?” or “How do you make IPA that’s unexpected and unique?”, the key lies in the right Black IPA brewing process. This includes careful malt selection, precise hop timing, and a proper fermentation process.

The easiest way to get started is with Craft a Brew’s Black IPA Beer Recipe Kit, available in both 1-gallon and 5-gallon sizes. These all-in-one kits simplify brewing Black IPA at home, providing all the necessary ingredients, including dehusked dark malts to achieve color without astringency and a powerful blend of Centennial, Chinook, Citra, Simcoe, and Warrior hops for a layered, aromatic hop punch. Whether you’re looking to brew your own Black IPA for the first time or refine your Black IPA brewing process, these kits are the perfect choice.

By using debittered dark malts, our Black IPA Beer Recipe Kit allows you to brew Black IPA at home without the harsh roasted bitterness often associated with dark beers. Instead, you get a smooth, full-bodied IPA with an inky black appearance and a burst of citrus, pine, and resinous hop aroma.

So, how do I brew Black IPA at home? The answer is simple: Start with the right ingredients, follow a proven brewing process, and trust Craft a Brew’s step-by-step instructions. Whether you’re home brewing Black IPA for a personal batch or scaling up to a 5-gallon brew, our kits provide everything you need to create an exceptional Black IPA.

For those wondering how to start brewing Black IPA with minimal hassle, our kits remove the guesswork, making it easy to brew Black IPA at home with professional-quality results. Whether you're an IPA enthusiast looking to experiment with a darker, bolder take on the style or a seasoned brewer aiming to perfect your recipe, Craft a Brew has the ideal kit to fuel your brewing journey.

Download Our Guide to Making IPA

For complete step by step instructions on how to brew Black IPA styles, download our instruction guide to making IPA & other ales at home.  This beginner friendly manual accompanies our Black IPA beer brewing kit and will walk you through brew day, fermentation, dry hopping & bottling.

What You’ll Need To Make Black IPA

The key to brewing Black IPA at home is the right IPA ingredients, proper equipment, and an understanding of the brewing process. Whether you're using Craft a Brew’s 1-gallon Black IPA brewing kit for a small-batch experiment or stepping up to a 5-gallon Black IPA recipe kit, having the right tools and ingredients ensures a smooth brewing experience and a delicious final product.

Ingredients

Using the right IPA ingredients is crucial for crafting this bold and complex beer style. A balanced Black IPA uses a dark malt base that doesn’t overpower the hops, resulting in a hop-forward beer that is dark in your glass without tasting like a stout Achieving this balance requires a combination of specialty malts, high-quality hops, and the right yeast strain.

Our Black IPA recipe uses a Dark dry malt extract base for deep, dark color and the base fermentable sugars. We also use a carefully curated blend of specialty grains to achieve dark color without typical stout flavors. Blackprinz is a dehusked malt that adds intense color without adding astringency. It imparts subtle roasted flavor, just like lighter malts used in lighter IPAs.  

Generous doses of pIney, resinous hops are a hallmark of this unique beer style. Unlike fruity or juicy hops used in hazy New England IPAs, a brewer’s goal is to achieve a dank, forrest-like flavor in a Black IPA. The idea is to establish this beer as a true IPA against its unusually dark color palette. Dank hops like potent, piney Chinook and aromatic, piney & citrusy Centennial get the job done.

Our Black IPA making kit uses SafAle US-05 dry ale yeast. This strain is excellent for making american ales and IPAs because of its neutral, clean finish. It helps promote a foamy head in your glass and provides a crisp, clean palate. Dry yeasts are excellent choices for homebrewing NEIPAs because they’re shelf stable and don’t require refrigeration like liquid yeasts.

If you want to take your Black IPA to the next level, consider these IPA ingredients:

  • Brewers Crystals: Give your Black IPA and ABV boost. Brewers Crystals add 0.5% to the final alcohol content without altering the flavor or thinning or drying the beer’s mouthfeel.
  • Calcium Sulfate: Minerals present in tap water and spring water are important for fermentation. This ingredient helps add minerals back to Reverse Osmosis water or soft water. It also enhances hop character in a beer!
  • Edible Glitter: Silver “luster dust” creates a milky way galaxy effect in dark beers. Dose 1 or more bottles, or sprinkle some into your glass when serving. 

Equipment

To brew your own BlackIPA, you’ll use the same essential equipment you’d use to brew any other ale! New to homebrewing? Our 1 gallon Black IPA making kit has everything you need to get started! 

