Oats and Wheat - Brewdog Instamatic

[ssashton]

Hi!

Firstly if you like pale American style IPA give this one a try it's lovely! (Got mine in Asda 660ml)

I'm planning my next brew and would like to make something similar to BrewDog Instamatic which is:

"Pale malt, wheat and flaked oats. Hopped with Citra, Ahtanum and Simcoe."

My question - should I subtract the weight of oats and wheat from an otherwise pure barley grain bill?

In my last beer I used 5kg pale maris otter. If I used 500g oats and 500g wheat, (firstly is that a sensible quantity?) and secondly do I then only need 4kg barley to reach my original gravity target??

Or does oats and wheat have less or more extractable sugar in them?

 

[peebee]

There won't be enough difference (if any) in extract to worry about. But get the right form unless you want to be bothered with the faffing about with cereal cooking. Rolled (flaked) and torrified are prepared ready-to-use (torrified should be crushed before use). You can also get wheat and oat malt, but the flavour will be different to unmalted grain. Your 4Kg of barley pale malt will be well up to the task of converting a kilo of unmalted grain.

 

[ssashton]

Thank you for the reply!

I went ahead and did a brew with some wheat malt. But I've got a thick head of something on top after fermentation.

What I did:

3.1Kg Extra Pale Barley Malt + 0.5Kg Pale Wheat Malt. Mash 62C 75mins.

Citra and Simcoe during the boil. 5g each at start and again middle. 60min boil.

Target G 1040.

Ferment at 19C.

Final G1010.

50g Simcoe, 75g Citra and 65g Ahtanum dry hop after fermentation at 14C.

Now! I checked the gravity of today and it's at 1010 so time to cool down and dry hop. But, it has a thick head of something on top. I've not seen this much sludge on top with my other beers. Is this just normal for wheat, or is it possibly infected?

 

[Drunkula]

Looks fine to me. Wheat malt really adds head retention and that looks like what it's doing. That'll fall back eventually. Time for you dry hop.

 

[peebee]

Yeap, it's infected … with saccharomyces cerevisiae I'd guess. You probably did it on purpose?

I think I'd be more worried about where you went "wrong" with your other brews that didn't look like this.

 

[ssashton]

Oh no, what should I do Doctor?!

I actually got the recipe wrong above, I'll adjust it. Far more dry hops.

I added: 50g Simcoe, 75g Citra, 25g Ahtanum, 50g Cascade. The recipe called for 65g Ahtanum but I decided to use up some open packets of Ahtanum and Cascade and that's what I had.

 

[ssashton]

That sludgy head did indeed go down after the dry hopping period. 3 days @14C.

 

[MrL73]

Bit of an old thread... but since I'm quaffing a delicious Brewdog Instamatic, and googling for a recipe brought me here, I thought I'd find out how yours went...?

 

[ssashton]

Best I had made to date... but I'm still a newbie! Not exactly like Instamatic but still very nice.

I wish I let it ferment to a lower final gravity. I went to 1010, I think it would have been better down to 1008 or 1006. I like dry beer.

I don't think I'll use wheat in my beer again though. I don't think the small amount I used added much flavour. It does give wonderful head stability, but that same attribute makes it impossible to pour, at least from my keg... I had to pour super slow and still needed to let it settle about 2 times to get a pint. It would form head as soon as it was release from keg pressure (~10psi) and basically stay that way for ages. If you are patient you can enjoy great long lasting head, but I want a quicky most of the time!

 

[LeeH]

Is that a probe hanging directly into the FV??

 

[ssashton]

The black line is a water proof electrical temp probe. The clear tubes are a water cooling loop.