First AG brew done!! Citra SMaSH 90

Hey all, thought I would just give the run downs on my first AG batch.

I made this:

Citra SMaSH

5kg Maris Otter

10g 12.3 Citra - 60 minutes

14g - 30 minutes

14g - 15 minutes

14g - 5 minutes

14g - 60 minute steep (got this idea from Orfy! Thanks!)

14g - dry hop, 7 days

Yeast: Safale S-04

Target SG: 1.048
IBUs: 42.3

Everything went about as well as it could on the first run through. My initial temp was 148F so I added a bit more water. I made it to 154 and held that temp range for 40+ minutes. My finishing temp was 148/49 after 60 minutes.

I sparged at 176-ish for 10 minutes. I only did a single sparge since it was my first time.

I measured my volume and...I WAS WAY OFF my measuring stick. Since I work in liters, I notched my mash paddle up to 28 liters. By my estimates, I was at 32 liters.

My pre-boil gravity reading was 1.026. I thought for a bit and decided to change the recipe from Citra SMaSH to Citra SMaSH 90 and proceeded with a 90 minute boil. I threw in about a pound of light DME to help make up for the extra volume.

I made my first hop addition, waited an hour and followed my normal schedule from 30 minutes on. I know this will up the IBUs slightly, but it should be OK.

My actual SG?

Ready for this?

1.046 at 24 liters.

Overall I'm super happy!!

Nice...how long was the total brew? What did you think of the aroma of the citra when you opened the package? Whole leaf or pellet?

The total day took about 6 hours (and I still have a nice mess to pick up after dinner). I had no idea nearly 7 gallons of water would take so long to come to a rolling boil!

I loved the aroma. Unfortunately, I only have pellets, but hey, they sure smell nice. I have a feeling this will turn out to be a nice summer beer, very crisp and refreshing.

There's noting unfortunate about having pellets.

That seems like a really long steep at flameout. I frequently do a 15min steep and I think it adds a lot of hop depth, but I worry with such a long one that you're losing hop flavor from your boil additions and replacing it with the steep. Commercial breweries don't seem to do more than about a 30 min whirlpool after flameout.

Sounds like it'll be a tasty brew though. I love Citra. Too bad it's mostly gone until next fall.

I'm curious to see how this turns out. I recently made an IPA with a lot of late Citra additions. It's not bad but very peachy. It is still a little young so maybe it will mellow out.

I thought a 60 min steep was quite long too, but I was interested to see how it would taste. I'm looking forward to this brew on many levels.

Update:

I took this out of the primary yesterday and me and a friend sampled it.

AMAZING.

I was worried about the bittering aspects of Citra but it came out really, really smooth. I'm wondering if the 90 minute boil had an affect on it?

I can't wait to enjoy this on a warm day chilled and carbed up.