American IPA Citra Bomb IPA

Took home 1st Place in the IPA Category at Amador County Fair. Enjoy!

3.3 lbs Extra Light LME - 60 Min Boil
3.3 lbs Extra Light LME - 30 Min Boil
1 lb Crystal 10L - Steeped at 150F for 20 Min
1 lb Carapils - Steeped at 150F for 20 Min

1 oz Citra - 60 Min Boil
1 oz Citra - 15 Min Boil
1 oz Citra - 10 Min Boil
1 oz Citra - 5 Min Boil
1 oz Citra - Flameout
3 oz Citra - DH

7 day primary, 7 day secondary with Dry Hop.

Cheers!

 

I've heard horrible things about using Citra at any point from start of boil through 30mins left. What's your experience?

 

Just did a nearly identical all-grain recipe last Friday. Overall bitterness, flavor, and aroma all seemed fine going into the fermenter. Nothing harsh to speak of. In general, my experience with Citra in other beers (e.g. wheat beers) has been excellent, so I suspect it will do well in an IPA with even more backbone. I like Citra, others do not, hence the strong opinions.

 

Seeing as how this recipe won 1st place in a competition, I'd say he's had a pretty good experience.

I'm not sure why so many people hate on Citra. There are a ton of commercial beers dry-hopped with it, and I have an IPA that also won 1st place in a local competition with a score of 39.5 that's dry-hopped with Citra, Amarillo, and Cascade.

This looks like an awesome recipe to me. I just did a SMASH Barleywine-ish using only Maris Otter and Citra. It's aging right now, and I'll dry-hop it with three or four ounces of Citra about a week before bottling. We'll see how it turns out!

 

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Citra. I recently won the Memphis Pro-Am competition this year with a Citra IPA.

6% ABV, 55IBUs, Magnum bittering, Cascade + Citra flavor, Cascade + Citra aroma, Citra whirlpool, Citra dry hop. It was out of this world.

 

The Citra at the beginning of the boil was only an ounce and that was plenty for bittering. I could see how it could be a problem if you used more than that.

 

Just curious, and forgive me if this is a total noob question, but why the second 3 lbs at 30 min instead of all at an hour?

 

The longer the malt extract boils, the darker it gets. I wanted a lighter colored beer so I added half at 30. You can the extract as late as 5 min if you really wanted to. This is the first time I've tried late malt addition and it worked out well for me.

 

I have just read your comment and would like to ask a question: when you dry-hopped with Cirta, Amarillo and Cascade.....how much did you use of them? I thought people tend to dry-hop with 1 or 2 types of hops for balance. I am asking because I am planning to brew my 1st IPA in a few weeks time....and I am planning to use all the above mentioned hops..plus 1 oz of simcoe, but I am planning to dry-hop with amarillo....2,5 oz.

 

I did 2oz each for 10 days, for a five gallon batch. Tons of aroma, and great citrus/floral/fruity notes. One of my favorite recipes.

 

Do you just dump your hops in or do you use a straining bag? I have heard a lot of differing opinions on this.

 

I just toss em in.

 

I really like Citra. I don't know why people would dislike it. If you talking about too much bittering I just made a Barleywine today that used Warrior with 19.7% AA. That is huge in my opinion. It's really citrusy and resinous and that's what I like in my beer.I'm planning an IPA that uses mostly Citra with some earthy hops and I'm going to dry hop with 2oz Citra.

 

Some people detect a cat piss flavor when citra is used for bittering in large qtys.

 

Mmmmmmmmmm!!

 

Ouch...that's something I dont want in my beer. How much are you referring to by large quantity?

 

One more thing, please.....can you tell me how much hops in total you used and at what boiling-times? I am beginning to realize that some people (beginners) might make the mistake of dry-hopping with a lot while neglecting a bit the aroma/flavour boiling stages. That might be my case too...and I wanna avoid it.

Thanks.

 

A lot of it is taste threshold/sensitivity - I detect a bit of it in Green Flash's all citra session pale ale for example. But my friend didn't. From what I've gathered it comes out more when used for bittering.

Citra seems to be a love/hate hop - search on the forum and you'll find a lot of discussions.

 

I use pellet hops, so I just toss them in. If you were using whole-leaf, then I would say use a bag, since it'll be much more difficult to rack.

I'll have to look this up when I get home. I'll post the whole recipe.

 

Finally got the results back and just finished the last bottle!

 

Congrats! Fabulous man. My version of the Citra bomb is drinking really well and is becoming a local fan favorite. I love me some Citra hop.

 

I'm pretty new at this and just finished my first IPA. Is there no sugar to add to this recipe?

 

Sugar for what? Are you talking about priming sugar for naturally carbonating i the bottle? I don't think you really need to add sugar to the boil, but if you're just trying to boost the ABV you can. Sugar addition can be made during the boil, or even added later during fermentation. For example, DFA 120 min IPA is made by serially adding sugar (a little bit each day) throughout a long drawnout fermentation process. Lots of options. Hope this explanation helps.
P

 

I meant during the boil. My last IPA had me add a pound of sugar and when I didn't see that in this recipe, I thought it was left out. Your answer was spot on. Thanks!

 

I didn't see what yeast you used in the recipe. Could you let me know?

 

Wyeast 1056

 

I brewed this today and man does it smell amazing. This is my first outing with citra and I'm already excited.

 

I plan on doing this sometime this week or early next week. I enter everything into BeerSmith and I'm coming up with 1.049 OG. Any reason for the 8 point difference? If I enter in 1 pound of extra light DME it brings me up to 1.058.

LME has between 34 and 38 ppppg so a 5 gallon batch with 6.6 pounds should be around 45 to 50.

 

Citra Bomb 2.0 is underway. Only difference this time is whole cone hops and added 4 oz Caramel 40. I'll let you all know how this one fares.

 

Just brewed this right now. Didn't cool the wort enough (right about 78) so I need to wait a little bit before pitching.

What temp did you ferment at? WLP001 range is 68-73 but I may ferment at 65 or even a little lower to get a cleaner IPA.

 

My first recipe post (and first AG) is a modified version of Citra Bomb. I didn't have enough so modified with other various homegrown hops... it's listed as 'Hard Way IPA' under IPA recipes. I love how it turned out, but there were some mistakes I'd hope not to make again. I'd appreciate feedback from more experienced brewers.

 

Love some Citra hops! One of my favorite homebrews was a Citra showcase.

 

Fermented at 72. The whole hops definitely changed the flavor profile of this beer. I'll be going back to pellets when I brew this again.

 

Any esters at that temp. I'm going with 65 to have a cleaner IPA. Next time I'm going to ferment on the higher end to get some of the wlp001 esters

 

I always ferment at 72 and never noticed any off flavors. Maybe I've just been lucky.

 

No not off flavors but some esters normal for that yeast. I haven't used 001 much at all which is why I was curious if you noticed any

 

I personally did not notice any esters. The onslaught of Citra might be masking that though.

 

I just brewed this recipe and it sounds amazing. I'm gonna take it one step further and add Habaneros and Mango to it in the secondary. I cannot wait!! Love the citra hop!!!

 

What would be the best way to increase the OG on this recipe (.01 or so)? Does boiling the extract the full 60-minutes make any difference at all?

 

You want to increase the OG by .01? If so, that isn't going to do anything. Raising something by .01 is about 1oz DME.