Question on flavors

Not sure where to put this question, but I am sure if it is in the wrong place someone with pull will move it to the right place. It is for AG so I put it here.
On May 5th I plan to brew an all grain pepper beer which I have brewed many times as an extract. This will be my 2nd AG, the first was a Golden Monkey clone that came out really good.
I talked to the guy at my lhbs and he gave me an ag recipe for what he said would be a close clone to Sierra Nevada pale ale. 10 lbs 2 row American with Euro Northern and Citra hops. He didn't have the yeast he wanted me to use so he subbed Safale US-05 instead.
Normally my extract pepper brew was 3 lbs cooper lme, i lb dme 1lb honey, 1 lb brown sugar with a pack of coopers dry yeast, plus the peppers of course.
The problem is, I never drank Sierra Nevada pale ale so was not sure what it would taste like, so I bought some and don't like it. It has a taste that hits me back upper palate that I can't describe. I am not good at figuring out different tastes in beer and not sure if the different yeasts are causing which tastes or is it the hops. I generally can tell which beer has more hops and what a real hoppy brew is like and even to some degree which hops are used.
My real question is.....what kind of flavor can I expect from the Citra hops? I have never used them before. Will it clash with the peppers? Is it a fruity taste? Would I be better off waiting and using Cascades or something I am familiar with?
Also, does anyone else have the problem of knowing/not knowing what causes certain taste in different beers?

Here is a great pepper beer that does not have a pale ale taste (ie does not taste like sierra Nevada), as it is more of an amber. It uses willamette, which I find to be better than citra :

http://twistedpinebrewing.com/blog/brews/timberline-year-rounds/billys-chillies/

Also the sierra doesn't have any body to support the hops so that's why I think your not getting your back upper palate hit, so you could use the lhbs recipe just sub in one or two pounds of the American 2 row with some biscuit malt or maybe victory to give it a maltier taster. Then switch to willamette, or cascade (I find theses two to be pretty similar) and you have a light amberish beer ready for some peppers. As a side note the simpler your grain bill here the better, since you are doing an addition (eg 3 or less grains total). Hope this helps.