Citra IPA with blitzed hops

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killer
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Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by killer » Wed Sep 18, 2013 8:49 pm

Brewed this as my first experiment with Citra. Wanted a decent American IPA about 6% with lots of hop flavour and aroma. Have had mixed experiences with commercial citra based beers. I also used Apollo as a bittering hop as I have heard that Citra is not a great bittering hop. Thought I'd use 100g late Citra and 50g blitzed Citra dry hop. People on here seem to have had favourable results with hops in a blender.

So, the grain bill:

MO 3.9 kg
Bohemian Pilsner 0.9 kg
Vienna 250 g
Munich 250g
Torrfied wheat 200g

Water treatment;
200ppm Sulfate
120ppm chloride
40 ppm Carbonate

Hops: Apollo 15g @ 60 for 31 IBU
Citra 15g @ 30 for 13 IBU
Citra 15g @ 15 for 7 IBU
Citra 25g @ 5
Citra 25g @ 0
Citra 20g @ 60° steep for 30 min
Citra 50g dry hop Blitzed in a blender and added after 7 days (FG 1013)

1 pack rehydrated S05.

1 week in primary @ 18°, then dry hop for 4 days (no hop bag - straight in with the blitzed hops), chilled to 5° for 2 days then racked to bottling bucket (22.5L) with 100g sucrose (boiled up in 300mL water) and bottled. Left untouched for 4 weeks (I was away - fortunately)

OG 1057
FG 1013
IBU 58

This is probably my second favourite IPA to date. Really hoppy, but not at all grassy - I'll definitely blitz my next dry hopped beer. I might also keep the grain bill as my standard IPA grainbill. The balance is just right.

faeyd

Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by faeyd » Sat Sep 21, 2013 7:03 pm

I may try it out Killer. I have done one AG IPA, below for posterity, and it was very very good... but want to try some citra in there.

5.2kg Maris Otter
0.45kg Crystal Malt
0.34kg Carapils
0.34kg Munich Malt

28g Chinook at 30 mins
45g Cascade at 30 mins
14g Willamette at 15
45g Cascade at 15
28g Willamette at 5
45g cascade dry hopped

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stevetk189
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Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by stevetk189 » Sat Sep 21, 2013 8:34 pm

Hey there Killer, how's the craft beer scene going up there in Paris? Big things are finally begin to happen down here in the rural olde Limousin. I'm in touch with Brandon at the Cave a Bulles in Paris, we're hoping between us micros and the Chambre de commerce here to be getting a few more Limousin beers on the shelves up there.
My Craft Brewery in France - Brasserie Artisanale en Limousin
My Craft Distillery in France - French Gin

killer
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Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by killer » Sat Sep 21, 2013 8:55 pm

@ faeyd - you can't go wrong with chinook and cascade - and that's a nice grain bill to match. Willamette I'm not that familiar with. What do you think it adds in terms of flavour ?

@ Steve - The beer thing continues to expand here. People are paying silly money for relatively common craft beers. I've seen punk IPA (small bottle) for 8 euros (I found it for 2.50 in carrefour) and Goose Island IPA for not far off that. The less common ones can fetch 8 - 10 euro in bottle shops... never mind pubs.
You shouldn't have any problem finding buyers - no doubt you've done your research but the bar owners I've spoken to are crying out for quality french craft beer to avoid paying the horrendous import cost from america (not sure why there are not more british beers to be honest) and of course if they are 6 months on a boat the IPAs are gonna lose their hop punch. If you want some beer-bar names let me know - there are a couple conveniently near me...
I haven't been into the Cave a bulles in a while - let me know when your beers are in and I'll pay a visit.

Cheers,

Cillian

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stevetk189
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Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by stevetk189 » Sat Sep 21, 2013 9:10 pm

Salut Cillian,

I have friends who run La Cervoiserie bar in nearby Limoges. They try to get English beers but the import fees are ridiculously expensive so they are forced to avoid them unless they can justify 6 to 8 euros a 50cl bottle. It's madness and just age old politics. At the moment the only English beers they can stock are Cotleigh Barn Owl and Buzzard neither of which are exactly great examples of English beer. They're 5 euro a bottle... :cry:

It's great to see French craft brewers finally taking some bold steps forward and turning away from the limitations of colour alone ie blonde, amber and brown and experimenting with tastier combinations of malts, hops and yeasts. I'm getting customers who have said they do not like brown beers ... no taste, no sniff just an instant dislike based on colour and past experience. Many of them are now snapping up my Butternut Brune, an Autumn seasonal with homegrown, smoked butternut squash. It's really brown but the brune haters, love it! Hurrah!

