I’m thinking of making an all-citra IPA. Curious about recommendations for hopping schedule. Shooting for 60-70 IBUs. Mainly curious how much to use for dry hopping.
Also, what specialty grains would you use? I’m thinking up to about 3 lbs of grains and the rest extract for an ABV of about 6.5-7.
Thanks!
I’ve had some suceess lately with a single hop IPA using just a bittering charge and dry hopping at the end. Had a Nelson Sauvin IPA (11.2) 2 oz @ 60 gave me 66 IBU, 2 oz dry hop. Grains were 2 row, Carapils, 80 L. for 1.066 OG.
Simple & let the hop shine through.
Yeah I’m plugging those ideas into the software right now, except with citra hops. How about a pound and a half of 2-row and a pound of carapils. How’s that for grains?
Hops wise I was probably going to use an ounce each of citra at 60, 15, 5, 0 and dry for five ounces total, although I would consider two ounces of dry for six ounces total, or perhaps something else. I haven’t used citra before though so any suggestions on that particular hop welcome!
Hmmm… switching out the grains and leaving everything else the same, it would have these targets:
OG 1.062 FG 1.016 IBU 64.8 SRM 5.67 ABV 6.03
Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract
3 lbs, 0 oz
Briess Golden Light Dry Extract
3 lbs, 0 oz
Briess 2-Row Brewer’s Malt
1 lbs, 8 oz
Caramel Pils
1 lbs, 0 oz
Citra Pellets
1 oz @ 60 mins
Citra Pellets
1 oz @ 15 mins
Citra Pellets
1 oz @ 5 mins
Citra Pellets
1 oz @ 0 mins
Citra Pellets
1 oz @ Dry
Wyeast Labs American Ale
I note that the SRM is quite low, although I would not be opposed to a very light colored IPA. Comments?
I haven’t done an all citra IPA but I feel it might be overwhelming in large doses by itself. I had a commercial all simcoe IPA and it was awful. But I would be interested to hear how some have turned out.
For your speciality grains- 2 row isn’t one- I would do more like 1/2 carapils and 1/2 crystal between 10-60 and or maybe 1/2 carastan or caramunich or caravienne something like that. Just a half hour steep for sugar/color and some flavor/body. If a mini mash I would skip the 2 row and do munich with a little carapils and a little crystal. Something along those lines.
You don’t need carapils if you’re using LME/DME… and me personally, I would put enough in at 60m to get your bitterness around 50IBUs, then dump the rest in at 5 min, dry hopping is up to you but if you want alot of flavor, hopburst it.
My standard hop schedule for an AIPA is FWH, 60, flameout and dry hop. And I agree that an all Citra beer might be a bit too much…but that’s based solely on my own tastes.
I would definitely add a 30 addition. The FWH helps here, but flavor additions are needed in my opinion.
Thanks for the replies. Been crunching numbers and checking ingredients… how about this?
Briess Golden Light Dry Extract
3 lbs, 0 oz
Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract
3 lbs, 0 oz
Briess 2 Row Caramel 10
1 lbs, 0 oz
Caramel Munich
1 lbs, 0 oz
Citra Pellets
0.5 oz @ FWH
Citra Pellets
0.5 oz @ 60 mins
Citra Pellets
0.5 oz @ 20 mins
Citra Pellets
1 oz @ 5 mins
Citra Pellets
1 oz @ Dry
Wyeast Labs American Ale
OG 1.060 FG 1.015 IBU 58.6 SRM 10.83 ABV 5.90
I’d like to perfect a base recipe that I can use in the future to showcase a specific hop variety (albeit with different hop schedules, depending on the variety).
I do love hops and I’m willing to take a chance on an all-citra IPA. If it comes out horrible, I’ll let you know, and if it totally rocks of course you’ll be hearing about that too. 8)
Again, I’d have to say too much cara…2 lb. in addition to what the extract is made with could leave you with a really sweet beer.
i’ve heard that heady topper is pretty heavy handed on the citra and possibly even citra only and that stuff is nectar of the gods.
i’m brewing a single hop (apollo) black ipa next. i plan on adding .25 ounces of hops every five minutes and then 2 ounces at flameout and 2 ounces dry. i’m naming it, “showtime at the apollo”.
I’d suggest moving your 20m to 10m and go for it. I don’t think you’re going to have an overly sweet beer like Denny is suggesting… just realize you’re putting extra non-fermentables in there, you’re gravity won’t get as low as you might want it to.
Heady topper IS definitely nectar of the gods… 
OK thanks everybody I think I have my recipe down. I cut back a little on the specialty grains, upped the malt extracts a little so the ABV will be 6.5, and bumped the 20 minute addition forward to 15 minutes. I think I’ll go with that and let you know how it comes out!
Unfortunately, I have almost 5 weeks left working in the desert before I can actually brew any of these recipes… but hey, you gotta dream, right? It will taste SO very good when I get back and finally dig into the batch that’s waiting for me now…
If it were my beer, I would use something else for bittering - summit or apollo. But that’s just my cost-effective-bittering mindset. And my favorite hop schedule for AIPA is currently 60-30-10-0-dry and it used to be 60-15-5-0-dry.
I’d move your last hop addition to flameout. Kill the heat and make sure the boil has stopped before adding your last hop addition to minimize the amount of essential oils that get blown off. I also suggest doing a hot whirlpool and letting the hops steep a bit before starting to chill your wort.
As far as the IPA FG debate goes, everybody has their own opinion. Some like their IPAs bone dry and some like it a bit sweeter/fuller. Personally I don’t mind a sweeter IPA when it’s a fruity hop-bomb, but I like it drier when it’s a bit more balanced between bitter and flavor/aroma hops. A lot of the beers from Lagunitas finish in the high teens for FG and they have some amazing beers. But I think that their higher gravity is largely due to mash temp and not specialty malts. I’d dial back the cara malts a bit and maybe add some carapils to bring you back up to your target FG.
Extract beers finish on the sweeter end, anyway, and there is already carapils in most pale extracts. I’d probably use no more than 8 oz of crystal (maybe 40L) and the rest pale or extra light malt extract.
All Simcoe god awful???
That sir is like saying a red cooler is better than blue…
Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA for the win!
LOL ;D ;D Simcoe is one of my top three favorite hops and I love citra also.
But that beer you listed is the one I was referring to. :'( I’d be willing to chalk it up to a bad 4 pack and would try it again but only at the brewery.
I LOVE Citra!
An FG of 1.015 sounds really high for an IPA… You may add some sugar/honey to dry it out a bit (I usually dont use more than 10%).
Multiple, short dry hop regimens will give you that in-your-face aroma.
You know, when I tasted this beer when it first came out 6 years ago or so, I really didn’t like it. The bitterness was like earwax. Not sure if I’ve changed or the beer has changed, but I enjoy it now 
how do you know what earwax tastes like?