You’ll need a stock pot that can fit as close to a full gallon of liquid as possible. You’ll need a few inches of room to prevent boil overs. Don’t use too large a pot - this can increase evaporation rates and result in volume loss. Your pot should have a lid, which is used when chilling the beer before pitching the yeast.

It’s important to closely monitor and maintain temperatures at different points in the brewing process. Our BlackIPA making kit includes a glass lab thermometer, but you can use any food-safe thermometer, like a digital thermometer! Key temperatures your thermometer must reach are 155ºF and 75ºF.

A funnel helps you transfer the wort (unfermented beer) from your stock pot into the carboy. A 4” funnel is included in our Black PA making kit.

A 1 gallon carboy is where yeast turns the wort (unfermented beer) into a Black IPA. A rubber stopper plugs the neck to maintain a proper seal. A carboy  is included in our basic Black IPA making kit.

A racking cane is a rigid plastic tube that is submerged into your beer to start a siphon transfer. Siphons reduce oxidation and help lift your fermented beer up off of sediment and into bottles. A racking cane is included in our basic Black IPA making kit.

After fermentation, you’ll need to carbonate your beer in bottles. You can use flip top bottles, like Grolsch style bottles, or you can use pry-off beer bottles, caps and a capper tool. You’ll need roughly ten 12oz bottles per gallon of beer. That’s about eight 16oz bottles per gallon or four 32oz bottles per gallon.

Step-by-Step Brewing Guide

Brewing your Black IPA at home is easy with the Craft a Brew Black IPA making kit. This step-by-step guide will walk you through the Black IPA brewing process, from sanitizing your equipment to fermenting and bottling your beer. Follow along and learn how to brew BlackIPA at home with confidence.

Step 1: Sanitize Everything

Before you begin brewing, proper sanitation is critical. Any bacteria or wild yeast can ruin your beer. Mix half of the included sanitizer packet with 1 gallon of water in a bucket or pitcher. Submerge all equipment that will touch the beer after boiling (fermenter, funnel, airlock, tubing, thermometer). Let everything soak for at least 60 seconds. No need to rinse—just let the sanitized equipment air dry on clean paper towels.

Step 2: Heating the Water & Steeping the Grains

Pour as close to a gallon of water as possible into your brew pot while leaving a few inches of space to prevent boil-overs.

Heat the water on high heat until it reaches 155°F (68°C).

Place the specialty grains (BlackPrinz & Midnight Wheat) into the grain steeping bag, tie it off, and steep in the water for 20 minutes.

Remove the grain bag and discard—do NOT squeeze it, as this can release tannins and create unwanted bitterness.

Step 3: Boiling & Adding Malt Extract

Increase the heat and bring the wort (unfermented beer) to a boil.

Once the first bubbles appear, remove the pot from heat and slowly stir in the dry malt extract to prevent clumping.

Return the pot to medium-high heat to maintain a gentle rolling boil. Set a 60 minute timer. After 60 minutes, turn off the burner and remove the pot from heat.

Step 4: Adding Hops

Hops add bitterness, aroma, and flavor to your beer. Your Black IPA Kit includes a carefully balanced blend of Mosaic, Citra, and Simcoe hops to create its juicy profile.

  • At the start of the 60-minute boil, add Bittering Hops.
  • At 10 minutes left, add Flavor Hops.
  • At 2 minutes left, add Aroma Hops.

Pro Tip: Watch for boil-overs! If your wort foams up, turn off the heat and stir to prevent spills.

Step 5: Cooling the Wort

After boiling, the wort must be cooled to a yeast-friendly temperature before fermentation can begin.

Create an ice bath in your sink using ice and cold water.

Place the pot in the ice bath and cover it with a lid to avoid contamination.

Stir the surrounding ice water occasionally to speed up the cooling process.

Use a sanitized thermometer to check that the wort is below 75°F (23°C).

Step 6: Transferring to the Fermenter & Pitching Yeast

Using a sanitized funnel, transfer the cooled wort into the sanitized fermenter, leaving any thick sediment (trub) behind.

If needed, add cool water to reach the "one-gallon" fill line.

Cut open the yeast packet and pitch the yeast (sprinkle the entire contents into the fermenter).

Aerate the wort by sealing the fermenter and shaking it vigorously for one minute. This helps the yeast thrive.

Step 7: Setting Up the Blow-Off Tube & Monitoring Fermentation

Insert a sanitized blow-off tube into the fermenter’s rubber stopper. Place the other end in a half-full glass of water. This prevents foam overflow.

Place the fermenter in a dark, temperature-stable location (ideally 60-75°F).

Within 24-48 hours, you should see bubbling activity as fermentation begins.