Back on topic re: your blitzed hops have you done any comparisons with non blitzed dry hopping? I suppose blitzing breaks open all the goodness inside and gets it into the beer faster like hop pellets but it must make separating the debris prior to bottling a bit more difficult.
My Craft Brewery in France - Brasserie Artisanale en Limousin
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killer
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Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by killer » Sat Sep 21, 2013 9:29 pm

My last 12 - 15 beers have been american/ NZ IPA's. I've dry-hopped every one of them. I typically dry-hop with 50g hops - though also usually have 100 - 150g late hops over 10/5/0 and a steep. My band of professional tasters (workmates) all said that the last beer was way more aromatic than any other one. It makes sense. To solubilise the hop oils you need to first be able to get at them. Shredding the hop cones must make more oils available to the beer. Ironically, as a chemist I have the equipment in work to test this... I must do it one day.
Separating the debris was not nearly as difficult as I had imagined. In fact the beer never left the primary vessel. I just used a little bottler after 2 days chilling and no hop debris came across.

BTW, Parisians would pay 8 euro for a 500mL beer without blinking. We already pay that for a "pint" (500mL of mostly froth) of 1664 or other typical bad beer.

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Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by bigchris » Fri Oct 04, 2013 12:21 pm

stevetk189

great website for your craft brewery.

any brewer who can name a beer Effinguud Witbier deserves to do well, love it. not sure you'd get away with it in an English speaking country :-)

Baldbrewer

Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by Baldbrewer » Fri Oct 04, 2013 1:02 pm

+1 great website, good luck with your venture, good to see its going well, Regrettez-vous quelque chose?
Wish I was as brave =D>

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stevetk189
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Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by stevetk189 » Fri Oct 04, 2013 3:04 pm

bigchris wrote:stevetk189

great website for your craft brewery.

any brewer who can name a beer Effinguud Witbier deserves to do well, love it. not sure you'd get away with it in an English speaking country :-)
Cheers, surprisingly few of the Brits around here have twigged the name. It's been on sale in a local bar for some time and it was only the other day, when I was in there and asking if they needed any more Effinguud, did the lady working on the bar realise how it was pronounced... She lol'd a little. It was quite funny when I had a couple of Customs officers here helping me with my first stock take and the paperwork. They were just blathering on to each other with the occasional Effinguud thrown in. Heh Heh!
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stevetk189
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Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by stevetk189 » Fri Oct 04, 2013 3:07 pm

Baldbrewer wrote:+1 great website, good luck with your venture, good to see its going well, Regrettez-vous quelque chose?
Wish I was as brave =D>
No regrets other than wishing i'd opted for larger gear to begin with. Still, I had no idea how well the beers when going to start selling. My pumpkin beer (home grown butternut squash) is just about sold out already and I was hoping it would last until the Crimby beer is launched on 1st Dec.... So, I'm sourcing some local grown squash to do another batch asap.

Madness! Loving it, but it's totally overwhelmed me.
My Craft Brewery in France - Brasserie Artisanale en Limousin
My Craft Distillery in France - French Gin

pantsmachine

Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by pantsmachine » Tue Oct 08, 2013 6:18 am

Hop blitzing, what an excellent idea. I shall try this on my next brew, thanks!

Does the debris float or sink?

killer
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Re: Citra IPA with blitzed hops

Post by killer » Tue Oct 08, 2013 5:52 pm

pantsmachine wrote:Hop blitzing, what an excellent idea. I shall try this on my next brew, thanks!

Does the debris float or sink?

PDTNC had a thread on here linking to a great presentation about dry hopping, that's where I saw the idea.
I found that 2 days at 5° dropped most of the hops out, I bottled carefully using a little bottler and have not had any hop debris in any bottles....
I'll definitely do this again.

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