Citra Session IPA Homebrew - Recipe and Results
Every season has its beer, and therefore every homebrewer must have a beer for the season. Easier said than done. The season we struggle to create a beer for is summer. Summer is not like fall or winter (or spring) where we can throw a whole bunch of flavorful malts into a pot and round them off with whatever hops we feel. No, summer beers (especially here in South Texas) take finesse and focus, attention to detail so that the malt is not too sweet and heavy and the hops are not too bitter or overpowering. When using fewer ingredients to create a light, sessionable beer the margin of error gets smaller and smaller as the beer approaches the balance necessary to make it truly sessionable.
As I said, easier said than done.
But we’re reaching for an iconic hop, Citra, to round this thing out. And though I hate to admit it, one of our first true failures as homebrewers was a Citra table beer, so we’re reaching for a little redemption as well.
Check out the recipe and results below to see how we did on our Citra Session IPA 1-gallon batch.
Recipe
Malt
2-Row - 25.6 oz (1.6 lbs) (84.2% of mash)
Caramel 20L - 3.2 oz (0.2 lb) (9.5% of mash)
Carapils - 1.6 oz (0.1 lb) (5.3 % of mash)
The ratios for something like this are pretty common. If you wish, you could go with a simple 85/10/5 ratio to make it easier, but we wanted to keep our grains south of 2 lbs. to keep the ABV low and sessionable. You could also go with straight 2-row and get some really good results. We added the Caramel 20L for a touch of sweetness to stand up to the bold Citra, and a dash of Carapils to, hopefully, add body and head retention, both of which are hard to find in light beers.
We mashed our malt in 3 quarts of water at 150℉ for one hour and then sparged with one gallon of 170℉ water. We collected that sweet wort and moved onto the one-hour boil. Time for some hops!
Before we start the boil, I think it’s time to be honest about this beer--it has more than one hop in it. We chose to use Magnum hops at the start of the boil to get a consistent bittering we have come to appreciate. The alpha acid (bittering portion of hops) for our Magnum hops is 11.2%, and our Citra hops are at 13.2%. If you like it a little more bitter feel free to go with Citra or any other dual-purpose or bittering hop you know, love, or want to experiment with.
Now, onto the boil!
Boil (60 minutes)
Magnum - 0.1 oz at the start (60 minutes)
Irish moss clarifier (optional) - ⅕ tsp with 15 minutes remaining
Citra - 0.1 oz with 10 minutes remaining
Citra - 0.2 oz at flameout (0 minutes)
Citra - 0.2 oz dry-hopped 3-5 days after start of fermentation.
We only added 0.1 ounce of Citra during the boil to get some hop flavor but to keep the bittering potential low. Then we added the next two additions at flameout and during fermentation to get the aromatic side Citra is revered for.
Brewer tip: Play around with temperatures a bit when adding a dose of hops at flameout. When the kettle comes off the heat the temp can remain around boiling for a while, and this can reduce the more volatile hop oils you might want around—oils like myrcene that add a fruity and floral touch. Adding hops between temps 185-195℉ and then swirling the wort for a bit can pull the oils suspended in the hops into your wort, adding more flavor. But beware letting the wort drop below 180℉—that’s when the bad stuff can get into the beer and turn your elixir sour.
After the boil, we then cooled the beer and added 3 grams of preactivated US-05 yeast Safale (3 grams yeast in 30 ml of 95-105℉ water for 20-30 minutes) and let it ferment for two weeks to let all those delicious yeast and hop oils dance together. Then we added 0.85 oz of corn sugar boiled in 1 cup of water for five minutes for priming (skip this if you keg), bottled it (yield: 10 bottles), and waited another two weeks.
Now for the fun. Here’s our first impressions of our Citra Session IPA!
Results
On the Eyes--Straw to golden in color. Slightly hazy from the dry-hop addition. Not very much head forms, so maybe we could increase the Carapils, or we can just recognize that this isn’t uncommon for the style.
On the Nose--Citra is a really common hop nowadays, and even if you’re not familiar with it you might be able to recognize its aroma because it’s so widely used. In our IPA, there is no doubt that it is Citra. I get peach and citrus most prominently, and behind that I get a nice malt crispness, which is exactly what we’re looking for.
On the Palate--The crisp malt comes through very well on an easy and light body, and that’s good, but the star of the show is Citra, and it comes through clearly. I get a lime bitterness from the Citra/Magnum combo which balances out the slight sweetness from the malt and the fruitiness of the Citra. The fruit comes across more aromatically than in the flavor, but it is certainly there to add some sweet and floral notes. The finish is dry, but the bitterness lingers only a moment, which is how we like our session IPAs. The carbonation is just where we like it and, hey, it’s really easy to drink, so much so that we might have two … despite this South Texas heat.
Final Thoughts:
It can be easy to overdo the Citra. Trust us, we know, and that’s where our first sessionable table beer went wrong. When overdone, the Citra becomes very bitter (if too much is added during the boil) or too grassy and oniony (if too much is added to the cold side). These mistakes are easy to make, and we’ve made them over and over.
Luckily, those mistakes led to this beer. It’s well-balanced for a session beer, offering the right amount of sweetness from the malt and fruity hops to compete with the hop bitterness. Every brewer needs a beer for every season, and we’ve found our summer beer. This recipe is also adaptable to your favorite hop. If you’re not sure where to start, try anything that starts with C. I think in the next batch we’ll give Mosaic or Centennial a try.
Brew on, and keep experimenting, because that’s what it’s all about.
Cheers!
Mr. Brew