Oatmeal XPA v2

[Schikitar]

Hi all,

So this weekend I'm hoping to do a v2 brew of an Oatmeal XPA recipe I put together and was my first ever AG brew. The original recipe is as follows (calculations are from Ian's BIAB Spreadsheet, also, I had my beer professionally analysed at Boags Brewery for some of the other numbers);

"Sewing Oats"
Batch Size (Fermenter) - 26L
NO CHILL
OG 1.057 (Actual 1.058)
FG 1.012 (Actual 1.018)
IBU 52.7 (Actual 51.8)
EBC 14 (Actual 13.6)
Final Beer pH - 4.29

Grain Bill
Marris Otter 5.15kg
Wheat Malt 520g
Oats Flaked 520g
Pale Crystal 260g

Hop Schedule
Citra - 25g @ 15mins
Amarillio - 30g @ 5mins
Citra - 20g @ Flameout
Amarillio - 30g @ Flameout
Citra - 40g @ Cube Hop
Amarillio - 80g @ Cube Hop
Citra - 35g @ Dry Hop
Amarillio - 40g @ Dry Hop

Yeast
US-04 x 2 (rehydrated)

Okay, so all my family and friends were really happy with this but I really want to tweak the tropical/citrus notes a bit more. I really like Amarillo but it smells more earthy to me than Citra, so this time around I've subbed in Mosaic and bumped the Citra profile a little more. I'm also making some adjustments to the grain bill and will be using some brewing salts based upon an analysis of my local and punching those numbers into the EZ Water spreadhseet. It now looks like this, just wondering if anyone could make some suggestions re the yeast (I'm thinking of making a liquid starter this time) or any other adjustments..


"Sewing Oats" v2
Batch Size (Fermenter) - 26L
NO CHILL
OG 1.054
FG 1.011
IBU 43.3
EBC 15.5

Grain Bill
American Ale 4.4kg
Wheat Malt 560g
Oats Flaked 560g
Pale Crystal 260g
Munich 2 500g
Acidulated Malt 150g

Hop Schedule
Citra - 10g @ 15mins
Mosaic - 15g @ 5mins
Citra - 10g @ Flameout
Mosaic - 20g @ Flameout
Citra - 20g @ Cube Hop
Mosaic - 20g @ Cube Hop
Citra - 60g @ Dry Hop
Mosaic - 60g @ Dry Hop

Yeast
?

Other
Calcium Sulphate 15g
Magnesium Sulphate 5g

I'm really not sure about that hop schedule, I don't know if I should just keep it closer to the original or stick with how I've got it here. I'm looking for more flavour and aroma and just slightly less bitterness (although no one objected to it but I think it was a just little too pronounced for an XPA). Oh, I'll be doing a double batch too, one I'll use Citra pellets, the other will be with Citra LupuLN (thanks Brewman). I'm seriously thinking I might need to bump the amounts, I really want to get it right..

Thoughts? Recommendations?

 

[BKBrews]

I've never done no chill, so can't help you with the schedule, but if you're looking for more flavor and less bitterness, just remove the 15 and 5min additions and bump up your flameout numbers. I regularly brew beers with no hop additions until flameout (most ales my earliest addition is 5min) and they always turn out great.

Most American Ale yeast strains will work for the XPA style, but from a personal experience stand point, I reckon the whitelabs California V Ale would work well. Still very clean but leaves a slightly fruitier profile which would be welcome in the XPA.

 

[Schikitar]

Cool, thanks for the tips, I was eyeing off the White Labs California so if I can get my hands on it I'll likely give that a run!

 

[Schikitar]

Okay, after much debate (with myself) I've settled on the following recipe (although one will have a hop schedule for the Citra LupuLN2, the other just regular pellets, but I'm brewing them to the same IBU within one point);

"Sewing Oats" v2
Batch Size (Fermenter) - 26L
NO CHILL
OG - 1.054
FG - 1.015
ABV - 5.4%
IBU - 44.2
EBC - 16.3

Grain Bill
American Ale - 4.8kg
Wheat Malt - 560g
Oats Flaked - 560g
Pale Crystal - 280g
Acidulated Malt - 150g

Hop Schedule
Citra - 20g @ 15mins
Citra - 15g @ 5mins
Citra - 10g @ Flameout
Mosaic - 15g @ Flameout
Citra - 100g @ Cube Hop
Mosaic - 45g @ Cube Hop
Citra - 55g @ Dry Hop
Mosaic - 50g @ Dry Hop

Yeast
WLP041 Pacific Ale

Other
Calcium Sulphate - 15g
Magnesium Sulphate - 5g
Baking Soda - 5g

Will be making a yeast starter two days prior, hopefully that goes well!

