Amarillo/Citra Pale - Advice

[Rhodesy]

Hi,


Does anyone have experience of an APA using these two hops combined? I have brewed with them both before but usually as single hop or with others. I have split out the 78c steeping hops and dry hop additions as initially was going to go for 50g of each as a dry hop. The other steep addition is 20g of each at flameout before cooling down to 78c after 5 minutes.

Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 31.00 l
Post Boil Volume: 26.00 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Bottling Volume: 22.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 8.6 EBC
Estimated IBU: 38.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 84.5 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 95.1 %
0.26 kg Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC) Grain 2 4.9 %
10.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - First Wort 75.0 Hop 3 9.7 IBUs
10.00 g Citra [13.50 %] - First Wort 75.0 min Hop 4 15.5 IBUs
20.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 5 3.4 IBUs
20.00 g Citra [13.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 5.4 IBUs
25.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool Hop 7 0.0 IBUs
25.00 g Citra [13.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 m Hop 8 0.0 IBUs
20.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool Hop 9 1.7 IBUs
20.00 g Citra [13.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 5.0 m Hop 10 2.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [ Yeast 11 -
25.00 g Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
25.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Day Hop 13 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Braumeister 4 step light body 76% efficiency
Total Grain Weight: 5.26 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
add malt pipe Add 34.22 l of water and heat to 40.0 C 40.0 C 0 min
Protein Mode Heat to 52.0 C over 5 min 56.0 C 20 min
Maltose mode Heat to 63.0 C over 5 min 63.0 C 40 min
Saccharification Heat to 73.0 C over 5 min 73.0 C 35 min
Mash Out Heat to 78.0 C over 5 min 78.0 C 10 min

[seymour]

Yeah, that'll taste great. Those two hops go great together, and are often blended in popular commercial brews from Adnams, Firestone Walker, lots of American craft brewers.

Go for it!

[Mattpc]

Red Willow of Macclesfield do a rather fine beer called Wreckless made with these two hops. It's a good combo.

[Rhodesy]

I brewed this up as planned the other week and had a sample pint over the weekend from the keg. Was very impressed with it and cant see it lasting long. I didn't use US05 in the end but NBS West Coast which I believe is BRY-97. I also upped the dry hopping to 50g after all. One I would brew again.

[Clibit]

Red Willow of Macclesfield do a rather fine beer called Wreckless made with these two hops. It's a good combo.

Wreckless is a beer I love, and a Citra/Amarillo beer is on my to do list.

[Mattpc]

Certainly it's a great combo. I sometimes think that the good qualities of Citra get masked by being mixed with too many other hops. However, I think it really suits being paired with Amarillo. You get orange, buttery, vanilla, oily body from the Amarillo and the delicious lemon notes from the Citra. Last Wreckless brew I mixed Amarillo and Citra at all points in the boil and dry hopped with extra Amarillo. Trying something with lower IBU this time but lots of dry hopping with a total of 100g of hops (50 of which in the dry hop) 50 of Citra 50 of Amarillo over a 19litre batch. Yeast I'm going for Safale US05 but I'd consider Mangrove Jacks Burton Union next time for more fruity notes. I've got two batches in the fermenters at the moment so not tasted it yet but am hopeful...

[Clibit]

I seem to prefer Citra when it IS paired with another, compatible hop, myself. On its own I seem to like it less.

[Mattpc]

It's interesting isn't it? We all seem to taste beers differently. I often taste commercial beers where I assume that they have been badly planned because they don't taste like well balanced, rounded recipes to me. However, I suspect other people may taste them and totally disagree with my subjective opinion.

[LarryF]

I think our experiences of home brewing change our taste buds when it comes to commercial beers, I suppose it's just having a more informed palette. When I go out for a beer I make a real effort not to go in a big speech about whatever it is that ends up in front of me, it bores the life out of people. My daughter however will give it five minutes and then say "Ok Dad, tell me about the beer" and then I get to bend her ear about my take it, bless her. The Amarillo/Citra mix at 8.8AA and 13.5AA respectively sound like a really nice combination, not over done on the bitterness sy 38.4IBU but it's going to have a lovely deep flavour.