INTRODUCING: Seymour Citra Dark

[seymour]

SEYMOUR CITRA DARK

All Grain Homebrew Recipe
6 US Gallons = 5 Imperial Gallons = 22.7 Litres



For awhile now, I've been brainstorming how to build upon the success of SEYMOUR CITRA GOLD. After some trial-and-error, I think I've nailed it. It's bigger, browner, breadier, bad-ass-ier and a bit expensive-er to brew. Categorize it however you want: American Brown Ale, Black IPA, modernized India Porter, Dry-Hopped Demon Juice… whatev's, I don't care. I think you'll agree it's a cool fusion of new and old, English and American, strong and sessionable, complex and easy-suppin'.

Place your orders early. If this CITRA DARK recipe proves half as popular as CITRA GOLD, there's gonna be a run on Citra hops at your local homebrew supplier. My apologies to the porridge oats industry: I still think you're lovely…it's not you, it's me.

GRAINBILL:
75% = 9.3 lbs = 4.22 kg, UK PALE MALT (e.g. Maris Otter or Golden Promise, the freshest possible)
12% = 1.49 lb = 676 g, TORRIFIED WHEAT (NOT wheat malt)
5% = .62 lb = 281 g, RYE MALT
2% = .25 lb = 113 g, UK DARK CRYSTAL MALT
1.5% = .19 lb = 86 g, UK PALE CHOCOLATE MALT (NOT US Chocolate Malt)
4.5% = .56 lb = 254 g, UK BLACK PATENT MALT (this is essential, DO NOT substitute Carafa, De-bittered Black, Chocolate, Roasted Barley, etc.)

MASH @ 148°F/64°C for 60 min. Optional: stir-in a pinch of Calcium carbonate (chalk, to simulate limestone well-water, it also balances acidity from the dark malts.)

VORLAUF and SPARGE slowly to collect 7.5 US Gal/6.2 Imperial Gal/28.4 L pre-boil.

BOIL hard, uncovered for 60 min. Optional: add a pinch of gypsum to make the hops pop.

HOPBILL:
1.5 oz = 43 g, UK CHALLENGER, First Wort Hops (add to empty kettle, then sparge wort onto them. These also serve as your bittering hop.)
1 oz = 28 g, UK PROGRESS, 15 minutes remaining
1 oz = 28 g, UK PROGRESS, at flame-out (steep until chilled)
6 oz = 170 g, CITRA, dry-hops added to fully-fermented beer, steep 1-2 weeks before bottling/kegging. Yes, you read that correctly.

RACK to fermentor, then AERATE (a Ditch-style drill-powered paint-stirrer works great,) then PITCH yeast starter.

YEAST: Brewer's Choice.
Ideally, ferment with an historic top-cropped English ale yeast for a complex combo of fruity/spicy/woodsy traits. Some of my favourites are the Ringwood Brewery Dual-Strain (NOT the same as problematic single-strain Wyeast Ringwood 1187) or Adnams Brewery Dual-Strain (one of which is Wyeast 1335/White Labs WLP025, another good option) but I know those can be tough to score. Your favourite bold & high-attenuating UK ale yeast will work fine. Hell, invent your own dual-strain yeast. McEwans Scottish strain (Wyeast 1728/White Labs WLP028) or Fullers strain (Wyeast 1968/White Labs WLP002) would be great. Use Whitbread-B/S-04 or Nottingham if you must. But I don't wanna hear about any of you using "Chico"/Sierra Nevada/American Ale/Wyeast 1056/WLP001/US-05 on this beast.

FERMENT @ 69°F/20.5°C, allowing plenty of time for full attenuation. I'm serious guys, wait to get amongst it (don't tell Ditch!) I need you to hold your horses on this one, so the yeast can chomp through everything and all that roasted malt can mellow. Think weeks, not days. Once you're sure it's done, wait some more, then add your dry hops and wait some more. Trust me, you'll see.

