American IPA Citra Down To The Socks - Award Winning (2x) Double Dry Hopped NE DIPA

[spersichilli]

Hey y'all. A lot of people post and ask questions about this style so figure I'd share a recipe for mine that has won two awards so far: first place best of show at a local competition and first place in the NEIPA category at a larger competition. Honestly, it's not too different from a lot of other attempts posted here, process is of the utmost importance with the style. This beer specifically was an attempt to make something in the same vein as Other Half All Citra Everything

Pour picture

Tasting notes: Mango/Orange/Guava sorbet

STATS
OG: 1.078, FG: 1.015

8.4% ABV

200 Cl: 66 SO4 (from RO with gypsum and calcium chloride)

5 gallon batch

MASH

152 for 60 mins

MALT

67% Pilsner

12% Flaked Oats

12% White Wheat

5% Carapils

2% Acid Malt (for mash PH)

2% Dextrose

HOPPING

5ibus @ 60 mins

2oz of Citra pellets + .5oz Citra LUPOMAX for 20 mins at 180 Degrees (hop steep)

2oz of Citra pellets + .5oz Citra LUPOMAX for 30 mins at 160 Degrees (hop steep)

Dry hop 1: 6oz of Citra pellets on Day 9

Dry hop 2: 6oz of Citra pellets + 3oz of Citra LUPOMAX on Day 12

FERMENTATION:

Healthy starter of 1318. Pitched at 68, upped to 73 at the tail end of fermentation.

PROCESS NOTES

I did my best to limit oxygen ingress at each step of the process. First dry hop is at the tail end of fermentation, then I did a soft crash to 55 just to drop the hop matter out of solution. After this, I did a semi-closed transfer to a keg with a floating dip tube I use as a "dry hopping keg". I do my second charge here, cold crash under pressure, and then closed transfer to the serving keg. Since I moved to using this dry-hopping keg almost like a secondary fermenter I've had minimal hop burn even at high dry hopping rates like this.

For the competitions, I bottled from the keg into PURGED bottles, filled all the way to the top with essentially no headspace. The "semi closed" transfer I mention is siphoning from the fermenter into a completely purged keg via the outpost with a blow-off tube on the in post. I completely purge my kegs by filling them with star san and then pushing it out with CO2. I experimented with pushing the Cl:SO4 ratio here higher than I normally do, in the future I'd drop it back to my normal 170:85 ratio. Otherwise, I was extremely happy with this beer. Going to drop a scoresheet at the bottom of this so you can see what one of the judges said.

Scoresheet

big takeaways about what I think is important when brewing the style

Basic: fermentation temp control (including diacetyl rest), heavy dry hopping, minimize oxygen ingress as much as possible. If entering contests it’s essentially to purge your bottles with CO2 before filling if you want to score well with this style. I’ve tried other yeasts but LAIII has been by far my favorite

Advanced: using the “dry hopping keg” essentially as a secondary minimizes hop burn even with the higher dry hopping rates. Longer hop steep extracts more hop oils which can then be biotransformed during fermentation

 

[JoeMamasIPA]

I want to try your SO4:CL and see what it yields as I usually have it flipped. Taking into account the LUPOMAX you have just shy of 22oz of Citra in a 5 gallon batch; have you tried going less on maybe the 1st dryhop? Also, have you tried this with a different base malt such as Golden Promise or standard 2 Row? I only ask because that is what I have on hand. I bet this beer is real tough to keep around!

 

[spersichilli]

I want to try your SO4:CL and see what it yields as I usually have it flipped. Taking into account the LUPOMAX you have just shy of 22oz of Citra in a 5 gallon batch; have you tried going less on maybe the 1st dryhop? Also, have you tried this with a different base malt such as Golden Promise or standard 2 Row? I only ask because that is what I have on hand. I bet this beer is real tough to keep around!

I think it’s more appropriate for the style to push the chloride levels relative to SO4. Not to say that I haven’t had great examples that do the opposite but I feel like the softer body fits better.

As far as the hopping I’m very happy with what I’ve been doing for amounts. I’ve upped the dry hop from 1.6oz/gal gradually to 3oz/gal and definitely have noticed an increase in aroma and hop character. I think it’s worth it to dry hop heavily if you’re looking to match the stuff that Trillium/Other Half/Vitamin Sea does.

