Citra IPA

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jmd1971

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Hi, I was thinking of using the yeast cake off of an currently fermenting Fuller's London Pride clone to come up with some sort of ESB/IPA using Citra hops only. I'm intrigued by Citra & want to try a single hop beer.

I've never racked right onto a yeast cake before. Do I need to do anything in particular? I plan to rack the London Pride to a keg during the mash/boil of this new recipe so would then transfer post-boil directly into the carboy.

Thoughts on the process/recipe? Kind of winged it....

Thanks! See recipe below:

9# Maris Otter
.75# Honey Malt
1# Biscuit Malt
.50 oz Citra pellets (60 min)
.50 oz Citra pellets (15 mins)
.50 oz Citra pellets (10 mins)
.50 oz Citra pellets (5 mins)
.50 oz Citra pellets (flame out)
2 oz Citra pellets (keg)
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB)
 
Looks tasty!

If it were me, I would mash low - 149/150 perhaps. With the honey malt and English yeast, I'd be hunting for some attenuation.
 
Good idea! Thanks for the suggestion. I will be doing this as my first BIAB so am excited! I've done AG using a 5-gallon MLT to date so this is to be a new experience.
 
Be really interested to hear how this turns out. I'm brewing an all citra ipa today or tomorrow. Extract batch but my hop load is amazingly higher than yours so I'm thinking i might revise my recipe lol. I'll post it when I'm home.
 
I understand you want some sort of hybrid, but this is not enough hops for an IPA. I personally love Citra in clean, dry IPAs like Kern Citra, but not so much in a sweet or biscuity or malty non-IPAs. Citra is one of those hops that demands a good deal of focus to really shine. For that reason, I feel that Citra's juicy sweetness and extreme aromatic character is better utilized when it's not being used as a bittering or flavor addition, overshadowed by things like a complex malt bill, a lot of residual sweetness, high mash temps, characterful yeast, biscuity/bready qualities, etc.
 
bobbrews said:
I understand you want some sort of hybrid, but this is not enough hops for an IPA. I personally love Citra in clean, dry IPAs but not so much in a sweet or biscuity or malty non-IPAs.

I second this. 2.5 ounces of hop total will leave you with a pretty weak IPA. Maybe an APA, but not an IPA.
 
Actually, I changed the recipe in the end. Here was the final:

9.5# Maris Otter
1# Biscuit Malt
.75# Honey Malt
.75# Crystal 40
.5 oz Citra pellets (60 min)
.5 oz Citra pellets (15 min)
.5 oz Citra pellets (10 min)
.5 oz Citra pellets (5 min)
1 oz Citra pellets (flameout)
2 oz Citra whole leaf (dry hop)
Wyeast 1968 London Ale

I brewed this last Friday & screwed up the water calc for the BIAB batch. I ended up with way too much wort which was obviously of a lower gravity. It was meant to have an OG of about 1.057ish & came out to be more like 1.047.

Like you all said, it'll be more of an APA than an IPA. I originally was calling it an IPA as I was using a English yeast so didn't know if that would exclude it from being an APA. Now with the lower gravity, it's definitely an APA....

Not sure how it will turn out with the thinner body & higher hop bill, but oh well. Live & learn!
 
It came out fairly well. It could've used a bit more hop flavor, but the aroma was nice & was a easy drinking, sessionable beer. Definitely worth trying. I'd probably up the bittering hops a bit & maybe add some Munich or something to round out the body....
 
Interesting that you're using a sizable chunk of biscuit malt with the Maris Otter base. That combined with the sweetness of the honey malt may make for a hefty malt backbone. Not that it's bad, as I've found that a more balanced IBU/GU ratio seems to draw out a lot of the flavor of the citra. Just hadn't thought of a biscuit/MO double-punch.
 
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