The Trinity - an APA featuring the new Citra hops - Page 3

chefmike · 10-06-2009, 04:53 AM

I want to hear more about this... so you get a sign off post.

saq · 10-08-2009, 07:06 AM

Racked this tonight, smelled like heaven! Had a small sample before throwing it in the kegorator to properly chill and then I'll carb tomorrow. It's a nice clean APA with a good solid mildly sweet backbone and some balanced bitterness and nice fresh hop aromas.
I'll give it a full BJCP style breakdown tomorrow along with pics.

saq · 10-09-2009, 04:12 AM

No pictures yet as its not clear, I'll probably be able to pull one out tomorrow night that will be clear.
However I can tell you how it tastes and give you a critique. Consider it a rough draft.

Appearance: Light copper that is mostly opaque and a bit of yeast floating around at the moment due to a little bit of stuff making it through the racking. Medium dense head that forms a solid 1/4 inch crown that sticks around and leaves behind nice lacing.

Why I decided to just throw the hops in the conical instead of putting them in a weighted hop bag I don't know, I might have been planning on filtering it but right now I don't have an extra corny and just want to drink it.

Aroma: Hoppy, but not overpoweringly so. A touch of toffee/caramel and light breadiness on the nose marries well with some nice fresh bright hop aromas. I really like the way the flavors have blended together here instead of the Simcoe usually stealing the limelight. I actually think the aroma is improved over Simcoe by itself which is something I don't think I've ever said before.

Flavor: Sweet light clean maltiness that has a bit of a bready note (probably from the yeast content of the beer), with a touch of caramel on the front of the palate and a touch of toffee coming through in the finish. Some big citrusy notes of peach come through with smaller amounts of grapefruit and lime.

Overall impression: Take an english pale ale (yeast, special B) and attenuate it out a little bit more, and kick up the bitterness and hop level with american hops, and you get the idea of this beer. No thin malt flavor here, but it doesn't get to be TOO big, even without the hop presence.

Pretty damn enjoyable, in a day or two when it clears up I'll post an updated review and a proper picture.

saq · 10-11-2009, 12:53 AM

Here is a picture to start things off.

Updated review

Appearance: Dark hazy gold with a good dense white head that sits around and leaves mild lacing. The iPhone pic you see above makes it look a bit darker than it is.

Aroma: Hops and light malt sweetness/breadiness mingle together in a refreshing way, touch of toffee.

Flavor: Light malt sweetness backed by some caramel and toffee on the finish. Light clean bitterness supports the malts and the fresh citrusy hop flavors. Some bready characters weave in and out.

Overall Impression: The malt and hop flavors are well married and form a nice balance. Beer is dry but not too dry, clean and easy drinking. It is a little bit heavier than the numbers might indicate given an 80% attenuation, probably the special B. Its kind of like an english pale ale kicked up a little, with higher attenuation and a big punch of american hops. I dig it. Might rebrew this again with Pacman to see if a cleaner yeast lends itself to the beer better.

I think it succeeds in straddling the line between APA and IPA, the influence of Alpha King and Torpedo definitely make their way it, but it is very much its own animal.

bluebrew17 · 02-04-2011, 05:28 AM

I brewed a batch of this from an order of citra hops from freshops. Very grapefruit. I even dialed back the citra because the AA was 13.4%. So far so good. I'm taking it in for a taste test tomorrow. The color is great. The hop flavor is not too over the top, its really between APA and IPA.