APPROXIMATE STATS:
OG: 1057
FG: ≤1013
ABV: ≥5.7%
IBU: 45 (this beer has EXTREME hoppy flavours and aromas, but isn't extremely bitter.)
COLOUR: very dark reddish brown with creamy beige foam, everlasting with lace.

Cheers!
-Seymour

[Andy]

Excellent! I shall book a brewery slot for this one

[raiderman]

Since the introduction of Breakfast beers I have gone off dark beers, but I can't help thinking any beer with that much cirtra can't be anything but glorious. How does the citra react to the taste of the dark malts?

[seymour]

Magically.

[Matt12398]

I tried a Pressure Drop's Stokey Brown the other day which is guess is a hoppy brown ale. Once I'd gotten my head around it I was really into it so might be inclined to give this a try.

[Barley Water]

Wow, you must be getting commission from the growers of Citra. I want to say that the LHB shop is charging $3 an ounce for hops so unless you figure out a cheap source that is gonna be one expensive beer to make. Also (and related) your wort loss must be very high with that much dry hopping.

[Jocky]

I have found recently rehydrating the hops with boiled, cooled water while I turn them into a slurry using a grinder or blender largely solves the problem of dry hop loss.

[crookedeyeboy]

Yet another great post by Seymour! AND another bloody beer i have to add to my ever lengthening list of 'To Do's'!!

I brewed something not a million miles away form this last night, no Rye in it but a whole 100g of Citra in a robust porter:

Title: Taylormade Porter

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Robust Porter
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 25 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 34 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.035
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV (standard): 4.89%
IBU (tinseth): 43.38
SRM (ebcmorey): 64.3

FERMENTABLES:
2.5 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (45.5%)
1.5 kg - United Kingdom - Brown (27.3%)
1 kg - United Kingdom - Amber (18.2%)
400 g - United Kingdom - Pale Chocolate (7.3%)
100 g - United Kingdom - Black Patent (1.8%)

HOPS:
60 g - East Kent Goldings, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 4.7, Use: Boil for 90 min, IBU: 31.81
50 g - Citra, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 11, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 11.56
50 g - Citra, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 11, Use: Dry Hop for 14 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 68 C, Time: 75 min, Amount: 16.3 L
2) Fly Sparge, Temp: 75 C, Time: 45 min, Amount: 22.6 L
Starting Mash Thickness: 2.5 L/kg

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
4.3 g - Calcium Sulphate, Time: 75 min, Type: Water Agt, Use: Mash
10.7 g - Calcium Chloride Flake, Time: 75 min, Type: Water Agt, Use: Mash
3.2 g - Sodium Carbonate, Time: 75 min, Type: Water Agt, Use: Mash
2.3 g - Sodium Chloride, Time: 75 min, Type: Water Agt, Use: Mash
1.2 g - Protafloc Tablet, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (custom): 78%
Flocculation: Medium
Fermentation Temp: 20 C

TARGET WATER PROFILE:
Profile Name: Stouts, Porters and Milds
Ca2: 150
Mg2: 2
Na: 5
Cl: 200
SO4: 100
HCO3: 100
Water Notes:


This recipe has been published online at:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... ade-porter

Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2014-07-17 08:05 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2014-07-16 17:16 UTC

[seymour]

Wow, you must be getting commission from the growers of Citra. I want to say that the LHB shop is charging $3 an ounce for hops so unless you figure out a cheap source that is gonna be one expensive beer to make...

Heh, heh, I wish. But I know, it's a CRAZY amount of late Citra hops. This recipe (or something like it) is definitely something every hop head brewer who also appreciates a classic Big Brown English ale should brew at least once for kicks.

...Also (and related) your wort loss must be very high with that much dry hopping.

Possibly. Here's what I did to reduce that concern. After primary fermentation, I racked the beer to a secondary fermentor, leaving behind most of the spent yeast and trub. I added the dry hops to that new cleared fermentor. When I finally transferred out the finished beer to my bottling bucket, I left enough behind to swirl the hop slurry into a sanitized strainer over the bottling bucket, and actually compressed the hops to "wring-out" even more super-hoppy beer. I know this creates some haze and tiny particles, but this is a near opaque beer anyway so I didn't care. Plus it further contributes to the juicy/fruity/pulpy mouthfeel which works so well here.

