Critique my no Crystal IPA

I've been working on various ipa recipes that don't include much if any Crystal, but instead use oats for mouthfeel. After I read that Deschutes Angler 2.0 adopted the same strategy - I decided to give it a shot.

Tell me what you think.

OG: 1.062
FG:1.015
IBU: 73
SRM: 4
ABV: 6.2%

12.5lbs (84.7%): Pils
1.25lbs (8.5%): Vienna
1lbs (6.8%): Oats

1oz Warrior@60
.5oz Mosaic @20,15,10,5
1oz Moasic @0
.5oz Simcoe@5,0
Dry Hop 1oz Mosaic, .5oz Simcoe

Yeast 1056

I don't like oats for mouthfeel in something like an IPA. Oats are, well, slippery or creamy. I like something for foam retention, like wheat. My favorite grainbill for an IPA is 13 pounds two-row and 6 ounces amber malt. Toasted malt, biscuit malt, Victory malt, aromatic malt, Munich malt, and Vienna malt are good too.

Well, everyone has different tastes, but I'd say oats would be a little too "full" for me in an IPA.

On suggestions from this forum, I did a no-crystal version with 1lb of munich and marris otter. That came out really well in flavor and color and the keg is just about kicked. I would think a vienna would be similar.

Any reason you are going with pilsner as the base?

I'm in agreement. If you are going to add oats, keep it much smaller...say 1/4 lb. But, I'm doing something somewhat simpler with Marris Otter, and Aromatic. Only time I use oats is in my stouts or porters.

i prefer a very simple ipa grain bill, usually just base malt. it really lets the hops shine. i would drop the oats, use a touch of wheat.

hops look nice, ive never used mosaic.

mash temp?

Pretty sure Surly Abrasive uses oats... but that may be Golden Naked Oats, which provide some sweetness in addition to fullness. I would dial back on that 7% either way or remove them altogether.

Your grain bill reminds me of Smuttynose Finest Kind, with the high proportion of pils malt, pale color, and high IBUs for a standard IPA. Do a search for the clone and maybe you can make some adjustments.

I'd double (or triple) the dryhop and move all of your 5 min additions to flameout.

7% isn't too much. I have a local brewery who makes an oatmeal pale ale which is delicious and they use 16% in their recipe... http://www.drinkrangercreek.com/homebrew-recipe-opa/

An Oatmeal Pale Ale is not so much equal to a West Coast IPA, but you're right... it's a preference thing.

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

I have made a few tweaks: I have increased the Pils to bring abv up to 6.5%, reduced IBU's to 60 and reduced oats to 5%.

Yooper, thanks for all the knowledge you spread on these boards; it's helped my brewing immensely. I'm curious how this batch will turn out. I've often considered the resiny dryhop sensation of great ipa's/pa's to be reminiscent of oat-like slickness. Deschutes certainly pulled it off; we'll see if I can.

I'm brewing this on Black Friday while the women of the family are doing their thing. The plan is ferment 6 days, add the first dose of dryhop, wait 5 days and transfer to 3 different secondary containers where I will try 3 different dry hop schemes. I'll probably use, varying combinations of centennial, citra, simcoe and crystal - all 2012 harvest.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...oYCQCg&usg=AFQjCNEW4EVkbGV6-i335uhC4pycsxcROg

For anyone interested in a very detailed thesis on dryhopping lengths, pellets vs flowers and the effects of yeast on dryhopping - this is your paper.