I actually normally use 2 row, made the switch to pils as an experiment for this one and only noticed a subtle difference in malt character and a shade lighter in SRM

 

[JoeMamasIPA]

Thanks for the reply. I had just ordered 6oz of Lupomax Citra and was thinking of a single hop brew. Just need to find Citra pellet around $1/lb...

 

[secretlevel]

Advanced: using the “dry hopping keg” essentially as a secondary minimizes hop burn even with the higher dry hopping rates. Longer hop steep extracts more hop oils which can then be biotransformed during fermentation

Nicely done! That is a boatload of Citra. I'm working my way through about 2.1oz/gal dry hops with about 7% ABV right now, seeing how this goes.

Question about your dry hopping technique. I currently ferment in a corny, and only transfer to a serving keg after dry hopping. To dry hop, I pop the lid while running 5 PSI and add the dry hops. Then quickly close the lid, purge 10+ times. I've never had any oxidation issues but I'm curious if your process can have a positive impact. What do you use for fermentation?
Are you using a conical and transfer kind of like Brulosophy dudes do?

PS. Where are those award winning stout recipes?

 

[spersichilli]

Nicely done! That is a boatload of Citra. I'm working my way through about 2.1oz/gal dry hops with about 7% ABV right now, seeing how this goes.

Question about your dry hopping technique. I currently ferment in a corny, and only transfer to a serving keg after dry hopping. To dry hop, I pop the lid while running 5 PSI and add the dry hops. Then quickly close the lid, purge 10+ times. I've never had any oxidation issues but I'm curious if your process can have a positive impact. What do you use for fermentation?
Are you using a conical and transfer kind of like Brulosophy dudes do?

PS. Where are those award winning stout recipes?

Primary fermentation in a fermonster, semi-closed transfer from that to the dry hop keg. I treat the dry hop keg like you do when I dry hop it. I think there is some benefit to doing one of the two dry hops off of the yeast/post fermentation

Haha, I should probably write up Guillotine but most of my stouts don't fit the BJCP style guidelines well so I don't submit them

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Hey y'all. A lot of people post and ask questions about this style so figure I'd share a recipe for mine that has won two awards so far: first place best of show at a local competition and first place in the NEIPA category at a larger competition.

Nice job and congratulations with a difficult style. What was the competition in which it won the NEIPA category?

 

[spersichilli]

Nice job and congratulations with a difficult style. What was the competition in which it won the NEIPA category?

This one

 

[CFreddie]

This looks great and I can't wait to try it! I'll be brewing this on my new system (Anvil Foundry with Spider) and had a quick question about the Hop Stand. For the Citra at 180 F, did you drop them in for 20 minutes, then pull / reduce temp to 160 F and drop a new batch of Citra hops? Or did you just keep the original hops in there during the second drop (meaning they are in there for 50 minutes total)? Thanks!

 

[spersichilli]

This looks great and I can't wait to try it! I'll be brewing this on my new system (Anvil Foundry with Spider) and had a quick question about the Hop Stand. For the Citra at 180 F, did you drop them in for 20 minutes, then pull / reduce temp to 160 F and drop a new batch of Citra hops? Or did you just keep the original hops in there during the second drop (meaning they are in there for 50 minutes total)? Thanks!

yup I keep the hops in. Let me know how it turns out!

 

[CFreddie]

A couple additional questions (knowing these may be system dependent):

- Did you recirculate during mash? If so, what was your process?
- Did you reserve any water for sparge? If so, how much?

Thanks!

Chris

 

[spersichilli]

A couple additional questions (knowing these may be system dependent):

- Did you recirculate during mash? If so, what was your process?
- Did you reserve any water for sparge? If so, how much?

Thanks!

Chris

super variable depending on the system you use. I don’t recirculate just because of my system. I just sparge to my preboil volume

 

[JRL5043]

Thanks for posting this recipe. I'm relatively new with <10 brews under my belts, including a few NEIPAs. This came out really good with good saturation and aroma.

I tried to follow recipe exactly, and the only difference is I accidently added the 2nd addition first during end of fermentation. The 1328 stalled out so I rocked my fermonster around to try to resuspend some yeast and knocked in one of the dry hop bags which I hang at the top with magnets. It didn't result in any hop burn luckily.

Wish I got a photo to share but it disappeared quick. Im using similar recipe and whirlpool temps and hop oz/gal as this recipe using a citra/nelson/amarillo combo. Hoping to get same great results.