I have found recently rehydrating the hops with boiled, cooled water while I turn them into a slurry using a grinder or blender largely solves the problem of dry hop loss.

That's another great idea, which I imagine would bring about a very similar result.

Whatever you do, even if the final output is reduced, what makes it to your glass is so very delicious it's worth it. I feel that IPA brewers must resign themselves to more brewery inefficiencies and losses than the rest of us anyway.

[mozza]

Are you feeling alright Seymour? No oats!

[djbadger]

Just had to resurrect this thread. Brewed this on the last day of July, more or less to the above recipe and left it to ferment while I was on holiday. I moved it to secondary, did the dry hop thing with pureed leaf Citra and have just kegged two corneys and filled 31 bottles.

Also I had about 2 gallons which wouldn't fit the secondarys so I filled two demijohns and pitched a bottle of some sour wort+yeast (that was the result of a starter that went wrong about a year ago but the result eventually tasted nice so I kept it). Will keep that in a dark cupboard for a while.

I've got to say (should be gotta but I'm too english) its tasting amazing, I could drink a pint just as it is flat from the fermenter. Almost like a really good pale ale but then the dark flavours of the malt creep in. Can't wait to get this one carbed up and ready.

The differences were: Fuggles and EKG as I had no Progress, and I used Edinburgh Ale WLP 028. Also it came out a bit lower abv - I had 1050 down to 1012 which should give me 5%.

Cheers Seymour!

[seymour]

Just had to resurrect this thread...

Thank you, Sir. I was sure hoping someone would take me up on this fine recipe. Looks like you're the first, my man!

...have just kegged two corneys and filled 31 bottles. Also I had about 2 gallons which wouldn't fit the secondarys so I filled two demijohns...

Holy crap! How big a batch was that? You must've spent a fortune on hops. I'm honoured you trusted my recipe so much. I assure you the beer will be the reward, worth every penny.

...I filled two demijohns and pitched a bottle of some sour wort+yeast (that was the result of a starter that went wrong about a year ago but the result eventually tasted nice so I kept it). Will keep that in a dark cupboard for a while...

Awesome idea. I can't wait to hear how that turns out.

...I've got to say (should be gotta but I'm too english) its tasting amazing, I could drink a pint just as it is flat from the fermenter. Almost like a really good pale ale but then the dark flavours of the malt creep in...

That's a good description, I agree 100%. It's VERY malty and VERY hoppy, with a big round mouthfeel from so much unmalted wheat. I think it's that particular balance which makes it seem not as dark as it looks. I was trying to prove you can still have the malt complexity of a dark English ale even when hopping like an American IPA. Plus the fact it's dark eliminates everyone's retarded complaints about natural haziness which results from extreme dry-hopping.

...The differences were: Fuggles and EKG as I had no Progress...

That's okay, smoke 'em if you got 'em. Can't go wrong with that classic combo. As a side note, have you ever used Progress hops? I'd love to know what you think. Reviews seem mixed but I think the combo of Challenger and Progress is heavenly.

...and I used Edinburgh Ale WLP 028. Also it came out a bit lower abv - I had 1050 down to 1012 which should give me 5%...

A perfect yeast choice, and nice gravity outcomes too. Very nice work.

...Cheers Seymour!

Cheers to you! Thanks for the feedback.

[simpleton]

I made 50l of this one myself. Followed the exact recipe, using wlp002 as the yeast.

Apart from the fact the yeast predictably decided to drop out at about 1030, then again at 1020, I hit all the numbers pretty much bang on.

I've only just kegged it, so not tasted it proper since I dry hopped with the obscene amounts of citra. I was very tempted not to dry hop it as when I tasted it the day I did, it was lovely!

Then again if it was lovely before adding a load of citra...there is only one way that is going!

[seymour]

Sweet! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the final outcome.

[Andy]

Brewing this tomorrow.