Vic Secret/Galaxy APA

Hi all,
looking for some critique on the following recipe please. I'd like it to be an easy drinking hoppy APA, along the lines of drinks like Beavertown's Neck Oil etc

Brew length: 19l
Efficiency: 65%

Grain:
4kg Maris Otter
Hops:
10g Galaxy - 15 mins
10g vic secret - 15 mins
10g galaxy - 5 mins
10g vic secret - 5 mins
10g galaxy - 0 mins steep for 20 mins
10g vic secret - 0 mins steep for 20 mins
50g galaxy - dry hop after 7 days for 7 days
50g vic secret - dry hop after 7 days for 7 days

Yeast:
Malt Miller's West Coast American Ale Yeast

Aiming for around 1040 and around 40 IBU

Mash around 64-66C for 75 mins
Boil for 60 minutes

At that OG/ibu it's likely to be quite bitter. Fine if you like that sort of thing but remember a beer like SNPA is only 45 ibu with an OG around 1.054 - I brew my session apa with only 27 ibu and they tend to be quite well balanced. To err on bitter I'd personally go for around 32-35 ibu. Just my 2c - better to be highly quaffable so you can drink it quicker with the fresh hops! You can amend it later with isomerised hop oil if needs be...

Very much on the right track, although I'd say a couple of things.

I would mash around the high end. So, 67c ish. If it was US-05 I'd go 68c. You need enough dextrins to stop the beer from being astringent with the big dry hop. Also I'd probably drop the dry-hop length to 3-5 days, there's a good PhD thesis out there on dry-hopping and most of the desirable oils are extracted within 24 hours.

Hops. Depends close to Neck Oil do you want? I would suggest upping the dry hop and/or the flameout addition. Maybe another 100g bag of hops (Centennial, Amarillo or Mosiac?) and split that across with the Vic Secret & Galaxy. Either way I'd keep the IBUs around 25-30 given that the steep/whirlpool will add some bitterness

Thanks all.
I was wondering about dropping the IBUs, maybe I could half the amount of additions at 15 and 5 minutes to see if this helps. Maybe I could put in all the remaining galaxy and vic secret hops in as dry hops to really bring that end of it up.

Cheers for the advice on mash temp. I'll see if I can do that (I can never really seem to get accurate mash temp from my strike temp).

I'm not worried about it being a neck oil clone, more just following that style.

OK, recipe adjusted slightly. I've copied a grain bill that I recently used for another pale ale which came out well. I've adjusted beersmith for a full body mash at 68C, however it has dropped the mash time down to 45 mins! I think I'll leave it the usual 75-90 anyway.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: AG#23 Name TBC
Brewer: Andi Morris
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 24.76 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.71 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l
Bottling Volume: 17.49 l
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 13.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 34.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 74.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.00 kg Maris Otter (Crisp) (5.0 EBC) Grain 1 90.3 %
0.25 kg Vienna Malt (10 EBC) (10.0 EBC) Grain 2 5.6 %
0.18 kg Crystal Dark - 77L (Crisp) (150 EBC) (15 Grain 3 4.1 %
5.00 g Galaxy (15.1%) [15.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 4 4.7 IBUs
5.00 g Vic Secret (15.7%) [15.70 %] - Boil 15.0 Hop 5 4.8 IBUs
10.00 g Galaxy (15.1%) [15.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 3.7 IBUs
10.00 g Vic Secret (15.7%) [15.70 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop 7 3.9 IBUs
15.00 g Galaxy (15.1%) [15.10 %] - Steep/Whirlpo Hop 8 8.5 IBUs
15.00 g Vic Secret (15.7%) [15.70 %] - Steep/Whi Hop 9 8.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg American West Coast Ale (Lallemand/Danst Yeast 10 -
70.00 g Galaxy (15.1%) [15.10 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 D Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
70.00 g Vic Secret (15.7%) [15.70 %] - Dry Hop 7 Hop 12 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4.43 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 14.40 l of water at 75.6 C 68.9 C 45 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (3.84l, 13.80l) of 75.6 C water
Notes:
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