Looking for a citra IPA extract recipe with pilsen light

The LHBS sells pilsen light LME for $2 per pound. I would like to get some crushed grains along with the hops and make a nice IPA.

Any suggestions? It's about time that I started to dry hop so I'm thinking that is going to be in the cards. Probably somewhere around 8 or 9 pounds of LME will make it around a 6% abv.

I'd like it to not be too bitter and more citrusy.

A beer that I would like it to be somewhat comparable to would be fresh squeezed IPA from Deschutes.

 

That LME is cheap!

Here's one idea (although I've never had that Deschutes, but this sounded good anyway):

5 gal batch

9# LME
1/2# carafoam
1/2# sugar
2 oz honey malt
1/2 tsp orange zest for last 15 min of boil

Citra:
1/2 [email protected]
1 [email protected]
2 [email protected]
Hopstand for 15-20 minutes
2 oz dry hop

1 pack of US-05


I'm sure you'll get a lot of good recommendations! Have fun!

 

I'd add about a half pound of Honey malt, an ounce of Citra at the beginning of the boil, two or three ounces at flame out, and two or three ounces dry hop. Keep it simple, pilsner malt is actually a great background for ipas, in my opinion. It really allows the hops to shine.

 

Alright keep them coming!

I haven't done much research on dry hopping. I saw a video online where the beer geek used some kind of painter straining bag. Does that bag just get sanitized?

 

No research needed if you're using pellets. Just wait until fermentation is complete and drop them in. You'll see varying preferences on length of time, but anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks.

If you're using whole cone hops, then yeah, sanitize a bag and stick them in there. Either that or just throw them in and put the paint strainer over your racking cane when you rack to the fermenter.

 

I've only been using a single fermentation method unless I'm aging beers in a carboy. If I would just use the hop pellets won't that leave a lot of sediment come bottling day or is that mostly going to settle?

 

It'll settle for the most part. You're going to lose a fair amount when you dry hop, no matter what method you use.

 

What do you mean hopstand? Do you just mean 1/2 pound corn sugar?

 

Hopstand is letting the wort rest on all the hops after flameout (still hot but not actively boiling).

Table/cane sugar or corn, your choice. I use table sugar.

 

Citra IPA here is a link to my all citra IPA, and I love it. This was my best IPA to date that ive made.

 

Looks nice!

I may try something similar. Just curious where you can get an ounce of citra hops for $1.00?

 

i just never changed it in beersmith. i dont worry about the costs in there

 

I bought.the Northern Brewer Dry Dock Breakwater IPA and threw in an extra ounce of Simcoe.
I had people who tried it swearing I added fruit juice to the beer. It has both Chinook and Citra hops in the kit. Just be careful with Citra level since they are potent hops.
On dry hopping wait till the yeast falls and transfer beer to a secondary. You can put hops in a bag with marbles or drop them in by themselves. Less mess in the bag and you can squeeze the bag to get out extra wort. If your final fermenter is narrow mouthed just be careful that you can get the bag out.

 

My plan was to use a single bucket and ferment for 2 weeks and throw the dry hops in for a week...then bottle. A total of 3 weeks in the primary.

 

Will work fine. Bagging can help a little with clarify in keeping the pellets or cones in one place during racking to bottling bucket or keg. Since dry hops add a lot of hop smell to beer it is often recommended to not let it condition in bottles or keg too long to loose the effect.

 

So drink it asap...no problem lol

 

I'm also looking at the Great Lakes Brewing website at the Chillwave beer. That is one of my favorite beers. I noticed that it doesn't even contain citrus hops. Just Mosaic and Nugget and Cascade.

How do you suppose they make it so that it's not bitter like most IPAs? That's really what I'm going for is just a smooth tasting IPA minus the extra bitterness and a lot of citrus flavors.

 

I'd keep it simple - use enough extract to get around 1.060. (Maybe steep a little c-40 for color, but not necessary). Then don't waste Citra for bittering, and use something like an .5 to 1 oz of Columbus or Magnum at 60, an oz or two of Citra at 15 or so, an ounce or two at flameout, and an ounce in dryhop. I did something similar a couple years ago, and it was fantastic.

 

What I was thinking was using 1oz of Mosaic and the start, 15 1oz nugget, then flame out 1oz nugget and 1oz Mosaic. Then dry hop 2oz cascade.

 

Keep your bicarbonate level low if you want to augment the fruit flavor. If your water has decent bicarbonates you can knock them down with a little gypsum and lactic acid.
Look hard at the flavor profile of the hops and use ones with fruit flavors late in the boil that may be lower in alpha acid. I like Chinock, Citra, Cascade, Simcoe. Be extra careful not over using high alpha acid hops like centennial and Columbus which are great for the classic IPA bittering.
Do not overkill the initial hop bittering levels and you should be able to draw out the citrus profile.

Good Luck

 

I have 4 different liquid yeasts available to use. I have dry yeast but that's not an option for me as I don't like the flavor. I have:

White labs Kolch
Wyeast Scottish ale
Wyeast British ale 1098
Wyeast London ale 1028

Any suggestions?

 

IPAs don't emphasize yeast character, so I'd skip the kolsch. The Scottish ale sure is clean - if you can get good attenuation out of it, I might go with that.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by good attenuation.

 

A lot depends on the style IPA you want. A lot of American IPAs will use a neutral flavor American yeast which convert a high percentage of available sugars into alcohol which is the attenuation level. These yeast strains often are less critical to go to liquid over dry yeast.

The American style lets the hops and simple malts dominate the flavor. You can go high citrus or high bitter based on hop selection, water chemistry, etc
You can brew with a British or European yeast to augment yeast flavor some or improve malt flavor but be careful to not overkill the malt and esters too much. A lower attenuation will bring out the sweetness more and malt flavor.

 

+1 on adding a touch of honey malt to steep, I'm a huge fan

I actually just got my own pilsner lme IPA fermenting with Citra, Simcoe, and Sorachi. But I bittered with Columbus and Northern Brewer. Smells fantastic in my closet.

 

The recipe that I ended up doing was:

Wyeast Scottish Ale

20 minute steep 1/2 lb carapils & 1/2 lb honey malt

9 pounds Pilsen Light LME
1/2 pound corn sugar

1.5 oz nugget 60 min
Whirfloc 15 min
1 oz mosaic 10 min
1 oz cascade 10 min
1 oz cascade flame out

2 oz cascade dry hop for 5 days after 2.5 weeks in primary

Do you think this will turn out good?

 

I'm sure it'll be tasty, although that's an interesting choice for the yeast. I'm curious what your attenuation will end up being and where the gravity will finish out.

 

OG was around 1.062. Possibly because I couldn't get all of the malt out of the bags. Maybe I added too much water or just didn't read the hydrometer correctly.

I used that yeast because it was what I had in a jar. Supposed to be pretty clean. I will post the FG in a week or so.

 

Well this IPA turned out wonderful!

Ended with an FG of 1.014.

Kegged it not quite a week ago and it was nice and carbed up this weekend.

I must say that this is one of the best IPAs that I've had. Very grapefruity...not too bitter. The hops really shine through.

Did a dry hop in the keg using a fine mesh hop bag for 5 days with 2 oz of cascade.