Columbus and Citra togetherness?

[DSMbrewer]

I have 2 oz Columbus pellet and 1oz Citra leaf to add to 4 gal of Amber wort that sits at about 1.065 go. Any suggestions? Add more? Will these 2 Hop styles be weird together? Suggestions please........Thanks in advance:fro:

 

[kanzimonson]

Columbus can have some serious variation, ranging from dank and herbal to piney to just garlic (to me). Generally I think those hops would work together but no promises!

 

[bobbrews]

It won't even matter with only 3 oz. total hops. That's a very low amount for a 5 gallon batch of APA or Amber.

 

[TallDan]

It won't even matter with only 3 oz. total hops. That's a very low amount for a 5 gallon batch of APA or Amber.

Huh? those are both high alpha hops, I put 1.5oz of CTZ in the boil and 1oz of CTZ/Centennial dry hop in my recent Amber, and I wish i would have scaled that back a little. That was a 6G batch, and OP is talking about 4G.

 

[JustLooking]

I have 2 oz Columbus pellet and 1oz Citra leaf to add to 4 gal of Amber wort that sits at about 1.065 go.

Sound to me like he's talking about dry hopping with those three ounces?

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

I have 2 oz Columbus pellet and 1oz Citra leaf to add to 4 gal of Amber wort that sits at about 1.065 go. Any suggestions? Add more? Will these 2 Hop styles be weird together? Suggestions please........Thanks in advance:fro:

We don't really know what you are asking. You have boiled, unfermented wort at 1.065? Then you shouldn't be adding any more hops until it reaches close to final gravity, at which point you can toss them in as dry hops for flavor and aroma.

 

[bobbrews]

Huh? those are both high alpha hops, I put 1.5oz of CTZ in the boil and 1oz of CTZ/Centennial dry hop in my recent Amber, and I wish i would have scaled that back a little. That was a 6G batch, and OP is talking about 4G.

Logically speaking, if a person only had 3 oz. hops, they would likely space out the additions at various time slots, e.g. 60/30/20/15/10/5/0/Dryhop. I'm not saying they should add a small amount of hops at each slot, but the point is when you do something like this, 3 oz. isn't much for your basic American ale. However, if you blast it with a hefty bittering charge and then use the leftovers for the dryhop, chances are you will not have a very good beer.

 

[TallDan]

Logically speaking, if a person only had 3 oz. hops, they would likely space out the additions at various time slots, e.g. 60/30/20/15/10/5/0/Dryhop. I'm not saying they should add a small amount of hops at each slot, but the point is when you do something like this, 3 oz. isn't much for your basic American ale. However, if you blast it with a hefty bittering charge and then use the leftovers for the dryhop, chances are you will not have a very good beer.

I did:
.5oz CTZ @60min, 13.9%AA, 21.3 IBU
.5oz CTZ @30min, 13.9%AA, 14.9 IBU
.5oz CTZ @5min, 13.9%AA, 3.9 IBU
.5oz CTZ Dry Hop
.5oz Centennial Dry Hop

40.1 IBU is at the TOP end of bitterness according to BJCP guidelines for American Amber and my 2.5oz of hops were spread out. Again, 3oz of higher alpha hops is more than enough for the style. Even 3oz of lower AA hops like cascade is enough if you aren't trying to make a hop bomb out of an American Amber.

An amber i did last year with Cascade:
1oz Cascade FWH, 7.2%AA, 21.9IBU
.5oz Cascade @30min, 7.2AA, 7.7IBU
.5oz Cascade @15min, 7.2AA, 4.9IBU
.5oz Cascade @5min, 7.2AA, 7.0IBU
.5oz Cascade @flameout
.5oz Cascade Dry Hop

That's 3.5oz (and could have done without the flameout or dry hop) in a 5.5G batch, again, well spread out, 36.5IBU, still in the upper half of the bitterness for the style.

I'm lost on how you figure 3oz is "a very low amount" for 5G of Amber.

 

[kh54s10]

I can't comment on the Columbus and Citra combination personally. But from the descriptions of the flavors of each, I would think they would go together well.

As to the amount of hops:

One of my best APAs:

.25 Centennial 60 min.
.25 Nugget 60 min.
1.0 Cascade 10 min.
.5 Centennial 10 min.
1.0 Cascade 5 min.
1.0 Centennial 5 min.
1.0 Cascade 0 min.
1.0 Centennial 0 min.
2.5 Cascade dryhop

50.5 IBU so out of range for an APA but still very good. 8.5 ounces total. The Nugget hops were getting old so the bitterness might have been less than calculated.

 

[bobbrews]

I'm lost on how you figure 3oz is "a very low amount" for 5G of Amber.

^I guess I prefer dry, hoppy Ambers like Nugget Nectar, GF Hop Head Red, Bear Republic Red Rocket, or Maine Zoe (some of the highest rated Ambers by the way) as opposed to something very malty with low hop character. The clones for those beers will have double or more than the amount of total hops you are suggesting.


Whether or not people think Columbus+Citra work well together, 3 oz. of total hops (2 oz. Columbus and 1 oz Citra) will not make or break your beer unless you add the additions in a way that does not make any sense. Using 7 oz. Columbus and 3 oz. Citra however might be a problem regardless of the hop timing.