Help with IPA Recipe

Hi Guys,

Just getting ready to start my 4th ever brew. My last one turned out terrible so I want to get some opinions on this one before I brew it up. I'm planning on using the recipe below from Northern Brewer (Three-Hearted Ale). I just got given 10oz of Citra hops though and I'm excited to try 'em based on some of the posts I've read about them. So I'm wondering, if you were going to sub some Citras into this recipe, how would you go about it?

SPECIALTY GRAIN
-- 1 lbs Briess Caramel 40
FERMENTABLES
-- 9.15 lbs Gold malt syrup
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
-- 1 oz Centennial (60 min)
-- 1 oz Centennial (25 min)
-- 2 oz Centennial (5 min)
-- 1 oz Centennial (Dry hop)
YEAST
-- Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Oh yeah, one other question. Think I'd be ok to skip the secondary and go three weeks or so in the primary and then bottle?

Heavyfoot said:

Oh yeah, one other question. Think I'd be ok to skip the secondary and go three weeks or so in the primary and then bottle?

Click to expand...

Yes, that's fine. Just add your dryhops about a week before you bottle.

I'm not a fan of citra, except maybe for one late addition or dryhopping. My thought is that they scream MANGO and I don't like it much. I made a beer (all citra hops) that tasted very much like Juicy Fruit gum. I'm not into the "fruity" flavor it provides, although I love centennial and cascade. If you really want to add some citra, you can replace one of the late additions and perhaps add it to the dryhopping.

My take on it would be since you have close to 9.5lbs of LME, you want to increase your hop count slightly for an IPA.
1oz at 60min
2oz at 30min
2oz at 15min.
1oz at 5min or dryhop

I brewed a Citra IPA and loved it. Big Grapefruit notes.

3 weeks primary is fine. That's what I do with all my brews. Just bottle condition at least 3 weeks, but there will be a big hop bitter flavor. If that's what you like. But let them condition an additional 3 weeks or more for the flavors to meld.

Yooper said:

Yes, that's fine. Just add your dryhops about a week before you bottle.

I'm not a fan of citra, except maybe for one late addition or dryhopping. My thought is that they scream MANGO and I don't like it much. I made a beer (all citra hops) that tasted very much like Juicy Fruit gum. I'm not into the "fruity" flavor it provides, although I love centennial and cascade. If you really want to add some citra, you can replace one of the late additions and perhaps add it to the dryhopping.

Click to expand...

There seems to be quite the divide on peoples like of these hops. Have you tried a beer that just had a late citra addition rather than all citra?

lx302 said:

My take on it would be since you have close to 9.5lbs of LME, you want to increase your hop count slightly for an IPA.
1oz at 60min
2oz at 30min
2oz at 15min.
1oz at 5min or dryhop

I brewed a Citra IPA and loved it. Big Grapefruit notes.

3 weeks primary is fine. That's what I do with all my brews. Just bottle condition at least 3 weeks, but there will be a big hop bitter flavor. If that's what you like. But let them condition an additional 3 weeks or more for the flavors to meld.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Was the Citra IPA you did all Citra, or were other hops in the mix?

Update:

Here's what I went with (was aiming for around 55 IBUs):

1.20 oz Centennial 8.7 [8.70 %] (60 min) Hops 16.8 IBU
0.90 oz Centennial 8.7 [8.70 %] (40 min) Hops 11.1 IBU
2.00 oz Citra 10 [10.00 %] (20 min) Hops 19.5 IBU
1.00 oz Citra 10 [10.00 %] (10 min) Hops 5.8 IBU
1.00 oz Citra 10 [10.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.2 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-)

Just popped open the fermenter to pop in another oz of Citra to dry hop. Had a little taste - wow, I think I could drink the whole bucket without even carbonating it.

Is there typically a correlation between how good the beer tastes pre and post carbonation?

It's official - I'm hooked on home brewing! Just tried the beer after just 4 days in the bottle and it already tastes amazing. Took me four tries to do it, but I finally made a beer I would buy. Feels pretty damn good!

Thanks for the help everyone!