Thursday, May 27, 2010

All Citra APA

So I found a bunch of Citra hops at the new homebrew shop in Gilbert and decided to use them to brew a single hop beer. Based on a recent experiment I did with a SMaSH beer, I knew that you could learn a ton about a hop this way, but I also learned that the SM portion could make the beer unbalanced and less than perfectly drinkable. I decided to take a well documented American Pale Ale recipe and only change the hop portion to end up with the same IBUs at around the same time in the beer, and a generous dry hop. Brew day went well, although I am still having problems hitting my mash temp without making some kind of adjustment after doughing in. My winter problems were too cold my first warm weather brew was too hot. Despite this, I have had no problem actually maintaining 60 minutes at within 3 degrees of my goal temp. I pitched the yeast just a few degrees above my goal (I think it was 72) and fermented for 10 days at 68 degrees, let it rise to 72 for day then set it to crash for racking. 12 hours after setting it to crash it was down to 55 degrees. I am also using this as a bit of an experiment to see if I can ferment at lager temps this summer. With a bit of good luck I hope to get this beer force carbonated by Sunday in time to take at least a taste while dry hoping, with the ultimate goal of having this beer to share for the June ASH meeting.

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