Citra Pale Ale Recipe... TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!?

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yeoitsmatt

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Ing:
6.6lbs Pilsner LME
1/2 lb. Wyerman Carafoam
1/2 lb. Bestmalt Caramel Malt
1/4 lb. Briess Victory Malt

2oz. Citra (13.4%)
1oz. Amarillo (8.2%)
1oz. Simcoe (12.2%)

YEAST: White Labs California Ale Yeast WL001
..........................................

Steep malts @ 155 - 157 ~ 40mins

Hop Adds:
50 mins : 1/2 oz. Amarillo
40 mins : 1/2 oz. Simcoe
30 mins : 1/2 oz. Amarillo
20 mins : 1/4 oz. Simcoe + 1/4 oz. Citra
15 mins : 1/4 oz. Simcoe + 1/4 oz. Citra
10 mins : 1/2 oz. Citra
05 mins : 1/2 oz. Citra
Flameout : 1/2 oz. Citra

Also, during the last 5 mins i dropped in a clementine (which had been soaking in honey for about an hour) in a muslin bag.... it kinda smells clementine-y but it's very faint. I'm hoping this will be light, crisp, and hoppy, with a bit of sweetness and a big green taste! Thoughts??????
 
I use Citra alot, and find that a little goes a long way as a aroma hop. You used quite a bit more than I would have, but hopefully you can't have too much of a good thing!!

Looks like it should taste Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr8!
 
Ing:
6.6lbs Pilsner LME
1/2 lb. Wyerman Carafoam
1/2 lb. Bestmalt Caramel Malt
1/4 lb. Briess Victory Malt

2oz. Citra (13.4%)
1oz. Amarillo (8.2%)
1oz. Simcoe (12.2%)

YEAST: White Labs California Ale Yeast WL001
..........................................

Steep malts @ 155 - 157 ~ 40mins

Hop Adds:
50 mins : 1/2 oz. Amarillo
40 mins : 1/2 oz. Simcoe
30 mins : 1/2 oz. Amarillo
20 mins : 1/4 oz. Simcoe + 1/4 oz. Citra
15 mins : 1/4 oz. Simcoe + 1/4 oz. Citra
10 mins : 1/2 oz. Citra
05 mins : 1/2 oz. Citra
Flameout : 1/2 oz. Citra

Also, during the last 5 mins i dropped in a clementine (which had been soaking in honey for about an hour) in a muslin bag.... it kinda smells clementine-y but it's very faint. I'm hoping this will be light, crisp, and hoppy, with a bit of sweetness and a big green taste! Thoughts??????

I'd probably drop Victory. It's really meant to be mashed. I guess you can steep it for color and a little flavor but at 1/4 lb it's probably not worth it. What Lovibond is the Bestmalt Caramel Malt? Maybe you can drop the Victory and bump that up a bit.
 
You could use some of the citra for bittering, is it leaf or pellet? If you up your gravity, bitter with an oz of citra and use 1/2 oz citra dryhopped you would have a nice IPA. You might find the hops a little overkill and unbalanced for the body of a pale ale, especially with that much simcoe and citra. I think you will be unpleasantly surprised with that much late additions of citra. I did a pale ale borderline IPA with .5 oz of Citra and .5 oz of Cascade dryhopped and it was strong! I think I used half an oz citra for bittering centennial at 50 and last 15 min and last 5 minutes cascade as well.
 
the 40 and 30 minutes additions are sort of a waste of hops. All the flavor and aromatics are boiled off and they don't get as utilized as the 50 minute addition. Might as well save the hops for later or add a bigger amount with the first addition. If you're looking for amarillo flavor or aroma you should make substitutions and add the amarillo later.

Hop additions usually serve three purposes.
first additions are for adding bitterness to balance out the sweetness. these usually take place at the beginning @60 minutes if you have a 60 minute boil.

flavor additions impart the hop flavor such as citrus piney or fruity. these additions generally take place around 15-20 minutes till the end of the boil.

aroma additions add aroma to your beer. these additions usually take place in the last 5 minutes.

once you decide what aspects of the hops you want in your beer you use those decisions to figure out when to add which hops.
 
I'd probably bitter with something easier to come by like warrior (Simcoe and Amarillo are soon to be hard to find) and then do nice 20 minute, 5 minute and dry hop additions of the good stuff.

And FWIW, I've had really good results on IPAs with these hops by using 1 oz (total, not each) at 20, 2 oz at 5, and 1 oz at DH.
 
JonM said:
I'd probably bitter with something easier to come by like warrior (Simcoe and Amarillo are soon to be hard to find) and then do nice 20 minute, 5 minute and dry hop additions of the good stuff.

And FWIW, I've had really good results on IPAs with these hops by using 1 oz (total, not each) at 20, 2 oz at 5, and 1 oz at DH.

+1... My last citra apa I only bittered with 9g of summit followed with citra .75oz at 20 min and .75oz flameout.. Dry hopped with .5oz... One of my best!! Being extract you do need more for bittering utilization though :mug:
 
Just to clarify i used all PELLET hops!... I just cracked open a Continuously hopped Citra Pale ale i made with just citra hops... ferment 10 days, bottle condition 4 weeks...it turned out bitter like a sierra with a hint of citrus sweetness... bitterness tends to linger slightly but its a very good bitter.... Im going for Light, Crisp, and Hoppy; ideas?
 
i was going for a continuously hopped citra pale ale.... so i hopped it on a schedule and it imparts a nice flavor. i def dont think its a waste.
 
i was going for a continuously hopped citra pale ale.... so i hopped it on a schedule and it imparts a nice flavor. i def dont think its a waste.

Continuously hopped is fine, you got a good idea going on. When you continuously hop though with shorter time intervals typically you use a lot less (Taking in consideration beer style as well, for a pale ale you would want things somewhat balanced with the malt). For my pale ale experiment with cascade's continuously hopped I only did an ounce in total with .125 additions every 6 minutes for a 2 gallon batch. Granted it is a very modest pale ale...
 
the other thing with continuous hopping is that every addition of hops is going to add bitterness depending on the time in the boil + boil size for more utilization of hops.. "my" home utilization im confortable with is 30% at 60min with a full boil so i base all hop additions off this.. that % goes down with time but i still count it as some bitterness will get extracted.. also as mentiond before you dont get the citra, amarillo ,simcoe aspect of flavour and aroma untill the later additions:mug:
 
this turned out pretty good. it was way better than the first citra i made... not nearly as bitter... its def a hop heads session beer for sure...although i wish it was slightly less bitter and had more hop flavor... im dry hopping my next one which should make for a better brew. thnx for all the replies. CHEERS!!!
 
Nice, glad it came out well! I would say next time bump it up and do an IPA you'll find that citra makes a great IPA as well!
 
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