Quick and easy wheat recipe with Citra

Looking for some feedback on a recipe I whipped up. My goal is to make a wheat beer with a citrus character for some friends who like Blue Moon and Shock Top type beers. I also want to make it quickly, so I'm planning a smaller batch with 30 minute boil and using dry yeast instead of liquid.

Do you think it would have enough citrus character with the Citra hops? Citra is very powerful but these quantities are a lot lower than I'm used to using in beers I usually make (IPA's) so I'm not quite sure. Also, do you think I should add some orange peel?

3 gallon batch, 30 minute boil
0.5 lbs C-10 steeping grains
3 lbs Wheat LME and 1 lb light DME -- 1.050 OG

0.4 oz Citra (14.9%) @ 15 min (17 IBU)
0.35 oz Citra (14.9%) @ 10 min (11 IBU)
0.35 oz Citra (14.9%) @ 5 min (6 IBU)
0.4 oz Citra (14.9%) dry hop

US-05 yeast

citra isn't very citrusy - more tropical fruit - it goes well with wheat

Agreed. Citra tastes like lychee fruit and it's insanely aromatic. If you want citrus, try Cascade, Amarillo, and/or Horizon. I'm not keen on using citrus zest in my brews, but there are many threads here with people who have done it.

A 30 minute boil is quite short. Though I don't see any harm in adding your bittering addition at this point. That will allow you to attain 85-90% of your target IBUs. Then you can add the remaining 10-15% at 5 minutes left in the boil, skipping the 15/10 min slots. I'd probably do a 1.0 oz. dryhop.

If they like those kinds of beers try a Ginger wit or a Ginger peach wit. Both used the Belgian white recipe but exchange Ginger with the coriander and peach puree if u want to make it sweet.

Thanks Bobbrews!

I do have a lot of Amarillo (also Centennial, Chinook, and Columbus but no Cascade) so I could use those if needed. The reason why I chose Citra is because I have a 1.5oz pack and I figured that would be enough to do what I wanted to do because it is so strong. This would be my first attempt at a wheat, basically just for my wheat-drinking friends. I do want it to turn out good so I can open up other hops if necessary.

I said "citrus" but really I guess what I meant was something that would go well in a wheat beer. Sounds like Citra fits that bill but I could also change if it would be a big improvement.

Should I bitter with Columbus and save the Citra (or others) for use at the end and dry hopping?

I'd hate to waste Citra on people who like BMC beers!!

Kidding aside... add some Amarillo or Cascade with the Citra if you want a citrusy harmony.

Also, check and make sure your volumes will be correct for a 30 minute boil. It would be cutting everything down, so you could end up with more or less than planned and missing the mark.


I'd also toss in a little torrified wheat with the crystal to steep. Will help give you that nice fluffy head.

You could use the columbus for bittering since you won't need much, and push more citra and whatnot toward the end of the boil.

Take .5oz and dry hop the beer when it's about to be kegged or bottled to give it that extra tropical push to the nose. Aroma is flavor!

Well, I've got 6 pounds of fresh hops but I just picked up 1oz of Cascade to use in this brew! Also forgot that I have 2011 pellet Amarillo and Citra, so maybe I'll use those so I don't feel bad about using any of my 2012 leaf hops.

I'm kind of liking how you guys make the the Amarillo, Citra, and Cascade combination sound so I'll go with that. I can use any amount of any of those hops, but I'm kind of lost about how to use them. Mix equally and space out additions? Bitter with Columbus?

How's this look? I dropped the volume to 2.5 post-boil so I could use just a single 3 lb bag of DME and get the gravity I wanted.

Using the idea of mixing the hops equally, the Amarillo, Citra, and Cascade average AA is 9.6%

3 lbs Wheat DME in 2.5 gallons: 1.052 OG

0.5 oz hop mix @ 30 min (27 IBU)
0.5 oz hop mix @ 5 min (7 IBU)
1 oz hop mix @ flamout
1 oz hop mix dry hop

I wanted to use the hops but not drive too much bitterness, hence the flameout addition. I'm wondering if even this would be too bitter for my audience? I don't have a good feel for that because I've never made a beer with such a low IBU/gravity ratio. The 2.5 oz late/flamout/dryhop additions should give quite a bit of flavor and aroma though.

Throw the Columbus in there for the 30 min addition.

Use the same idea, and do a 10 min, 5 min and FO addition with your mix and I think you'll be happy!

I think its fine as is without the Columbus

This beer turned out great! Thanks for the help with the Amarillo, Citra, and Cascade combination. I made this basically for one person who likes citrusy wheat beers and does not like "hoppy beers". He guessed that I used orange in the recipe, then was blown away when I told him the flavors were only from hops. It was a fun experiment because I wouldn't have otherwise made this recipe, and I ended up nailing it. I actually really like it too, but there's not much left now!