Citra IPA recipe critque

[HokieHomeBrewer]

Have a lot of citra hops lying around and I love a good IPA / DIPA and came across this recipe. I'm still fairly new to brewing so I'm looking for others opinions on whether this is OK or if it needs to be tweaked. Cheers.

OG 1.070 FG 1.018

Caramel Malt 20L 1.0 lb
White Wheat 0.5 lb
Caramel Munich 60L 0.5 lb
Pilsen Light DME 6.0 lb
Golden Light DME 2.0 lb

Hops

Citra 1.0 oz 60 min
Citra 1.0 oz 10 min
Citra 2.0 oz 5 min
Citra 2.0 oz 0 min
Citra 4.0 oz 7 days Dry Hop

Yeasts

Wyeast 1056

I was wondering if it would be OK to switch out the 1056 for a WLP001?

I've read mixed reviews on bittering with Citra and was thinking about subbing in either an ounce or Warrior or Magnum for my 60 minute addition. Also dry hopping 4 ounces of citra seems a bit excessive?

 

[schaeffert99]

I'm a new brewer as well but I just did something similar. I used 1 oz centennial at 60. 1 oz cascade at 30. 1 oz citra at 15. Then I dry hopped with 2 oz citra for 10 days in my secondary. The aroma is fantastic. I think if I would have added more it would have been too overpowering. I would definitely substitute something else for your 60 min bittering as mine was a little mellow for my tastes. Next time I'm going to double my 60 and 30 minute hop additions. hope this helps

 

[Yooper]

I wouldn't hesitate to use WLP001- it's my favorite IPA yeast.

I think your grainbill has too much crystal/cara malts. I'd reduce them to a total of .5 pound of either, or go up to a max of one pound total if you love sweet IPAs.

I'm not a citra fan, but your hops schedule looks ok. You may want to reduce the dryhopping to 1-2 ounces, and then taste it. You can always add more for another 5 days if it's not enough, but you can't take it out!

 

[stpug]

Your yeast sub should be fine. Lots of folks consider those equivalent chico strains (1056/wlp001/us05); some say they are just very similar. Either way, totally reasonable sub.

I've never bittered with citra, but have read the same. Generally I'm seeing comments about it coming across a bit "cat pissy" however I've also read that it may be more a farm/harvest issue and not so much the hop itself. If you want to keep citra throughout then maybe dial down the 60 minute a bit and add some more at 30 and 20 minutes to up the IBUs. You can move some of your dryhop amounts to 30 and 20 minutes.

Yes, 4 oz of citra in dryhop would be a lot for that hop. Lots of folks have about a 1 oz threshold while others can deal with up to 2 oz. I wouldn't venture more than 2 oz, and use the other two at different times.

I personally think you would have a better overall profile if you round out the hop profile with some other varieties but if you don't have any or don't want to then no worries, it's your beer

The white wheat should be mashed so take care to keep a mash temperature for 30-60 minutes.

A pound and a half of crystal with 8 lbs of DME will likely leave you a sweet beer. Mashing the crystal with the white wheat should help it to create more fermentables and be less sweet, but will still be sweet nonetheless. Some options to dry out the beer a bit would be to use 1/2 to 1 lb table sugar at flameout to promote a fuller attenuation, but it will also increase your gravity a bit. You could also just leave out 1/2 lb of the caramunich and keep the "grainbill" as-is.

You might consider using some/most of the dme as a very late or flameout addition.....

....so many options (but that's the fun of it!!)

EDIT: As usual, yooper beats me to it.... damn her

 

[HokieHomeBrewer]

Thanks everyone. Yeah I knew there were a few things that didn't look entirely right with this recipe, looks like I'll mess around with it a bit. Cheers!

 

[m3n00b]

Wow...that is a ton of citra.

 

[dboone]

I'm cheap, so I'd be hesitant to spend $25+ on hops for a single batch, but I suppose that is what you have to do for an DIPA. I'd swap out the 60 min with a magnum (same qty), reduce the dry to 1 oz. I might add a 30 min of 1 oz of citra and reduce the 5 and 0 quantities to 1.5. I also agree that 1lb of crystal/caramel is too much and will hinder showcasing the hops, 8 oz is probably right.

 

[briannauta]

You might also check out this thread about a Zombie Dust clone as that beer is also all Citra.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/3-floyds-zombie-dust-attempt-help-info-requested-245456/

 

[jack_a_roe]

I would lessen the aroma hops and add that @10min or even 15. Also might lessen the dry hop by an oz if your gonna be using that much aroma already. I feel that 3 oz dry hop would accent the 4 oz of boiled aroma plenty, IMO of course.

 

[HokieHomeBrewer]

I would lessen the aroma hops and add that @10min or even 15. Also might lessen the dry hop by an oz if your gonna be using that much aroma already. I feel that 3 oz dry hop would accent the 4 oz of boiled aroma plenty, IMO of course.

Thanks Jack.

 

[NathPowe]

Another vote for checking out the Dust clone if you want to use a bunch of Citra. It uses 1/2lb of Citra for 5 gallons. I made it and it was unbelievably good. Probably the best beer I've made. There are extract options on the thread, here it is:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/three-floyds-zombie-dust-clone-303478/

 

[jbaysurfer]

That's a lot of crystal. The best Citra IPA recipe I've ever brewed is the Kern River Clone-just swap out the pale malt for the equivalent gravity points DME:

Here's a discussion of an extract version:
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30507&start=8

This has the hop additions:
http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrec...rn-river-brewing-company-cybi-podcast-version

 

[TriggerFingers]

I've read mixed reviews on bittering with Citra and was thinking about subbing in either an ounce or Warrior or Magnum for my 60 minute addition. Also dry hopping 4 ounces of citra seems a bit excessive?

Warrior in the beginning would be fine...Actually the best IPA I have made to date recently had warrior for bittering. Used alot of my Citra/Simcoe/Amarillo for late, KO additions.

4 oz for a 5 gallon batch isn't that much (I normally do 4 oz in 2.5 gallon batches and they turn out great!) --Instead of 4 oz in for 7 days rack your beer to a secondary and do 2 oz for 3-4 days and add the other two for 3-4 , then bottle on day 7 or 8. I have been in the habit of doing incremental hop charges which achieves results without the grassiness. Again, YMMV. Be sure to filter the hops when you bottle or a ton of it will get sucked up in the bottling wand (FYI, its easier to filter them from the tube side rather than from the siphon side).