Brewed: May 7, 2017
Bottled: May 29, 2017
OG: 1.062
IBU: 63
FG: 1.008
ABV: 7%
One of my earliest homebrews was a hoppy pale ale brewed with an old colleague. We called it PACMAN not because it used the Pacman yeast, but rather it was an acronym: Pale Ale malt, Citra Mosaic and Amarillo hops, and Northwest ale yeast. It was pretty darn tasty.
Two years later, we’ve re-brewed but meddled with the acronym. We didn’t used the Northwest ale yeast, which has left the N without meaning. However, we did use Imperial’s “Joystick” yeast which is, as I understand it, the Pacman strain. We also substituted Azacca in place of Amarillo. The grist isn’t all pale malt either… but we didn’t stick to that the first time either.
Two new things for me this brew: a cereal mash for the oats, and use of hop extract for bittering. Otherwise, standard brew on the Grainfather system.
Grist (5.5 gals): 
75% Maris Otter (9 lbs)
20% Vienna malt (2.40 lbs)
5% Flaked oat (0.60 lbs)
Hopping:
30 AAU of 61.1% AA extract at 60 minutes
0.75 oz of Azacca at 30 minutes
0.5 oz of Citra + 0.5 oz of Mosaic at 10 minutes
Whirlpool 20m at 180-190F: 1.5 oz Citra, 2 oz Mosaic, 1 oz Azacca
Fermentation: Imperial Joystick. 60F pitch temp, 65F @ 12h, 68F @ 24h – 96h
Brew Day Notes:
Brewed on the Grainfather with Sean, on the patio. Started at 10am. Mashed in at 150F and boiled the oats on the stove-top during the first 15 minutes. Had warmed 4.8 gal in the GF, then pulled about 3 qts for the oats. After simmering the oats into a thick porridge (about 6-8 mins boiling), added back to the mash and started the recirculation. After 45 mins, upped temp to 156F. After another 15m, mashed out at 170F. Sparged with 3 gals of water at 170F, with 3/4 tsp of CaCl added. Pretty slow sparge. Pre-boil gravity of 1.054. Boil was pretty good despite cooler temps outside, recirculated for a bit before knocking temp down to 190F and adding whirlpool hops. Collected almost 5.5 gallons of 1.062 wort at 59F and pitched the can of yeast after 30 seconds of pure O2.
Tasting Notes:
May 29, 2017 – Gravity sample on bottling day. Great citrus aroma and flavour with balanced but assertive bitterness. Grapefruit, melon, pineapple. Light malt body.
June 19, 2017 – This beer turned out well. Good haze as desired, though the colour has turned murky with time (expectedly due to O2 pickup from bottle conditioning). Strong bitterness and quite dry – not too much so, but getting close. Hop aroma and flavour are great, perhaps a little oxidized but they power through quite well.