Citra APA can I get rid of cat?

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cfonnes

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I made a citra APA, I was going to use saaz for bittering because I had some laying around, and citra for flavor and aroma.

I messed up the bittering addition and put citra in instead of sazz. The other two additions I mixed citra and saaz.

This APA tastes like cat piss. Will that flavor age out in time? Is there anyway to fix this?
 
Let me be the first to tell you the "cat piss" flavor is not from the Citra hops.

That is something else that has gone wrong.

A friend of mine has a Black IPA, that won 2nd place in a comp, that used nothing but citra hops. Many additions, all citra.

You might want to look into other reasons it tastes that way, I am not sure what it would be, but it isn't the hops.
 
Let me be the first to tell you the "cat piss" flavor is not from the Citra hops.

I don't know, there's a pretty big contigent of brewers who will tell you that Citra is real catty, me included. I like the tropical notes, but I'm real wary about using a ton of it in late additions after my last APA. I entered that beer into a couple of comps and almost every score sheet had "catty" in the aroma description.
 
Ohh well I have never experienced catty out of it.........nor never even heard of that.......but I won't doubt you if thats the response youve gotten.......
 
Not having ever tasted Cat Piss I can't even begin to imagine what that might taste like. I just made a Simcoe/Citra/Chinook IPA, I should probably call it Double Cat Piss IPA. I've never gotten anything but good Flavor & Aroma from both Simcoe & Citra

Is it an Amonia type thing?
 
The late addition may be the key, I do not remember the cat in my hydrometer samples. I dry hopped some citra for about three days before kegging it.
 
Never any off flavors or smells from citra. The aroma from that stuff is amazing.


_
 
I've never had catty aroma from citra either. Perhaps it is from mixing saaz with it? That is not a common combination.
 
Not having ever tasted Cat Piss I can't even begin to imagine what that might taste like. I just made a Simcoe/Citra/Chinook IPA, I should probably call it Double Cat Piss IPA. I've never gotten anything but good Flavor & Aroma from both Simcoe & Citra

Is it an Amonia type thing?

Yep, a pungent ammonia-type aroma. Citra can definitely throw it. It was all over Green Flash's Citra Session Ale when I tried in on tap. Having said all that though, it's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't mind it in hoppier beers. I found a fair deal of the cat piss thing going on in this years Hopslam, though that would be due to the Simcoe, not Citra.
 
Large amounts of some PNW hops - Cascade, Citra, etc., can give a catty aroma. I doubt it is the taste but the aroma that you are picking up. Plug your nose, take a taste and see how it is. Will the cattiness subside? Probably not. Giving it a really long aging period might help. Or try blending it. I had a really catty beer once that was unpleasant on it's own. I blended 1/3 of it with 2/3 of an amber ale and the result was very good.
 
Of course you're all assuming we all taste and smell the same. One person's catty is another's floral heaven. So stop whining, we don't smell it.:cross:
 
I have also heard of cat piss off-flavors from Citra, but only if you use it for bittering. That's why there are only two commercial examples with Citra: SN Torpedo and WB Sunburn Summer Brew, and they are both dry hopped with Citra, no Citra in boil at all.
 
I have also heard of cat piss off-flavors from Citra, but only if you use it for bittering. That's why there are only two commercial examples with Citra: SN Torpedo and WB Sunburn Summer Brew, and they are both dry hopped with Citra, no Citra in boil at all.

That reminds me of the summit hops issue. People claim that it tastes like garlic and onions if you use it as a bittering addition. I made an IPA bittered with magnum and used summit for 30 minutes and later and haven't experienced the garlic and onion. The same is true for my citra beers, I never experience catty, but never use it as a bittering addition.
 
My haus pale uses chinnook and citra combined and nothing ever even remotely made me think "cat piss". Yuck!
 
I just did 5 gal of Citra IPA yesterday with chinook @ 60 min, cascade/citra/amarillo @ 15 min, .5oz citra @10min, .5oz citra @ 5min, .5oz citra @ flameout. Also planning to dry-hop with an ounce or two of citra.

Had a citra focused IPA at a local brewpub and loved it. Not catty at all, just pure floral citrus heaven. Hoping mine comes out more citrus than feline.
 
The 2010 HopNog from Brewer's Best was pretty much rife with Citra - Bittering, and Flavor. Then Dry hopped with Centennial IIRC.

Some folks said it was the best beer I had brewed to date. I KNow I LOVED it.
 
I have an IPA finishing out with citra/cent@5 min and citra/cascade@ 1 min. I hope it turns out ok.
 
I made a pale ale using Citra for bittering (1 oz. 60 min), 1 oz. Amarillo at 15, and dry hopped with 1 oz. cascade. No Cat piss aroma. It was quite pleasant.
 
cat_in_a_glass.jpg


Maybe you should take your cat out of the glass before you pour a beer :)
 
I just finished a Citra single-hop IPA - my first experience with Citra. The aroma is so amazing that when I finished the glass, I smelled it one last time, and at that moment the empty glass smelled A LOT like cat pee.

That said, I'm still inclined to brew with this variety. While there was beer in the glass, the aroma was citrus/tropical fruit with maybe a little pine. I just won't smell the glass when I'm done.https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/buck.gif

Steve H
 
Citra seems to lose the huge pungent aroma after about a month. It's still strong but not punch you in the face strong. I'm drinking a double ipa right now I made with Citra and Amarillo hops. I used Citra for late additions and dry hopping and at first the smell freaked me out. It has faded a little and in my opinion smells a lot like pineapple now after it hit two months old. I think it has a pretty polarizing smell, you either love it or hate it but everyone that's tried my double raves about the aroma.
 
Sierra nevadas brewer made the statement " it's like simcoe on steroids" when asked about it's cattiness. I've used it at 30 mins and haven't had a problem.
 
Necro-thread...
Any other discussions about Citra and the ammonia smells? Two IPA's from same wort. 5 hop additions...60, 30, 15, 2, dry hop. Both had a base of cascade for every addition.

One was El Dorado as second hop, that one is fruity and very mild bitters going into bottles

The other was Citra as second hop, that is is MASSIVE ammonia cat pee aromas tasting out of the bottling bucket. Taste is a bit ammonia too, but WOW is it a harsh American kinda hop bitter. (Have to compare the cohumulones on these two.)

Anyway, not sure if anyone has figured out if the ammonia comes from a specific addition or not.
 
Never had it with Citra, but I tried a Sneaky Pete (Simco) one time and whew...I thought my damn cat had pissed in the beer. It dissapated after a few minutes, but now I know why Pete was being sneaky...but it should have been a cat on the beer, not a dog :)
 
I just got a few ounces of Citra myself, and I was super excited to brew with them. made a basic IPA with Columbus bittering, Citra at 15 and 7 minutes, and a dash of Cascade at 10 (what I thought I needed to balance out all the tropical fruit). also dry hopped with Citra and another dash of Cascade...

all cat pee. I couldn't believe it on bottling day. SUPER bummed out. tried a bottle last night (just about 3 weeks from brew day) and the cattyness was pretty much fading away, but I wasn't getting anything in the way of tropical fruit yet. may as well had just used CTZ and Cascade for the way it tastes now. I am holding out hope that it will evolve soon, but so far I am disappointed in how my pack o' Citra hops is.

oh, FWIW, the cat smell is evident as soon as I open the vacuum sealed bag. is that typical?
 
I didn't get the cat pee from the pellets so much.

My IPA is going into fourth week in the bottles. Still a very dry harsh American style bitterness to it, but the ammonia is starting to go away a little. Not sure I get much more than citrus out of mine, no tropical.
 

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