What made this flavor?

[WeirdBrew]

So I made a "Northeast style" IPA after gathering inspiration from various threads here as well as a couple of brews by The Mad Fermentationist.

My recipe:
Type- All grain batch sparge
Ending Kettle- 3.5 gallons
Boil volume- 4 gallons
Boil- 30 minutes
Efficiency (ending kettle)- 73%
SG- 1.053
FG- 1.010
IBU- 36 (didn't calculate any ibu's from whirlpool additions)
Mashed at 152 for 60 minutes
Yeast- Wyeast 1318 (made starter)
Grains:
- 6# 2 Row
- 1# Flaked wheat
Hops:
- 18 grams of Magnum 13.2% @ 30 minutes
- 1.5 oz of Citra @ flameout for 30 minutes then chilled to 150
- 1.5 oz of Citra @ 150 for 30 minutes then chilled to pitching temp
- 3 oz of Citra dry hopped for 3 days
Fermented at 65-67f during active fermentation then ramped it up to 72-75f as it slowed and during dry hop.

This was the first time using both wyeast 1318 and Citra hops so I kept the recipe fairly simple. Overall it turned out quite well but I would like to tweak the recipe for next time which leads me to my question. I'm getting, amongst other things, a really pungent overly ripe apricot/peach aroma and flavor and I'm not sure if it's from the yeast or the hops. It's not bad but kinda over powers everything else and I'd like to tone it down for my next batch. So does anybody who has experience with these yeast and hops have any idea which one might be contributing this flavor/aroma?

 

[WayFrae]

I have never used that yeast either but I have had that flavor in Chico strain yeasts before that have been fermented too cold but like I said I have never used Wyeast 1318. I think that flavor is most likely coming from the Citra though. To me, Citra tastes a lot like mango and peach so I can definitely see it giving an apricot flavor like you describe. I love all Citra beers but sometimes I will split it with some Cascade if I want to add a more citrus element to the beer. When you hear Citra it makes you think citrus but it is actually more of a tropical/stone fruit flavor.

 

[dmtaylor]

You just don't like Citra and you didn't know it. Some of that character will age out after about 6 months if you can wait that long.

 

[arnobg]

Definitely not the 1318 yeast from the few brews I've used it in. That yeast ferments really clean at low 60's high 50's temperatures.

 

[MFWINZLOW]

Had similar results from a Citra SMaSH and also a Citra heavy IPA.
I bottle and found that after 4 weeks in the bottle - things blend and mellow and the beer was good to me and the few that I shared it with. So good, in fact, that I redid the IPA this weekend in spite of the angry fruit for the first few weeks.

 

[WeirdBrew]

You just don't like Citra and you didn't know it. Some of that character will age out after about 6 months if you can wait that long.

So are you implying that this character is most likely due to the Citra hops then? And don't get me wrong I love the beer it just maybe isn't what I have in my mind for an end goal. If it is hop derived I'm thinking adding in some different hop varieties next time will help tone it down a little as well as give it a little more complexity.

 

[Bellybuster]

yup.... that's citra, can't stand it myself

 

[giraffe]

Yeah 1318 can have a light berry fruitiness, in the high 60s, but nothing id describe as apricot. And certainly not assertive. It does tend taste sweeter than its FG would suggest, which probably didnt help. But, yeah, its the citra.

 

[WeirdBrew]

Thanks for the replies everybody. Looks like it's the hops based on what everyone is saying which is what I was suspecting. Makes sense too because this thing is super young since I was trying to get a quick turn around on it. Brewed on 12/1 bottled 12/8 and just tried it the other day.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Parroting the Citra as the culprit. Bottled a black IPA with 7oz of citra sub-5 minute additions (6oz of cascade as well) and 2 additional oz of citra for dry hop and its got that big ripe mango/appricot/peach character to it.

I wonder where/when you got your citra hops, I got them at the beginning of the summer so I think they were left over 2014 crop.

 

[WeirdBrew]

Thanks for all the replies, looks like it's the hops. Not terribly surprising especially since I brewed this on 12/1 so it's still super young. I got the hops right before I brewed at Austin Homebrew but I don't recall what the date was on the package.

 

[Brettomomyces]

If you just pulled the dry hops out a couple days ago it may just need a little more time to mellow. But Citra is very polarizing for people.