Face-Puckering Citra IPA (Extract)

[JimJiminy]

This is my third ever brew, second extract. I wanted something shocklingly hoppy. I found this, which really appealed. It's simple, slightly brutal looking, and seems to have pleased a lot of people:
https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/citra-single-hop-ipa

Though I've made a few mods to account for what was available, my citra being a lot stronger. And then I had to further modify to take account of the mistakes I made in my order, and the mistakes the supplier made, which I don't want to wait to be corrected.

6Kg Extra Light DME
(Half at the start of the boil, half late)

Steep (45 minutes, starting at 76C):
250g medium crystal malt
500g CaraRed
250g Pale Wheat

Boil: (60 minutes)
60min: 25g Citra (15% alpha)
15min: 30g Citra (15% alpha)
5min: 45g Citra (15% alpha)
0min: 50g Citra (15% alpha)

Dry hop: 100g Citra (15% alpha)

Yeast: WLP001

OG, 1.064
ABV, 6.8% ish
IBU: 65

Notes...

There seems to be a bit of controversy over the wheat. I realise it's going to contribute nothing fermentable. The intention is purely flavour and head retention. Seems to have worked for the guy who made the recipe, so I'm willing to give it a go.

CaraRed I've ended up with by mistake. I realise red isn't really style appropriate, but I'm not personally bothered about the colour.

Comments? It seems like a LOT of hops. Am I creating a monster? That's kind of the intention. So long as it's drinkable to someone whose tastebuds are deadened by years of hop-abuse (ie yours truly).

Regards,
Jim

 

[Dutch_Food_Geek]

This doesn't look too bad. Maybe it's an idea to hopburst the puppy. You'll need some more hops for acceptable bitterness-levels, but you retain a ton more flavour. Not to mention, you could cut you entire (!!!) boiling time down to 15 mins.

What i would do:
keep the steeping grains, but cut out the wheat, won't do anything because also for head retention you'll need to mash it and you're not doing that.

Cut back to a 15 minute boil, that's enough to sanitize your DME.
start hop additions from the 15 minute mark. I did one full grain which i hop bursted. I used full flowers and made 12 liters, so maybe you need to correct a bit for your product and volume. But here is the recipe:

HOPS
15 min: 40g Citra (14,1%) -> 45,6 IBU
5 min: 40g Citra (14,1%) -> 18,3 IBU
0 min: 40g Citra (14,1%) -> 0,0 IBU

Dryhop: 50g Citra (14,1%)

It hits you in the face with Citra.... So I would go this way again without a doubt. Calculated IBU for this recipe: 64....
And yes, it's bitter

Maybe this will give you some idea's?

 

[JimJiminy]

Maybe this will give you some idea's?

Thanks, it certainly gives me something new to think on! I feel like I've been doing a tonne of reading about homebrewing the last few weeks, but this is the first time I've heard of hop-bursting.

Quick google suggests the idea is to stack the hop additions to the end so that you get a softer hop character, more aroma and flavour. Is that right?

Most of my knowledge comes from "How To Brew" and "CAMRA's Brew Your Own Real Ale"... I guess this technique must be newer than those books (or I missed the critical section :) )

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Dutch_Food_Geek]

you get more aroma and more flavour with similar levels of bitterness.
I always use it for extract with specialty grains as there is no reason what so ever to boil 60 mins with extract.
15 minutes to sanitize is more than enough.

Drawback you need more hops for the same bittering levels.
But I'm not breweing because it's cheaper, but because it's better. And than still it's cheaper

So in this case you're combining two things you want....
Hop flavour and aroma and a shorter brew day