Step 8: Swapping the Blow-Off Tube for an Airlock

After 4-5 days, once bubbling slows down, swap the blow-off tube for an airlock filled with water.

Fermentation will continue for about 10-14 days.

Step 9: Adding Dry Hops for Maximum Juiciness

After 10 days of fermentation, add the first packet of dry hops directly into the fermenter. No need to stir or mix - the hops will add flavor & aroma on their own.

Step 10: Preparing Bottling Equipment & Priming Sugar

Sanitize bottles, caps, siphon tubing, and the bottling wand.

In a stockpot, heat 1.5 cups of water with 2 Tablespoons of sugar. Stir until dissolved and boil for 5 minutes.

Allow the sugar water (priming sugar) to completely cool before using.

Step 11: Siphoning Beer into Bottles

Place the fermenter on a high surface and the pot of priming sugar on the floor.

Siphon the beer into the pot, carefully leaving sediment behind.

Gently stir the beer to evenly mix in the priming sugar.

Using sanitized tubing, siphon the beer into bottles, filling just to the neck. Cap the bottles.

Step 12: Carbonation & Aging

Store bottles in a dark, temperature-controlled area (68-75°F) for two weeks to allow carbonation to develop.

After 14 days, refrigerate and enjoy your homebrewed Black IPA!

Pro Tip: If your beer is under-carbonated, let it sit at room temperature for an additional 3-5 days before chilling.

Watch Our IPA-Making Video

See our beer kits in action! Learn how to brew your own Black IPA by watching our step-by-step beer brewing video. This video serves as a visual aid to this Black IPA recipe, made using the Craft a Brew kit. 

Common Brewing Mistakes to Avoid

Whenever brewing highly hopped beers, it’s important to avoid these common mistakes. With these precautions in mind, the Craft a Brew IPA making kit has everything you need to craft a piney, hop forward Black IPA!

How to Avoid It: When transferring beer, use always use a siphon to minimize splashing. Whenever adding hops to your fermenter, work quickly to reduce oxygen exposure time.

How to Avoid It:  Use a nylon hop straining bag or a fine-mesh strainer to filter out hops before transferring the wort to the fermenter. If dry hopping, use a sanitized nylon hop straining bag to contain the hop matter while still extracting flavor and aroma. The more sediment and hop debris you can keep out of the finished product, the better the hop flavors will be! Too much hop sediment in bottles can lead to harsh & unpleasant hop flavors.

How to Avoid It: Stick with dehusked or debittered dark malts, such as BlackPrinz and Midnight Wheat.

Brewing a Black IPA at home is a rewarding challenge that combines the best of both dark malts and hoppy bitterness. By avoiding these common mistakes—preventing oxidation, filtering your hops, choosing the right dark malts, and properly dry hopping—you can brew your own Black IPA that’s perfectly balanced, bold, and full of rich complexity.

With the Craft a Brew Black IPA Kit, all the ingredients are carefully selected for the best flavor and balance, so you can focus on brewing with confidence. Grab your kit today and start crafting the perfect Black IPA at home!

Tips for Successful Homebrewing

At Craft a Brew, our Black IPA Making Kit is designed to ensure success on your very first batch. But if you want your IPA to be a crisp, bitter, and hop-forward masterpiece, here are some expert tips to help you brew your own Black IPA like a pro.
  •  Fermentation temperature has a significant impact on the final flavor of your Black IPA. Too warm, and the yeast can create harsh, boozy off-flavors; too cold, and fermentation may stall. Maintain a stable fermentation range between 65–70°F (18–21°C) for optimal yeast health and a balanced hop-malt profile. Temperature swings can lead to unwanted esters or phenols that clash with the beer’s smooth roast character.
  • Avoid splashing while transferring wort or bottling. 
  • Use a siphon or racking cane to minimize air exposure.
  • Limit oxygen exposure when dry hopping—add hops quickly and reseal your fermenter.
  • Use a hop bag or mesh strainer to contain hop matter during the boil.
  • When transferring to the fermenter, leave behind as much hop sediment as possible.
  • For dry hopping, use a sanitized hop sack to prevent excessive hop particles in the final beer.
  • Sanitize all brewing equipment—fermenters, airlocks, siphons, bottles, and tubing.
  • Use a no-rinse sanitizer (like the one included in our Black IPA Kit) for efficiency.
  • Immediately rinse out your siphon and tubing after use to prevent buildup.
  • Use filtered or spring water to avoid unwanted chlorine or metallic flavors. 
  • If using Reverse Osmosis (RO) water, add brewing salts like Calcium Chloride or Gypsum to adjust pH and enhance hop character.
  • Proper water chemistry ensures your hops shine without overpowering the smooth malt base.
  • Record your ingredients, hop schedules, and fermentation temperatures.
  • Take tasting notes over time—flavors will change as your Black IPA matures.
  • Track carbonation levels and conditioning times for future reference.

