Mandarin IPA or Pale?

[Mothman]

Does anyone have a tried-and-successful mandarin pale ale or IPA recipe that they could recommend?

Looking for all-grain. I do 3.5 gallon batches, but can scale from whatever batch size.

Last night I tried a commercial Mandarin IPA from 4 Mile Brewing in Victoria, BC, and really enjoyed it.

Aroma was pure mandarin orange, and flavour was just mildly bitter with present, but not overpowering, orange.

I used the search function here for mandarin threads, but didn't find anything recent.

For my next brew I was going to do a second attempt at an NEIPA (first one, drinking now, was supposed to be NEIPA, but for some reason ended up as much more of a standard west coast IPA), but after drinking the Mandarin IPA last night, it made me want to try to do something along those lines.

 

[thehaze]

I do not have a tried and tested recipe for a Mandarin IPA, but I have made some batches which were all grapefruit and sweet tangerines/oranges. The hops used were Chinook, Simcoe and Amarillo. The one Grapefruit IPA I made, without any actual grapefruit flavourt or fruit, was Amarillo, Simcoe, Chinook and Mosaic. Amarillo on its own will give lots of sweet oranges/tangerines and leave a sort of " residual sweetness to the beer ".

 

[divrack]

I tend not to like actual citrus fruit in pale or IPA as I find it clashes with the citrus aromatics of the hops like wearing slightly different shades of blue top and bottom... So I won't speak to that, but for what it's worth I've been loving Mandarina Bavaria hop in pales.
I did a great one that was the light side of an almost smash partigyle with Vienna and a bit of fuggles. It tasted like honey and Mandarin, I can find the recipe if you want. The other gyle was/is a barleywine that is waiting to lose some of the way too much oak I put in because I believed the lhbs woman who said that the powdery oak wouldn't be that much stronger than chips. Lies! Sorry off topic

So yeah, Mandarina is a great hop, if you are going IPA I bet it would pair well with Amarillo and maybe a touch of citra.

If you are adding peel I'd put it in Whirlpool once the temp has dropped a bit making sure you have skinned of all the white pith which is the surest way to make a horrible beer if left in. That's why I never use the dried peel in wits as it's manky.

 

[Mothman]

Thanks for the input.

In reading around I keep coming up the the mandarina Bavaria hop suggestion. I'd never heard of it before now.

Maybe I'll find a pretty standard ipa recipe and look at using mandarina and Amarillo.

I'm assuming I'd want to use them primarily for late boil, flame out, and dryhop.

Maybe get most of my bittering with a small, early, citra?

In terms of using peel... Would that add much of an orange flavour? Or would it mostly add a bitterness?

 

[divrack]

Peel does give the flavor for sure but I find it clashes with the hop flavor. It's fine in lightly hoped beer such as with but that may just be my tastes. I don't really like anything added to hoppy beer, or beer in general really, except sours.

If you want to experiment I'd maybe suggest a bit of peel in the keg for a few days.
In terms of schedule id go fw with some citra or Amarillo a bit of Amarillo at 20 at least double that amount at flame out with the same of Mandarina Bavaria. Perhaps splitting the addition so some goes in once it's cooled some.
Then a generous dry hop at day 4.
More in cold crash if you think it's advantageous.


I'm a big convert to active fermentation dry hop for that super juicy hop fruit flavor. It'll be cloudy sure, unless you get your hands on some lupulin cryo powder apparently. Don't think they do Mandarina Bavaria in it though.

Id also maybe suggest using a good bit of Vienna in the bill I think it'd go well with the orange even if it's just psychosomatic from the colour

 

[TurnipGreen]

I’ve used mandarina Bavaria in a wheat beer. I was not able to get much “orange” flavor out of it. It definitely has a subtle orage smell and has a nice flavor all around. But it didn’t come through as strong as I would have liked.

So I’m subbed to see if someone gives you better advice on how to better get that orange goodness to shine.

 

[Mothman]

Then a generous dry hop at day 4.

What would be considered a generous amount for a typical 5 gal recipe. Again I'm doing smaller batches but I think it's easier to talk in standard amounts then I'll scale.

I'm not wanting to make a hop bomb, but I would like the hops to shine.

 

[ProblemChild]

Have found that Idaho 7 in combination with Amarillo really adds an orange/tangerine flavor

 

[divrack]

What would be considered a generous amount for a typical 5 gal recipe. Again I'm doing smaller batches but I think it's easier to talk in standard amounts then I'll scale.

I'm not wanting to make a hop bomb, but I would like the hops to shine.

Id say three Oz or there abouts, or a bit less if doing a later addition, however if it's orange flavor you're after id just do the steep and active ferm hop additions as i find they give the juicy flavor against the more herbal stuff from later additions.

 

[Mothman]

Thanks for the input.