Citrus IPA help

[klaus_123]

Hi all.

I'm after some advice on a recipe I'm trying to put together. I've based it on a recipe I found online (here: Citrus IPA | American IPA Extract Beer Recipe at Brewer's Friend) but have tried to adapt it to increase the batch size, lower the ABV% slightly and switch the hops and yeast based on what was available at my local shop. The result is as follows:

Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV (standard): 5.46%
IBU (tinseth): 88.36
SRM (morey): 8.67

Fermentables
Amount Fermentable Cost PPG °L Bill %
2.20 lb Dry Malt Extract - Light 42 4 51.2%
1.30 lb Dry Malt Extract - Amber 42 10 30.2%
3.5 lb

Steeping Grains
Amount Fermentable Cost PPG °L Bill %
0.40 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 15L 35 15 9.3%
0.40 lb American - Victory 34 28 9.3%

Hops
Amount Variety Cost Type AA Use Time IBU Bill %
0.80 oz Citra (11 AA) Pellet 12.1 Boil 45 min 53.61 34.8%
0.50 oz Simcoe (12.7 AA) Pellet 13.1 Boil 15 min 19.61 21.7%
0.50 oz Simcoe (12.7 AA) Pellet 13.1 Boil 5 min 7.88 21.7%
0.50 oz Citra (11 AA) Pellet 12.1 Boil 5 min 7.28 21.7%
2.3 oz

Yeast
Fermentis - Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04

I'm a newbie so would appreciate some more experienced eyes on this. Are there any errors I've made here, or any quantities / timings you recommend I change?

Many thanks!

 

[chuffer]

Bit tricky for me using imperial units but just looking at your IBU at 88, did you want it to be bitter (as it will be!). also, in my experience the Citra hop itself can be quite bitter in flavour regardless of the IBU - you might be better dialling down the weight at the front end of the brew and save it for late additions like flameout or dry hopping?

 

[klaus_123]

Bit tricky for me using imperial units but just looking at your IBU at 88, did you want it to be bitter (as it will be!). also, in my experience the Citra hop itself can be quite bitter in flavour regardless of the IBU - you might be better dialling down the weight at the front end of the brew and save it for late additions like flameout or dry hopping?

Thank you, that's exactly the type of advice I was after!

I actually work better in metric too, so had already converted it. With adjustments like you suggest, I'm currently at:

Extract:

1 kg Dry Malt Extract - Light

0.70 kg Dry Malt Extract - Amber


Steeping Grains

0.20 kg Caramel / Crystal

0.20 kg Victory


Hops

15 g Citra Pellet 12.1 Boil 45 min

15 g Simcoe Pellet 13.1 Boil 15 min

15 g Simcoe Pellet 13.1 Boil 5 min

15 g Citra Pellet 12.1 Boil 5 min

20 g Simcoe Pellet 13.1 Dry Hop 3 days

20 g Citra Pellet 12.1 Dry Hop 3 days

Gives it an ABV of 5.84% and IBU of 69.48.

Does that seem better?

 

[chuffer]

What's your batch size?

 

[chuffer]

The IBUs still seem high so im guessibg this is a small brew? Its all down to personal taste but i tend to aim for ibu value of 35 - 50 for a pale ale / bitter. Do you like really 'bitter' beers or more 'balanced'?

 

[Slid]

For a US IPA of this strength, I would guess 50 IBU max? Maybe even 45 IBU.
I would also suggest Simcoe to bitter and add your Citra towards the end?

 

[chuffer]

Aye keep dialling down the front end and put them all at the back end

 

[Fara]

Hi. In line with what was suggested by the others.
I brewed a similar thing myself but whole grain. My takeaway lessons were:
- Any decent base malt that is suitable for an IPA is ok. (guess you have to extrapolate to the extracts).
- As per hops I added
60 min - 15 g Chinook + 15 g Simcoe for bitterness
20 min - 12 g Citra
0 min - 12 g citra
dry hopped with 12 g citra.
batch size 22 l, IBUs 60
It was too much. My original intention was to have a bitter brew in which I would enjoy the citra, but I got it all wrong. It was good, drinkable, but not the hop epiphany I planned since bitteness was way too high.

I re-designed, omitted the Chinook, reduced the Simcoe and will add citra at 10 & 0 mins and dry hop. Target IBU 35.
In my humble experience, brewing single hops is a good way to learn about them, but they need to have the chance to express themselves.

Let me know your outcome pls.

REgards,

Francisco

 

[jMac]

NM: just realised this is an older thread... how’s your beer turning out?

As others have suggested, and looking at your revised recipe, move your initial 45min addition to 15mins (so just hop burst additions at 15mins and 5 mins) and you’ll have a more balanced hop forward beer. If this were AG, I’d also suggest an aroma addition (say 10/15g of each hop) at flameout/hop stand as well as your dry hop.

 

[klaus_123]

It's currently conditioning in the bottles! :-)

I basically took all the wise advice above and changed the hop additions to:

12 g Simcoe at 45 min
13 g Citra at 15 min
15 g Simcoe at 5 min
20 g Citra at 1 min

This took it down to 57 IBU. I then dry hopped around 20g of each for 5 days after fermentation.

It's come out slightly darker than I expected and so will probably reduce the steeping grains, or possibly swap the Amber DME for more Light next time (comments welcome!). It tastes pretty good though, but perhaps slightly bitter still (God knows what it would be like if I kept with my original recipe!) so I'll also tweak that. I'm thinking I'll go with something like Challenger for bittering (as it has lower AAs and is available at my local shop) and then save the Citra / Simcoe for the later additions.. This should bring the IBU down to about 48.

But overall, it seems to be going reasonably well (and definitely much better than it would without everyone's advice!)