Greetings to all. My last homebrew was a Citra only Pale ale kit that I got from Morebeer and I really liked it. My brother brought over a single hop Mosaic IPA that was also very good. So I started thinking, is there a way I can meld both these hops into a really tasty IPA? Here is what I have in the Citra Ale that I bought:
.5oz Magnum at 60
1oz Citra at 15
1oz Citra at 5
1oz Citra dry hopped post fermentation and 3 to 7 days prior to kegging (I think I hit the middle and did it after 5 days)
My thought is to half the Citra and add the Mosaic. But, I am also wondering what would happen if I just add the Mosaic in with the Citra? Maybe at the 15 and 5 minute marks an ounce each. Would that just make it way too hoppy?
My other thought was to just to the same recipe and substitute the Mosaic for the Citra just to see what happens.
One of the great things about home brewing is you can do anything you want with your beers. Mosaic is the hop most often paired with Citra and is also great by itself. Whichever you decide on should make for a great beer.
[emoji23] Dave. Yes, Citra and Mosaic are commonly used together. Recipes like this use the combination with other hops. I like to use the combination with Amarillo.
That’s the best way to learn. Brew the same recipe, and tweak one thing at a time.
A few things I would do differently…
Take out the crystal malt. If you want the color/character substitute it with a german cara malt, or amber malt
You can use citra to bitter, i’d do a first wort addition with it. Save the 15 and 5 minute additions for a hop stand or whirlpool.
It seems to me like that recipe was designed around 2010-2015. A lot has changed since then!
For me, I believe citra and mosaic together is pretty bland - but when you add in a third hop like galaxy or some other trendy hop, it comes out real nice. Be careful when adding in the third hop, some hops perform better on the cold side. When I added galaxy as a bittering hop, I got a strong bitter menthol flavor from it. Galaxy is one of those hops that work best on the cold side. So if you do go with mosaic/citra/galaxy - use galaxy in cooled wort or as a dry hop.
Just my personal taste I guess. It’s probably from Briess, and I’m not very impressed with their crystal malts. I do like the color is adds, but i’d rather use something like Carahell for that light of a crystal malt.
