Yet another American Pale Ale Recipe critique request

[armenianbrewer]

I'm looking to showcase Amarillo hops... have 16 oz of whole leaf from 2016 crop and pretty excited to start to use it in recipes and figured I'd go for something that revolved around the hops (contemplated a SMASH but want some malt complexity and small amount of sweetness as well)

Thoughts?

Title: Amarillo Pale Ale

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 3 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 4.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.037
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.013 (expected)
ABV (standard): 5.53%
IBU (tinseth): 37.4
SRM (morey): 5.94

FERMENTABLES:
5 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (76.9%)
1 lb - American - Vienna (15.4%)
0.25 lb - American - Victory (3.8%)
0.25 lb - United Kingdom - Golden Naked Oats (3.8%)

HOPS:
1 oz - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Mash, IBU: 11.11
0.25 oz - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: First Wort, IBU: 8.44
0.25 oz - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 6.92
0.5 oz - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 5.56
0.5 oz - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Aroma for 0 min (Flameout, Immediately Chill to 170)
0.5 oz - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Whirlpool for 15 min at 170 °F, IBU: 5.37
1 oz - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

YEAST:
Wyeast - American Ale II 1272
Starter: Yes
Fermentation Temp: 65 F

 

[surgical_ass]

Looks like a solid recipe to me. I have used the naked oats in an esb and after a few weeks there was a noticeable berry flavor that came out. Cool in that style but not sure how it would be in a pale ale. Is that what you were shooting for or are you looking for the "shaving cream" head that comes with it?

 

[armenianbrewer]

Looks like a solid recipe to me. I have used the naked oats in an esb and after a few weeks there was a noticeable berry flavor that came out. Cool in that style but not sure how it would be in a pale ale. Is that what you were shooting for or are you looking for the "shaving cream" head that comes with it?

I actually have never used it and wanted to see what it could contribute to a pale ale, and was hoping it would provide some mouthfeel, the creamy head, and add a little extra small complexity to the malt flavor without stepping too much on the malts... but if the berry/nut flavors are as pronounced as you describe it, should I cut that amount in half?

 

[surgical_ass]

Looking back on my notes I used 6.2% gno in the esb. I would think the 3% you have would be pretty toned down. It may be an excellent addition to a pale ale but I can't verify that. If your looking for a little boost in mouthfeel and head retention I have recently started using flaked barley with good results. Also I have heard that whole hops don't extract as efficiently as pellets. Might want to bump your late additions and fo up by .5oz or so.

 

[armenianbrewer]

Looking back on my notes I used 6.2% gno in the esb. I would think the 3% you have would be pretty toned down. It may be an excellent addition to a pale ale but I can't verify that. If your looking for a little boost in mouthfeel and head retention I have recently started using flaked barley with good results. Also I have heard that whole hops don't extract as efficiently as pellets. Might want to bump your late additions and fo up by .5oz or so.

Thanks for the advice on the whole leaf! I most certainly have plenty of whole leaf hops to use so I can throw that into the calculators and see what they come up with.

Appreciate your advice, sometimes it's not easy coming up with your own recipe from scratch since you have no idea how it'll actually turn out! Been doing decent brewing other recipes here and what I've found online with relative success by average standards, but scratch recipes aren't easy

 

[armenianbrewer]

Also.. are golden naked oats milled just like anything else? Or are they used like flaked oats flaked wheat etc

 

[jmark]

Yeah, you need to mill GNOs... you might need to adjust your gap as the grain is really small... either that or run them through a couple, three times.

 

[surgical_ass]

Also.. are golden naked oats milled just like anything else? Or are they used like flaked oats flaked wheat etc

I milled my gno. I'm not 100% sure that they must be milled but I figured it couldn't hurt anything. They are a smaller grain so I believe I actually ran them through twice. I have done a lot of trial and error with making my own recipes and found that the hardest part for me was getting the bitterness dialed in for each style. I found an online calculator that has really helped.
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rohw0009/homebrewing/calculator/bvcalc.htm.