AG#49 - Citra Pale (Part 1 of a Double Brewday)

[WishboneBrewery]

Citra Pale - I thought it about time I jump on the Citra-Train so thanks to Toby from Red Willow Brewery for the hop Pellets here I go....
I'm going for lots of flavour and not too bitter with a few flaked oats for a bit of extra mouthfeel.

Fermentables:
Lager Malt - 55%
Wheat Malt - 35%
Cara Munich Type III - 5%
Flaked Oats - 5%

Hops:
Magnum Whole - 14.5 % -60 mins - 15g (FWH)
Citra Pellet - 11.1 % -15 mins - 10g
Citra Pellet - 11.1 % -0 mins - 40g (80c Steep for 20-30mins)
Citra Pellet - 11.1 % -0 mins - 10g (Dry Hop)

Final Volume: 15 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.014
Alcohol Content: 5.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 22.9 Litres
Mash Liquor: 8.1 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 80 %
Bitterness: 41 EBU
Colour: 18 EBC

Yeast: Safale US-05
Liquor Treatment: GW Calc General Purpose
Mashed for 60mins

Malts weighed out:

Today's lovely hops, the Citra spell amazing:

Pellets, smell good, were evil later:

My Mesh Hop Stopper's first outing, worked about as badly as it could, I need to make a large area mesh version for pellet hops:

Running mash off into copper:

The money shot:

Break material & fecking pellet hops!:


Other than my crap mesh hop-stopper for pellets, and easy brew.

[WishboneBrewery]

Now with photos

[bosium]

Looks great, I ordered a pack recently too so I may have to jump on the citra bandwagon soon too. I will also need to work something out to keep the pellet debris out of the FV though.

Btw, do you use gas - or electric? I've only ever tried pellets once in an electric boiler and it wasn't a pleasant experience. The pellets disintegrated and seemed to coat the element, which overheated and cut out intermittently. I was wondering if anyone else had had this problem.

EDIT: Doh, just saw the gas ring under your burner in one of the pictures

[WishboneBrewery]

yes, gas I've used some pellets before with whole hops and had no problem, not sure why they clogged up this time!

[WishboneBrewery]

Just coming good this one, it a fair few of the bottles had hop debris in them... might not be a good thing!? I'm drinking one that was pretty clear.

[raiderman]

I see you used cara munich in a pale ale - how did it come out? I'm thinking of putting a lager down before the weather gets warm, using cara munich to up the malt taste and let me hop more aggressively and for 5 gallons thought I'd go with 3kg lager malt, 1kg vienna and 20g cara munich and possibly 500kg wheat malt What effect will the cara give and what are your thoughts on the loadings?

[WishboneBrewery]

I have no idea for a lager... And this was my first experience of Cara Munich