My IIPA Smells Like Cat Piss...

60 minute addition of 1oz Citra and 1oz Centennial for a 5g extract batch.
Is this normal for the Citra as a bittering hop?
Will that smell fade? The beer is good at 1 week sample, but the smell is a deal breaker so far...

Citra is usually used as a aroma hop and added in late addition boil. And just give it time to bottle condition. It should settle out in a couple of weeks.

mega hop additions besides the 60 minute as follows:
1oz citra 60min
1oz centennial 60min
5lbs light dme 60min
1oz citra 20min
3lbs amber dme 15min
1oz crystal 15min
1oz citra 10min
1oz citra 5min
1oz citra 0min
4oz citra dry hop (added today)

I'm hoping the dry hop will help...

That is a lot of citra for 5g, but it should be incredible. I gave heard of cat pee smell when citra is used for battering. Next time, use a clean buttering hop like magnum, and keep citra for late additions for aroma

I think I have learned that lesson. We'll see how this shows itself once keg carbed and go from there.

br1dge said:

That is a lot of citra for 5g, but it should be incredible. I gave heard of cat pee smell when citra is used for battering. Next time, use a clean buttering hop like magnum, and keep citra for late additions for aroma

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Man, I never new I could batter and butter with hops! I've just been using them to make beer!:cross:

Citra smells like cat piss to me also... but it does fade in time.

gandalfiii said:

Man, I never new I could batter and butter with hops! I've just been using them to make beer!:cross:

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you've never used citra to make a better bitter butter batter?

lumpher said:

you've never used citra to make a better bitter butter batter?

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Challenge Accepted

I love a nice cat piss IPA

I dry hopped with 4oz Citra pellets on Thursday. That carboy smells splendid now. Gonna cold crash it Thursday, keg it Saturday, get drunk from it on Monday for Monday night football.

Just to update here. The pee-pee smell is gone, and the beer is ... OK.
It is super bitter (of course), but lacks the aroma and flavor that all of my Citra additions, inc dryhop, should have put on.

Meh.

Citra, depending on when they harvest can smell like cat piss. Simcoe as well. I enjoy it myself, oddly enough.

I've heard that of Simcoe. Didn't research Citra enough, I suppose.
Know what, though? It's beer. And I'm happy for that!

Good to know that it will more then likely fade and or go away completely. I think I must have got a batch of cat piss citra too. I just bottled the below a week ago and the smell makes me want to never use citra hops again.. I just don't understand it. I guess I'll crack another bottle open in a month or so and see how it is doing.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/local-brewery-honey-citra-recipe-388178/

Another incident here.
Made some cat piss amber accidentally... It's not horrible, it's just really weird. Smells like cat piss, tastes like, if cat piss would taste nice.
I think i dropped citra @ 40min for the first time, have to check my logs.
I'm now dry hopping with some more citra and also galena.

Will be reporting back when done bottling and carbing.

Did the bottling yesterday night and i'll have to say: wow. Cat piss is still there after dry hopping for a week in secondary with citra and galena, but oh the fruit! This one is going to be delicious. So heads up, accidental cat piss brewers, go ahead and dry hop it!

EDIT: 1oz in 2.5gal

Embrace the piss!

lol this topic made my day.

hipsters love citra, i always know when a guy with a curled moustache comes into the home brew shop and hes looking for 10oz of citra for his IIIIIIPA

then they do a review of the beer on their typewriter "hints of a feline's urine is quite forefront"

shortyz said:

hipsters love citra, i always know when a guy with a curled moustache comes into the home brew shop and hes looking for 10oz of citra for his IIIIIIPA

then they do a review of the beer on their typewriter "hints of a feline's urine is quite forefront"

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Yeah, but the difference is that they had heard about it long before you did, i.e. before it was famous/cool.

Hipsters. I give them no respect.

Embrace the hipsters

shortyz said:

lol this topic made my day.

hipsters love citra, i always know when a guy with a curled moustache comes into the home brew shop and hes looking for 10oz of citra for his IIIIIIPA

then they do a review of the beer on their typewriter "hints of a feline's urine is quite forefront"

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really? 10oz is an IIIIIIPA? what should I call mine that routinely have over 20? or is this a 1gal batch?

but seriously. cmon hipsters. Your entire culture is an elaborate pissing contest about staying ahead of trends. you should be pissing on citra by now, its been out forever. Even mosaic and equinox have been done. you should be making small batch artisanal batches made with homegrown hops which have been watered solely with your own distilled urine

I only use Citra in the boil for 15 minute and under additions. That's where it shines. Use another high aa hop for 60 minute additions. Still sounds like an awesome beer.

How about calling it "Gritty Kitty Litter IPA"

It actually took off as an amber, with vienna/pale base with some crystal/munich/melanoid. Bittered for 40+ IBU with galena, then added citra, some more citra and also glacier. Blew a fuse mid boil so my late additions were kinda mixed up, but was able to push it thru. Fertmented with BRY-97 @ 20°C for 10 days, then 8 days secondary with (cos the smell..) 0.6oz citra and 0.3oz galena.
So.. it's definitely something i'm not quite sure of. Taste of nectarines was strong when bottling; now waiting for it to carbonate up to 1.9vol.

Oh yeah, this.. It's so good. The cat piss is almost (but not completely) gone and it's just a stone fruit bliss. Will brew again, with a little more emphasis on LATE additions..
btw the first citra drop was @ 20min left on boil.

I usually find cat piss smells when the hop gets old, or the beer has some months (pacific hops are the worst after 2-3 months in the bottle).
in Italy we also have craftbeer pubs that don't store properly the tank and serve you catpiss IPAs..

Queequeg said:

Embrace the piss!

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Yeah just own it, and call it Cat Piss. I would be intrigued enough to try an IPA named so.

It's actually 'Oven porridge amber', in finnish ofc. Altho i have to admit i wrote 'Cat Piss' above my notes after first impression.. However, it came out as my best brew so far.

EDIT: oh, the name comes from the fact i mashed it in the oven while i was concentrating on my bigger brew..