Saturday, February 28, 2009

Citra

2/8: 5 gals. OG 1060 SNPA-style Pale Ale with Citra hops.

The Citra are an experimental variety that some of the WAHA kids each got 3 ounces of. High alpha Hallertau-type with a real firm grapey citrus Cascade thing happening. We're supposedly brewing our own batches of beer with this hop and planning a tasting to get a feel for it's character. For a 60 minute boil, I added ounces at 60 & 40 and .5 at 20. Beer Tools Pro called out 109 IBU, which I'll take with a grain of salt. I'll pull the last .5 ounce through the Krups and add the resulting hop extract straight to the keg. This method of steam extraction is good for at least 4 fluid ounces of the sickest bitter bong water goodness you could imagine. Way beyond a simple hop tea, you get bitterness along with the flavor and aroma. All part of an effort to get the most out of what few Citra hops I had on hand. I'm shooting for the one beer out of the group that shows what you get when you over bitter. We'll see.

1 comment:

Kevin said...

I like your hopping spirits. I've thought about sending hops through the Krups to remove as many oils as I can. Then I'd take the wet hops and boil them in water for 30 minutes, cool and mix the two liquids. Mmmm alpha acids...