Citra Pale Ale

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jjinsa

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Messages
130
Reaction score
2
Hi All

I came across a recipe I like the look of - Citra Pale Ale Oddsides clone
I had to adjust slightly to fit what my LHBS has and my equipment.

Here is my recipe
Method - BIAB
Batch Size - 12L

60min Mash
3kg Pale Malt 2 row
300g torrified wheat (well crushed - to replace flaked wheat)
200g Crystal Malt 40L

60min Boil
16g Citra @ 15min
16g Citra @ 10min
8g Citra @ 5min
8g Citra @ 1min
24g Citra @ 0min
0.5 Whirlfloc tab @ 15min

US-05 yeast - rehydrated (1 x 11.5g pack)

28g Citra Dry Hop - 7 days

14 days in primary, prime with corn sugar, bottle straight from there.

Beersmith gives me @ 65% efficiency
OG - 1.057
FG - 1.012
ABV - 5.9
IBU - 44.9
ERM - 14.4

Numbers look good to me (newbie)

Questions -
1. would this have a good hop aroma/flavour (I want that) and am I dry hopping with enough (1 ounce in 12L), how long should I dry hop for?

2. Is 1 pack of US-05 the right amount (should I pitch dry or rehydrate?)

3. Would the additions of crystal malt and torrified wheat add some good body/head retention

4. If I wanted a bit more bitterness, could I use some left of tettnanger I have early in the boil, or would this clash with Citra

Thanks in advance - bare in mind this is my second All Grain attempt.
 
1. For better aroma/flavor, make your 0 min hops into a hop stand (cool to 175F, then add hops and let it sit for 30 min before finishing the cooling). For dry hopping, let it ferment out (14 days is safe) and the add 2 oz dry hops for 5-7 days.

2. For a 12L brew 1 packet rehydrated.

3. The other grains will be fine.

4. I would stick with the Citra. Just move your 15 min addition earlier to get more IBUs.
 
1. For better aroma/flavor, make your 0 min hops into a hop stand (cool to 175F, then add hops and let it sit for 30 min before finishing the cooling). For dry hopping, let it ferment out (14 days is safe) and the add 2 oz dry hops for 5-7 days.

2. For a 12L brew 1 packet rehydrated.

3. The other grains will be fine.

4. I would stick with the Citra. Just move your 15 min addition earlier to get more IBUs.



When doing a hop stand, must I let it cool and then add hops, them let it stand for 30min - lid on or off?

Are you saying I MUST or MUST not add the wheat/crystal?
 
I agree with @BlueHouseBrewhaus using just citra will get you a good understanding of a great hop. Minimizing or eliminating crystal malts will help the hops shine. But even more than that, IME, is a hopstand to accentuate the hop character. I do hour hopstands with another addition halfwya through, but most people do 30min it seems. Keep the lid on and place it on a bit before flameout so the steam sanitizes the lid

for a 12L/~3gal batch I would still up the hops. Using 50g or more for the hopstand will get you a pungent hop aroma and flavor with very little bitterness. It wont taste like an IPA
 
I agree with @BlueHouseBrewhaus using just citra will get you a good understanding of a great hop. Minimizing or eliminating crystal malts will help the hops shine. But even more than that, IME, is a hopstand to accentuate the hop character. I do hour hopstands with another addition halfwya through, but most people do 30min it seems. Keep the lid on and place it on a bit before flameout so the steam sanitizes the lid

for a 12L/~3gal batch I would still up the hops. Using 50g or more for the hopstand will get you a pungent hop aroma and flavor with very little bitterness. It wont taste like an IPA


I do also want a bit of body to the beer. I really like that too. The crystal is only 5% (from what I have read it's not that much, im sure you can teach me more) What about using carapils instead?

So I have ordered my hops already, how about adding some of the hops earlier to keep the bitterness up and keeping some hops for later - such as the hopstand?

Let me get it right - just a before flameout add the lid (sanitize - what about just letting it sit in my Iodophor for a bit instead?) then decrease temp to 175F (lid off?). Then add hops (as much as possible - up to 2oz?)

Do I still do a dry hop having done this?

Thanks for your help
 
i usually do dry hopping and hopstand for any hoppy beer. Do you have anyn more hops? You can use anything for the bittering addition to save as much citra as you can for the end. If you moved the 15min addition to the beginning of the boil, it would give you all the bitternes you need and you could use the rest for hopstand/dry hopping

I wouldnt put your lid in iodophor. Maybe starsan if you used that but just makes sure its rinsed and doesnt have grain dust or anything on it before you leave it on after flameout

the 175F thign is about hop isomerization or something. Basically at above around 175, youll get extraction but some of the hop compounds will volatize and bleed off. Obviously, this happens a lot during the boil which is why you dont taste anything earlier than 30min or so in the boil. Id just add it at flameout, itll get you a small amount of bitterness but a lot of flvaor and aroma.

I like a bit of crystal, or somethign like honey malt or aromatic, in my pale ales. IPAs I steer clear thogh
 
Cool, so I will stick to the crystal and wheat. I have some tettnang tettnanger from my last brew (Weiss). I could use those and save on citra?

I only have Iodophor which I use for all my sanitizing. So why shouldn't I use that to sanitize the lid?

Otherwise how long before flame out should I add the lid to sanitize it?
 
I have 100g citra and about 20-30g tettnanger. Looking at my recipe how should I do it? I'm thinking a small amount of tettnanger at 60min.... To make up for IBU's
 
sure, tettnanger is usually an aroma hop for german and belgians but if itll save on your citra id go for it.

Im not too familar with iodophor, after googling it it looks like i confused it with another iodine based cleaner thats black colored. You should be fine with it. I just always used starsan since that what the guy that taught me how to brew used

I usualyl put my lid on the kettle, partially open to let steam out, just a few minutes before flameout. But thats because it gets grain dust on it when i mash in, which likely contains some bacteria on the grains
 
Beersmith says if I add the tettnanger at 60 min (25g) I'll get about 24ibu. I think that then frees up about 16g citra(would have been 16g @ 15m for 22ibu) I'll try re-work my schedule and repost it.
 
Being a 3-3.5 gallon brewer myself, I can say that I've never been close to satisfied using 100g (3.5 oz) of hops in a hoppy beer like a pale ale. I would say use the entire 100g on the boil/hopstand, and go get some more for the dry hop. Probably another 60g (~2oz). That's just me, though.
 
HOPS recalculated
25g tettnang @ 60min 24.2ibu
10g Citra @ 10min 10.4ibu
15g Citra @ 5min 8.6ibu
40g Citra - 0 min hopstand (30min?)
35g Citra - Dry hop

This is 100g Citra total. What I ordered and gives 43.2 IBU

I could also boil the tettnanger longer OR just have a lower IBU and use more hops toward the end/flame out

Ideas?
 
I could also add a small amount of Citra early on to bump the bitterness and then use more Citra and tettnang together towards the end?
 
Personally, I think the IBU's are good right around the mid 40's for a pale ale. I would keep all the Citra for the end of the boil and use Tettnang for bittering
 
What about boiling a bit longer to get more IBU's out of less hops? Save more hops for flavor?
 
Boiling an extra half an hour will probably only get you a couple extra IBU as most of the isomerization occurs during the first 45-60 mins of boiling. There's a chart that illustrates the level of isomerization of hops over boiling time. Let me see if I can find it.. it's in an old article from this site I believe..
 
Then just edit your 60 min additions to a 90 minute addition and see if it gives you the IBUs you're looking for
 
Back
Top