Brewing with Citra for the first time

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My home brew shop has just got some Citra hops in which I mean to use tomorrow in a pale ale/american pale ale recipe with some Cascades and Centennials. So I have 100g of Citra, 100g or Cascades and 50g of Centennials. The malt bill is maris otter pale malt with a little crystal malt.

I’d like to use the Citra hops as the main hop.

Any hints and or tips on when how to use the Citra?

I brew on a basic plastic 5 gallon kit

Thanks
Ian

If you want to showcase the citras I would:

- bitter with a blend of Centennials & cascades. Try to get about half your IBUs from this addition (various software packages can calculate this for you)

- With 5 minutes left in the boil add some centennials. Maybe a quarter of your total IBUs worth

- at flameout add 50g of citra & 25g of centennial. Software/calculations are bad with contributions from flameout hops, but hopefully this ends up getting you close to your projected IBUs

- after primary dry hop 4-5 days with the other 50g of citra & 25g of centennial.

But thats just me.

-rudy

Don’t use the crystal, it’ll ruin the hops - taste 95% of US IPA’s to see that. All you need is low-colour Maris Otter and a bit of wheat malt.

You need to get some Magnum as a bittering hop as, although you could use Citra, it’s a total waste of one of the finest hops in the world! Use Magnum / Herkules for bittering then the citra at flame-off, ideally after you’ve cooled the wort to around 80c. Then, once fermentation has finished, stick another load into the secondary tank to absorb all that luscious mango flavour.

Sorted.

I dry hopped a pale with citra for 10 days and it was one of the better beers I’ve ever brewed.

Originally posted by Gazza
Don’t use the crystal, it’ll ruin the hops - taste 95% of US IPA’s to see that. All you need is low-colour Maris Otter and a bit of wheat malt.

You need to get some Magnum as a bittering hop as, although you could use Citra, it’s a total waste of one of the finest hops in the world! Use Magnum / Herkules for bittering then the citra at flame-off, ideally after you’ve cooled the wort to around 80c. Then, once fermentation has finished, stick another load into the secondary tank to absorb all that luscious mango flavour.

Sorted.

They’re not as mango like this season, fwiw.

Originally posted by Gazza
Don’t use the crystal, it’ll ruin the hops

You need to get some Magnum as a bittering hop as,

Then, once fermentation has finished, stick another load into the secondary tank to absorb all that luscious mango flavour.

Sorted.

OK, so I would have not used Crystal but the homebrew shop was out of caramalt. But it’s only 500g out of 5kilos

The homebrew shop didn’t have any Magnum hops, even though I agree I would have preferred to use them. Love that soft bittering it gives.

I’ll use the citra on the secondary tank definitely, thanks for that one.

Originally posted by rudolf
If you want to showcase the citras I would:

- bitter with a blend of Centennials & cascades. Try to get about half your IBUs from this addition (various software packages can calculate this for you)

- With 5 minutes left in the boil add some centennials. Maybe a quarter of your total IBUs worth

- at flameout add 50g of citra & 25g of centennial. Software/calculations are bad with contributions from flameout hops, but hopefully this ends up getting you close to your projected IBUs

- after primary dry hop 4-5 days with the other 50g of citra & 25g of centennial.

But thats just me.

-rudy

Thanks, I will try with some of your recommendations, thanks.

Originally posted by harrisoni
100g of Citra,
100g or Cascades and
50g of Centennials.

So . . . you have about 10 oz. of hops?

Get yourself an oz of high alpha bittering hop (like has been suggested) and use the hops that you have for late additions and dry hops.

I would go with all of the Centennial and half of the Cascade and Citra at flame out with the other half of the Citra and Cascade to dry hop.

centennial @ 60
cascade and citra @ 20 or 15
citra @ 10 or 5

any combination of the above at flame out and dry hop

adjust quantities to suit your desired IBU

there are many variations of the above that will make a tasty beer. the only thing you want to might want to avoid is using citra as a bittering hop.

OK I went with
75g Cascade and 25g Apollo at 60
25g Cascade and 25g Centennial at 10
50g Citra at 10 after flame off

Will hop with 50g Citra in the secondary tank.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Originally posted by Gazza
Don’t use the crystal, it’ll ruin the hops - taste 95% of US IPA’s to see that. All you need is low-colour Maris Otter and a bit of wheat malt.

This, this, this, this. This.

Warrior makes a fine bittering hop for such beers IME, too.