Recipe Overview...how does it look?

You're going to want more hops for the whirlpool and dry hop. 3-5 ounces for each for a 2 gallon batch. Crystal 80 is out of place -- you want to stick with lighter crystal for color manipulation, 10-20 range. Honey malt works for that as well, but very small doses. Not sure how necessary it is to change the color, depending on what fruit you plan on using. Mash pH is also high, add some lactic acid to get closer to 5.3.

Will let others speak to lactose/fruiting as I've not used either in a beer yet.

 

Nope. 3 to 5 ounces for each is correct. NEIPAs require a helluva lot of hops to make.

 

Three glaring things that I see are, too much oats (you're going to end up with a stuck/slow sparge with that much), not enough hops during cooling and in the fermenter, and not enough lactose.

I'd use all wheat, use 6 oz. of hops during cooling, and 2 in the fermenter, and use at least half a pound of lactose.

 

Lactose really doesn't make beer sweet, it just increases your terminal gravity as it is an unfermentable sugar (because most of the yeast that we commonly use can't use it as a carbon source). Less than a fourth of a pound isn't going to get you much of an increase in fg, but if you're concerned about it being too sweet, keep it were it is and see what you think.

 

Well, I would say it can, but it depends on how much you use. Lactose is roughly 20% as sweet as sucrose. I'll be pouring a sweet stout at an event tomorrow that had an OG of 1.060 and finished at 1.030 (on purpose). It's sweet, largely due to a heap of lactose.

FWIW, when I want to brute force some more FG, and don't want much sweetness, I tend to use maltodextrin.

ETA: Maltodextrin actually describes many products, with varying levels of sweetness, but the stuff I get from MoreBeer seems subjectively to be on the low end.

 

That sweetness had nothing to do with a 4% beer having an fg of 1.030, huh?

Maltodextrin is an excellent suggestion. Just make sure to get it with as low a DE value as possible, as the higher the DE value, the shorter the sugar chain and the sweeter the sugar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dextrose_equivalent

 

Well, sure, but a lot of that gravity is from the lactose. OTOH maltotriose is about 30% as sweet as sucrose, which reminds me about an experiment I have thought about doing, i.e. a champagne yeast sweet stout with no lactose at all. The champagne yeast should leave all the maltotriose and even some maltose untouched.

 

That certainly would be interesting, but, then again, you'd have to deal with the character that said yeast brings to the table. You'd also have to pick a yeast that was definitely maltose negative, as I don't believe many are.

 

I don't think I want a yeast that doesn't use maltose at all. Just one that leaves some of it. i.e. leave all the maltotriose and some of the maltose. I think most champagne yeast can use maltose but leaves some behind (similar to the way ale yeasts use some maltotriose, but leave some behind).

 

So . . . you want something that is maltose positive, but only weakly? Interesting. I'll have to look into that.

 

Lactose doesn’t make a beer sweet but it does enhance ingredients that are sweet. In many of my fruit beers like fruited wheats I add 0.5lb -1lb of lactose. Imho it makes fruit taste less tart and more like what the fruit actually tastes like. It will make raspberries and strawberries pop a bit more. I have no science behind this just a bit of ancedotal experience. Never used maltodextrin in beer instead although I’m sure that would work from my bulk bodybuilding days.

 

Along these lines, you might want to try Lamelland's Windsor yeast. it doesn't eat maltotriose at all. I recently made a beer with this yeast. It started at 1.046 and finished at 1.019. My average mash temperature waw 155 F, so that may have also had something to do with it. Cheers!