Hey guys, I'm going to be doing a second 5-gallon batch of a Black IPA (or Cascadian Dark Ale or India Black Ale or whatever the heck we're calling it now). I'd like to modify the original recipe slightly with the addition of some flaked oats to try to get a nice silky mouthfeel. Here's my grain bill below. My plan is to use a half pound of flaked oats to the mash. Will this be enough to get the mouthfeel I'm looking for given what my grain bill is? 12 lbs Maris Otter 8 oz Chocolate Malt 8 oz CaraMunich 45L 8 oz Crystal 50/60L 8 oz Carafa Special III 8 oz Debittered Black
At that amount you're looking at 3.3% of the grain bill being oats. I would shoot for 5-10% if you really want to get some of that oat character. That being said, outside of whatever hops you may be adding, the malt bill looks more like a porter to me with the chocolate and caramel malts.
Never done a CDA before so take this for what it is worth... agree with @Scope4Beer you probably want more oats to get the mouthfeel it seems like you are aiming for Chocolate malt seems really out of place Why both the carafa and debittered black? That seems like a lot of crystal malts.
Don't knock it 'til you've tried it. I'm following the recipe for Midwest Supplies Hopstache Black IPA. I don't yet know enough about my malts to know what should work together with what, but I can just say that the first batch of this that I brewed was quite amazing.
Nice looking porter you have there. ;D Good advice above. The roasted malts are redundant, and the crystals are too. 1lb of either black malt and 1/2lb of either crystal would make more sense. But if you like it, what do we know? I'd start with 10% oats this recipe and you can adjust next time. But more importantly, it's a black IPA, so what's the hop schedule?
I think you could go up to a lb on the oats. I think the specialty malts look overly complex. Do you have a sense for what each brings to the table or are you just guessing and gambling that if you use enough of them, something will go right?
Here's the hop schedule: 1 oz Columbus @ 45 minutes left in boil 1 oz Pacifica @ 30 minutes left in boil 1/2 oz Simcoe @ 30 minutes left in boil 1 oz Pacifica @ 5 minutes left in boil 1/2 oz Simcoe @ 5 minutes left in boil 1 oz Simcoe dry hopped after 7-10 days of fermentation 1 oz Ahtanum dry hopped after 7-10 days of fermentation
I'm only following a recipe. I'm still relatively new to this, so I don't have a great grasp on all of the malts yet. I only know that my first attempt at this recipe turned out great. The only thing I was really looking to improve was the mouthfeel, hence the original question. On the second attempt I may also add the Columbus hops a bit earlier to bring up the bitterness a bit.
Sorry if I was a little flippant. I was new once, too (and I still sometimes feel new, so don't take this as patronizing). When I shifted to all grain brewing (10 years ago this month!), I was really intrigued by the diversity of malts available. I was also inspired, by the book Radical Brewing, to try all kinds of crazy ingredients and unusual malts in an effort to make my beers distinctive and complex. What I learned was too much of too many ingredients makes a beer taste like mud. Well, what it really does is diminish the "brightness" of flavor. Sorry for being nebulous. Brew what you have, with or without more oats. But also promise yourself that you will try to isolate the flavors of those ingredients in the future, when you want to figure out why this beer did or did not work. PS, Use More oats for mouthfeel
Do a search on here for 'whirlpool' or 'hopstand'. There's really no reason to add hops at either 45 or 30 minutes, so you're on the right track there with moving the columbus. Consensus these days is just to add bittering at the beginning, and all the rest in the last ten minutes or later (after the boil). Personally I would move the columbus to 60, and split the 30m additions between flameout and dry hop.
I've had CDAs before, I don't usually like them, which is why I have never done one before. If you want to keep with the same recipe but add oats, I would aim for the 10% range so that you know they are there. hope that helps
I've found no substitution for a good dose of late hops and dry hops for an awesome head and mouth on an IPA.
