Brew Day: Oatmeal IPA

After tasting Good People's Oatmeal IPA back in August, I knew I would eventually want to make one. Finally that time has come. The recipe is a partial mash, making 5 gal (I don't have the equipment for all grain yet unfortunately). Why do a partial mash instead of just steeping the specialty malts? Check out the Hulk Mash post for the importance of mashing adjuncts.

Setup for Partial Mash. "Mash Tun" (left)

Fermentables
5.5 lb Light DME
2.0 lb 2-Row
1.0 lb Flaked oats
1.0 lb Victory

Hops (all 14.4%)

0.75 oz Citra 60 min
1.00 oz Citra 15 min
1.00 oz Citra 05 min
1.25 oz Citra 07 day dry hop

Yeast
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

Mash schedule
60 min 153°F

65% Efficiency

Estimated

OG: 1.065

FG: 1.017

ABV: 6.3%

IBU: 66

Brew Day Notes: The "mash tun" did not hold temps well, and was consistently below the target mash temp. We had to add boiling water in addition to heat from the range several times to bring temp up to 153°F in the center of the mash. In all, it ended up mashing for about 90 minutes. Every thing else went as planned except that we ended up with slightly less than 5 gal (approx 4.75). We also inoculated a malt agar plate with Wyeast 1272 American Ale II left over from the smack pack for banking (instructions here using smack pack as your yeast sample).

Oatmeal IPA in Primary

When we racked to secondary over dry hops we lost a good bit of volume due to the huge amount of trub. It looks like we will end up with a little over 3.5 Gallons for bottling.

At bottling the hop aroma was pretty intense. Both of us agreed that it was good enough to drink flat, but more on taste after it has carbed. Ended up with a total of 39-12 oz bottles (3.6 gallons).

Measured
Vol: 4.75 gal
Eff: 70%
OG: 1.072
FG:  1.016
ABV: 7.2%

Tasting Notes:
2 weeks:
Appearance: hazy-gold, with white head, good lacing, and good head retention
Aroma: Citrus (grapefruit, tangerine), slight red fruit, bread, biscuit
Taste: apricot, fruity citrus, slight nut, malt, nice bitterness
Palate: good carbonation, nice mid-light body without the malty sweetness, no noticeable alcohol
Overall: Pretty solid beer. The oatmeal adds the needed body without adding the caramel sweetness found in some IPAs. Will not be around for very long. A brew again beer.