Oatmeal Fresh Hop IPA recipe question

[Methose]

So I'm about to pick my second harvest of hops (Cent, Chin, Cascade), and it looks like I will have a decent amount to collect. I have had the idea of wanting to try to add some oatmeal into an IPA for a while now, and thought it might be good to ask some advice on the Recipe before I waste all these fresh home grown hops on a bad idea.

So I've no real way to calculate it or measure AA, but I am estimating that the wet:dry ratio is 4:1, so for each 1 oz hop addition in recipe is actually 4 oz of wet hops. I also have no way of knowing how much hops I will pull off the vine until brew day, so I might have to modify on the fly.

What do we think about this:
12# Maris Otter
1# Crystal 10L
.75# Carapils
.5# Flaked Oats
1oz Chinook @ FWH
1oz Centennial @ 15
1.5oz Cascade @ 10
.5oz Chinook @ 10
1oz Cascade @ Dry for 5 days
1oz Centennial @ Dry for 5 days

1.5 quarts : 1 gal Water:Grist Ratio
Mash @ 156 for 60 mins
~4 Gal sparge water @ 168

The yeast is actually Conan yeast, but there's no Beersmith addon for it that I know of yet.

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/518835/wet-oatmeal

My brewing equipment is a 10gal Igloo with false bottom, and a 10gal pot on a turkey burner.


I'm open for suggestions on grain bill, oatmeal (more/less/none at all), crystal (more/less/change to darker), ect
I'm brewing this coming Saturday.

 

[W0GWT]

So I'm about to pick my second harvest of hops (Cent, Chin, Cascade), and it looks like I will have a decent amount to collect. I have had the idea of wanting to try to add some oatmeal into an IPA for a while now, and thought it might be good to ask some advice on the Recipe before I waste all these fresh home grown hops on a bad idea.



So I've no real way to calculate it or measure AA, but I am estimating that the wet:dry ratio is 4:1, so for each 1 oz hop addition in recipe is actually 4 oz of wet hops. I also have no way of knowing how much hops I will pull off the vine until brew day, so I might have to modify on the fly.



What do we think about this:

12# Maris Otter

1# Crystal 10L

.75# Carapils

.5# Flaked Oats

1oz Chinook @ FWH

1oz Centennial @ 15

1.5oz Cascade @ 10

.5oz Chinook @ 10

1oz Cascade @ Dry for 5 days

1oz Centennial @ Dry for 5 days



1.5 quarts : 1 gal Water:Grist Ratio

Mash @ 156 for 60 mins

~4 Gal sparge water @ 168



The yeast is actually Conan yeast, but there's no Beersmith addon for it that I know of yet.



http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/518822/wet-oatmeal



My brewing equipment is a 10gal Igloo with false bottom, and a 10gal pot on a turkey burner.





I'm open for suggestions on grain bill, oatmeal (more/less/none at all), crystal (more/less/change to darker), ect

I'm brewing this coming Saturday.

I don't have much to add. I listened to a podcast a while back (BeerSmith or BN) where they had a guest who gave his ideal IPA recipe that had some small amount of flaked oats. I've never tried, but I think there is some precedent.

 

[Methose]

I don't have much to add. I listened to a podcast a while back (BeerSmith or BN) where they had a guest who gave his ideal IPA recipe that had some small amount of flaked oats. I've never tried, but I think there is some precedent.

I've seen a number of posts where someone is going to do one, and no one ever reports back with feedback
Maybe I can break that trend...

 

[Bramstoker17]

I used a pound of flaked oats in a DIPA I brewed that turned out great, kind of similar to the Heady Topper recipe on here other than the oats. They gave the beer a nice smoothness that I liked. Surly Abrasive is a fantastic commercial example of oats in a DIPA, if they distribute where you are, then I can't recommend that beer enough.

As for your recipe, looks good. I'd drop the carapils though. Between the crystal 10 and oats, you'll have plenty of body in the beer.

 

[Bramstoker17]

Or if you want to keep the OG about the same as you had with the carapils, think about a pound of wheat. I've been using a pound of White Wheat with my IPAs lately. It adds body and head retention, but I don't think it leaves as many unfermentables as carapils. Keep in mind that using oats, and wheat if you go that route, will add haziness to the beer. Given that you're using Conan yeast, I doubt that haziness is a concern. I've actually come to prefer a nice orange colored IPA with a good bit of haze, its a damn pretty beer. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[Methose]

Or if you want to keep the OG about the same as you had with the carapils, think about a pound of wheat. I've been using a pound of White Wheat with my IPAs lately. It adds body and head retention, but I don't think it leaves as many unfermentables as carapils. Keep in mind that using oats, and wheat if you go that route, will add haziness to the beer. Given that you're using Conan yeast, I doubt that haziness is a concern. I've actually come to prefer a nice orange colored IPA with a good bit of haze, its a damn pretty beer. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

Thanks for the feedback!
I was aware of the haze, and I'm not too concerned, though I was thinking about darkening the beer by a bit more dark crystal.
I'm really not a fan of wheat in my IPAs -I've tried to like it but just couldn't get into it. I typically use the carapils as I seem to always have head retention problems without it, perhaps it's too much for this one? Maybe drop 1/4# of it and add 1/4# of Crystal 40 or 60?

I like that orange color as well, what do use to get it?

