To bring in the new year I wanted to surround my self with my closet friends and family ( meaning all of you craft beer nuts). I am brewing an 5 gal. All Grain Ipa and I want to capture the essence of citrus in so many ways. I have been brewing beer for some time now and I have recipes, but i wanted to see what ideas you guys mite have. I was thinking of incorporating as much as I can from the replies and ring in the New year with a “Forum” brew. Thanks and Happy New Year from LBD
I think your poll might be a bit messed up but I’ll give a shot.
For big citrus I like cascade, centennial, amarillo, and citra. I’ve tried exactly one beer with sorachi ace and it was nice too. sort of lemony.
The cascade can be a bit more piney to me sometimes so if you really want to stick pure citrus you could back off on that one. centennial and amarillo both give me grapefruit (my favorite citrus). Citra is grapefruit but also tropical pineapple/mango.
I’ll throw out a simple, good IPA grist/recipe : 75% 2 Row
20% Munich
5% Crystal 40
OG 1.062-1.064
IBU 70-75
Mash 150F/60 mins
250ppm sulfate
1 oz Columbus - 60 mins
As for the citrusy finishing hops, there are lots of good ones to experiment with: Centennial, Amarillo, Citra, Ahtanum, Sorachi Ace, Galaxy, Equinox, Falconer’s Flight, to name a few. Experiment and have fun !
EDIT - This link to the HopUnion wheel is excellent. It has others, too
I just had a bottle of a super citrus-y brew from a local brewer, Element, called citronium. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22202/100249/
I bring this up because I wanted to remind you that hops is not the only source of citrus flavor. This beer had more citrus flavor than I have ever had. They used citra hops, kaffir lime leaves, and grapefruit oil at bottling. I also believe someone who works there said it had lemongrass from his garden.
I’m going to try something with kaffir lime leaves myself.
my hop schedule lately for IPA is something a blend of my flavor/aroma hops at FWH for say 20-30 IBU another 20-30 IBU from a 60 minute charge of something aggressive and a bit sharp like columbus, followed by an ounce per gallon or so of the flavor aroma blend in a post boil steep/whirlpool after chilling to 170*. Then dry hop with a similar amount of the same flavor/aroma blend.
If you’re thinking of adding citrus to the mash or boil, you might want to rethink things. Neither will give you much character. You’d be best to add citrus post fermentation.
I love fruit-bomb IPA’s like Sculpin. I use 5 hop varieties in my house IPA - Apollo (orange/dank), Motueka (lime zest/lemongrass), Citra (mango/citrus), Meridian (nectarine) and Nelson Sauvin (white grapefruit/white wine). I use no hops in the boil, and add all my boil hops in at flameout, then whirlpool for 60-90 minutes.
The end result is loaded with juicy grapefruit and pineapple flavors. At the peak of freshness, it’s more Mai Tai than IPA.
Finish and dry hop with Amarillo, Centennial, cascade, Citra, and Galaxy. To be honest, unless you use twice as mush cascade as the others, it will get lost. I always bitter IPAs with Columbus.
I’m kicking off 2015 with an obnoxious IIPA on the other end of the spectrum with dank/resin/piney with a combo of Columbus, Simcoe, Chinook, and Centennial. Centennial in both citrus and piney IPAs? I forget who said it here on the forum but I love it… “I use Centennial in everything that ends with an A.”