 

[BKBrews]

what temp are you going to mash at? your FG seems higher than it should be, but I don't know too much about that particular yeast strain. I have brewed several 1.054 ales and when pitching the correct amount of yeast, nearly always finish at 1.010-1.012.

Also, what water are you using and how did you decide to add Baking Soda? Most of the water in Australia is fairly soft to begin with - I highly doubt you will need baking soda to raise the pH level. Your other salt additions seem a bit weird as well. I generally aim for this profile in hoppy ales: Ca=110, Mg=18, Na=16, Cl=50, S04=275.

Lastly, make your yeast starter up to a week beforehand - let it do it's thing for 48 hours and then chuck it in the fridge for ~24-48hrs to crash. Only pitch the yeast at the bottom and decant the wort off the top.

 

[Schikitar]

That particular strain attenuates low, so higher FG. Plan to mash at about 66..

I used the EZWater spreadsheet to do the calculations. I inputted my water profile and it told me where I was deficient, then I arrived at those amounts to get ticks across the board. I'll check it against your numbers though.

I won't be pitching until early next week so I'll get the starter going tonight, crash it on the weekend and yeah, decant the wort off the top.

 

[Schikitar]

Just to follow up, compared to your numbers this is what I get with the additions;

BKBrews
Ca=110, Mg=18, Na=16, Cl=50, S04=275

Schikitar
Ca=99, Mg=14, Na=42, Cl=14, S04=285

Thoughts??

 

[BKBrews]

Just to follow up, compared to your numbers this is what I get with the additions;

BKBrews
Ca=110, Mg=18, Na=16, Cl=50, S04=275

Schikitar
Ca=99, Mg=14, Na=42, Cl=14, S04=285

Thoughts??

I use RO water for all of my brews and while the EZ Calculator says Na should be anywhere up to 150, I think you'll find 42ppm quite salty. They say anything over 75ppm can become quite harsh. Personally I don't see the need for the baking soda. I would drop the gypsum back, add some calcium chloride (to get closer to 50ppm chloride) and then up the Epsom if the reduced gypsum drops the sulphate levels too much.

 

[Schikitar]

Okay, that makes sense, I started thinking about it and rather than blindly following numbers it makes sense this could turn out to be salty (yuk!). I'll leave out the Baking Soda, I don't have any Calcium Chloride but I was looking at those numbers as it did seem lower than it should be so I'll plan for that in the future. So maybe for this brew just 10g of gypsum and keep the magnesium as is..?

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it, I am definitely no scientist but I am learning a lot!

 

[Dan Pratt]

On version 3 mix it up to be like a north east IPA, cloudy and juicy.

double the wheat, double the oats, don't use whirlfloc and dont cold crash.

make it chloride forward 200ppm to sulphate at 80ppm.

double dry hop it.

 

[Schikitar]

That sounds like a plan!

 

[Schikitar]

I did my double brew yesterday - was a long day but I thoroughly enjoyed it! I only made one mistake in the first brew (which I carried through in the second) and that was to add my 5 minute hop additions at 10 minutes accidentally, no biggie. In the LupuLN brew I doubled the oats (as an intermediate step towards v3) and didn't add any whirlfloc - would have done the wheat but didn't have any on hand. On both brews I hit my numbers exactly, 1.054 and 1.058 - I've always been close but I've never actually hit those numbers precisely so I gave myself a pat on the back for that!

I've been building a yeast starter, I got the WLP041 Pacific Ale but it was a couple months past its best before, so I have done a two step starter (1.020 and then 1.036) - that seems to be going well.

Parallel to this I was building out my fridge - spray painted the whole thing and rolled chalkboard paint all over the front door. I also built an internal shelf as I realised I could fit two fermenters in there along with airlocks so that's pretty great! I'll now be able to put down two brews at a time - a longer day but a lot less hassle and a better use of resources, plus, more beer! I'm still trying to work out how best to heat the fridge, was thinking of just using my heatbelt strapped to some sort of heatsink and then maybe put a little portable fan in there to distribute the air more evenly.. I have an Inkbird temp controller, not too sure where to attach the probe to account for the right temp for both brews..