By following these brewing best practices, you’ll craft a bold, well-balanced Black IPA that highlights resinous hops, smooth roasted malt, and a crisp finish. With the Craft a Brew Black IPA Making Kit, you’ll have all the ingredients and equipment needed to brew a hop-forward Black IPA at home. 🍻

Homebrewing FAQs

Encountering issues? Here are some common IPA Making FAQs, tips & solutions to any problem you might have while making your Black IPA.

For the best flavor and yeast performance, ferment your Black IPA at 65–70°F (18–21°C). A stable fermentation temp allows the yeast to produce fruity esters that complement the hops. Too cold = stalled fermentation, muted flavors. Too warm = harsh, boozy off-flavors.

Highly hopped beers, like a Black IPA, are best enjoyed young and fresh (within 1 - 6 months of brewing). Keep bottles cold (35–40°F) to slow hop degradation. Store away from light and oxygen to prevent off-flavors.

Don’t worry - it can be improved! Low carbonation usually just means that the yeast needs some more time to create CO2. If you’ve moved all bottles from your batch into the fridge, bring them out and let them stand at room temperature for another 3-5 days before chilling a bottle & testing again. Low carbonation can also be caused by: too much headspace in bottles, carbonating in too cold an environment, not using enough priming sugar or having an improperly sealed cap.

For future brews, try our pre-measured Priming Sugar packs or Carbonation Drops.

Customize Your Black IPA

Craft a Brew’s Black IPA making kit comes with everything you need to brew an exciting, piney & jet black IPA. But you can put your personal creative spin on this beer with simple customizations!

Boost the ABV with Brewer’s Crystals!

Dial up the alcohol content in your homebrewed Black IPA - without thinning or drying the mouthfeel or adding an unpleasant boozy flavor - with Brewers Crystals. A blend of fermentable and non-fermentable sugars help give yeast more fermentation fuel. Add with Dry Malt Extract on brew day and proceed as usual.

Add Citrus Zest

Complement the natural piney, citrusy hop notes of a Black IPA with a hint of real citrus! Using a grater, zest the skin of a grapefruit, lemon or lime (avoiding the bitter white pith) and add to the end of the boil.

Create a fuller body

If you like a fuller bodied, thicker IPA - try Maltodextrin! A simple non-fermentable sugar added on brew day helps add heft to the mouthfeel and promotes good head retention in your glass.

Why Make Your Own Black IPA?

If you love bold, hop-forward beers with a deep, dark twist, learning how to brew Black IPA at home is an incredibly rewarding experience. While you can find Black IPAs in craft breweries, nothing beats the satisfaction of brewing Black IPA at home and customizing it to your exact taste preferences. Plus, with a Craft a Brew Black IPA Beer Kit, the Black IPA brewing process is straightforward and accessible for beginners and experienced homebrewers alike.

Here are a few reasons why you should brew your own Black IPA at home:

  • It’s Easier Than You Think: Many people think brewing beer is difficult, but with the right IPA brewing kit, it’s actually simple and fun. The Craft a BrewBlack IPA Kit provides all the equipment, ingredients, and easy-to-follow instructions you need to brew Black IPA at home with confidence. No prior brewing experience needed! The process is straightforward with just a few basic steps. You’ll get all the ingredients pre-measured for convenience. Follow our step-by-step brewing guide to ensure success.
  • Save Money & Always Have Your Favorite Beer on Hand: While craft beer prices continue to rise, home Black IPA brewing is a cost-effective way to enjoy high-quality beer without breaking the bank. A 5-gallon batch of homebrewed Black IPA can yield over 50 bottles of beer for a fraction of the cost of store-bought craft beer. Never worry about your favorite Black IPA being out of stock—you control the supply!
  • The Joy of the Brewing Process: Brewing is part science, part art—and completely satisfying. There’s something special about crafting your own beer from start to finish, watching fermentation happen, bottling your brew, and finally enjoying that first sip of something you created with your own hands. If you love to drink beer, there’s nothing more fun than learning the science behind your favorite drink first-hand.

Simplify the Process with the Craft a Brew Black IPA Making Kit

Excited to brew your own Black IPA, but not sure where to begin? Our Black IPA starter kit has everything you need in one convenient kit. Our Black IPA starter kit includes the best dark malts and piney hops for this style, along with reusable equipment to get your homebrewing hobby off the ground!