One of my favorite styles of beer is the American Pale Ale. The primary focus of a pale ale is the liberal usage of hops for bittering, flavor, and aroma. Traditional German and English hops have characteristics that are earthy, grassy, spicy, and floral. Horticulturists in the United States have developed new breeds of hop plants that not only produce better yields, better resistance to disease, but also have a interesting new characteristics to them. The American hops used in American pale ales are typically have citrus characteristics in aroma and taste such as pineapple, orange, grapefruit, etc.
One of the ways I have helped to learn about a particular hop is to create a recipe for a beer and use only one variety of hop. I previously brewed an all Amarillo hopped pale ale, which I learned gives the beer grapefruit and floral notes. The California Common ale also contained all Northern Brewer hops. My impression of Northern Brewer is that it gives the beer a lemon and pepper aroma and flavor.
For this pale ale, I used a new hop strain that only became available in the last month at Midwest Supplies. The hop strain is called Citra and as the name suggests gives the beer a citrus flavor and aroma. In particular, the flavor and aroma is supposed to be similar to passion fruit and lychee.
As you can see from below, I added hops to this beer during the boil on a 5 minute increment. I was actually so busy with the hop additions that I forgot to add two pounds of malt extract. Therefore, a beer that was intended to be 6.0% abv is now only 4.5% abv. It will be interesting to see what difference this makes as their is less malt flavor to balance the hops.
Amount Item Type
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [Starter 1000 ml] Yeast-Ale
3/29/2010 Clean and prepare equipment.
-- Measure ingredients, crush grains.
-- Prepare Water (5.83 gal total)
Amount Item Type
5.00 gal Distilled Water Water
-- Steep Specialty Grains
Amount Item Type
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain
-- Add water to achieve boil volume of 4.08 gal
-- Estimated Pre-boil Gravity is: 1.058 SG with all grains/extracts added
Boil for 60 min Boil Ingredients
Boil Amount Item Type
60 min 6.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract
60 min 0.50 oz Citra [11.10 %] (60 min) Hops
30 min 0.25 oz Citra [11.10 %] (30 min) Hops
25 min 0.25 oz Citra [11.10 %] (25 min) Hops
20 min 0.50 oz Citra [11.10 %] (20 min) Hops
15 min 0.50 oz Citra [11.10 %] (15 min) Hops
10 min 0.50 oz Citra [11.10 %] (10 min) Hops
10 min 0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
5 min 0.50 oz Citra [11.10 %] (5 min) Hops
0 min 1.00 oz Citra [11.10 %] (0 min) Hops
-- Cool wort to fermentation temperature
-- Add 1.75 gal water (as needed) to achieve volume of 5.00 gal
-- Siphon wort to primary fermenter and aerate wort.
-- Add Ingredients to Fermenter
Amount Item Type
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [Starter 1000 ml] Yeast-Ale
3/29/2010 Measure Original Gravity: 1.046 (Estimate: 1.045 SG)
3/29/2010 Measure Batch Volume: 5.0(Estimate: 5.00 gal)
7 days Ferment in primary for 7 days at 68.0 F
4/5/2010 Transfer to Secondary Fermenter
7 days Ferment in secondary for 7 days at 68.0 F
-- Add Ingredients to Fermenter
Amount Item Type
2.00 oz Citra [11.10 %] (Dry Hop 12 days) Hops
4/17/2010 Measure Final Gravity: 1.011 (Estimate: 1.010 SG
SRM: 10
IBU: 60
ABV: 4.56%
Citra on Red Cap