 

[RonPopeil]

I second the oats. I love oated beers.

 

[RonPopeil]

Since you're using fruity hops I would suggest C60. It's a nice middle of the road. You'll get a nice caramel flavor and a bit of color. It won't be overly sweet and it won't taste roasted like the darker crystals do.

 

[Bramstoker17]

Thanks for the feedback!
I was aware of the haze, and I'm not too concerned, though I was thinking about darkening the beer by a bit more dark crystal.
I'm really not a fan of wheat in my IPAs -I've tried to like it but just couldn't get into it. I typically use the carapils as I seem to always have head retention problems without it, perhaps it's too much for this one? Maybe drop 1/4# of it and add 1/4# of Crystal 40 or 60?

I like that orange color as well, what do use to get it?

The IPAs that have turned out that nice orange color for me have all been around 5.5 to 6 SRM per Beersmiths estimate. I usually use a mix of 2 Row and Golden Promise as the base. I'll add Oats, Wheat, about a half pound of light Caramalt (15L), and a bit of acid malt to help my mash PH. Gives a nice orange color, some nice malt sweetness, but not that toffee and caramel you get with darker crystal malts.

 

[Bramstoker17]

I also just noticed that your base malt is Maris Otter. Like I mentioned , I use Golden Promise which is pretty close to that. Maris Otter is great stuff, and will give your malt base a nice bready or biscuity flavor. Since you'll get more flavor from the base malt, I'd go easy with specialty grains so you don't overwhelm the flavors from your fresh hops.

 

[Bramstoker17]

Here's what I would do in your shoes, just my two cents of course


12# Maris Otter
.5 # Caramalt or Crystal 20
.5# to 1# flaked oats.

I think that will be a nice simple malt base for an IPA, but will contribute enough flavor to keep the beer interesting. If you still want to use carapils, I'd say keep them to no more than a quarter pound. Looking forward to see what you come up with!

 

[Methose]

I might try:

12 # Maris Otter
.75# Crystal 60
.75# Carapils
.5 # Flaked Oats

I'm afraid to go without the Carapils at this point; I can't stand it when a beer has no head, and I've read that there really should be no impact on flavor with carapils until you break into 10-15% of the malt bill.

We'll see, there's a lot of time to second guess an switch it up before Saturday

 

[Bramstoker17]

I might try:

12 # Maris Otter
.75# Crystal 60
.75# Carapils
.5 # Flaked Oats

I'm afraid to go without the Carapils at this point; I can't stand it when a beer has no head, and I've read that there really should be no impact on flavor with carapils until you break into 10-15% of the malt bill.

We'll see, there's a lot of time to second guess an switch it up before Saturday

You're right about the carapils not impacting the flavor. It's more the unfermentables they leave behind. With the .75# each of crystal and carapils, and the half pound of oats, you'll have a lot of unfermentables. You'll have great body and a thicker mouthfeel, but you'll probably want to dry it out a bit. Maybe think about mashing at 152 rather than 156 to help make the wort a bit more fermentable.

 

[Methose]

You're right about the carapils not impacting the flavor. It's more the unfermentables they leave behind. With the .75# each of crystal and carapils, and the half pound of oats, you'll have a lot of unfermentables. You'll have great body and a thicker mouthfeel, but you'll probably want to dry it out a bit. Maybe think about mashing at 152 rather than 156 to help make the wort a bit more fermentable.

Mash Profile updated for 152, leaving me a Est Final Gravity of 1.018 and ABV of 6.9%

 

[Methose]

Since you're using fruity hops I would suggest C60. It's a nice middle of the road. You'll get a nice caramel flavor and a bit of color. It won't be overly sweet and it won't taste roasted like the darker crystals do.

Thanks for the advice, I picked up the .75# of C60 last night.
So I'm swapping the C10 for C60.

 

[Methose]

I did this brew today, and came out with 6 gallons of wort, so if it finishes at the estimated 1.018 FG it'll be a 5.5% and hoppy as hell.

1 oz chinook pellet @ WFH
4.2 oz wet hops centennial @ 15
10 oz wet hops cascade @ 10
2 oz wet hop chinook + .5 oz pellets chinook @ 5

+ a 10 min whirlpool after chilled just below 170

The first runnings where clear, but in the last 1 - 1.5 gallons where pretty cloudy.
I chilled, but it's still too hot to pitch, so I put it in a swamp cooler with ice, and will pitch after a while.

cross your fingers.

 

[Bramstoker17]

Looks awesome! Looking forward to hear how it turns out!

 

[Methose]

It looks like most of the haze has dropped out at this point, now I just need to find some time to rack it to secondary to dry hop, or rack it into the keg and dry hop there.

 

[Methose]

I took a reading on it, and went ahead and dry hopped in the primary with 1 oz Centennial.
It's FG is 1.010, which puts it at 6.8%. That is unfortunate because I was shooting for a nice think mouth feel with low ABV. Beersmith was estimating it to end at 1.018, putting it at 5.8%.

I'm not sure if that is the yeast or the mash, but I thought I hit the 152 mash temp. I fermented at a pretty solid 68, via a swamp cooler in my basement.
I guess it could just be Conan ripping through it :-/

 

[Bramstoker17]

Yea I've heard Conan can be a beast. In the Heady Topper clone thread people were consistently getting attenuation in the mid 80s I think