Maris Otter and Citra

[guypettigrew]

Has anyone ever brewed a beer using only Maris Otter pale malt and Citra hops?

How did it taste?

I'm wondering about using 5kg MO, with Citra to give about 35-40 IBUs. Plus Citra at flame out and Citra to dry hop. Brew length of 23 litres.

Would the lack of any other malts make it taste thin and uninteresting?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Guy

[TC2642]

I usually mash at around 65-68oC and most of my beers are pale malt with some wheat malt for head retention, no problems with it being thin, I have also done an all Citra beer with good results, although you could use something like Magnum for bittering and Citra for aroma but all Citra is a nice drop.

[boingy]

I think that will turn out well. Certainly no problem with all-Citra beer and the lack of other malts will allow the hops to shine. Brew it!

[jonnyt]

As it happens I have one fermenting now, with all latish hop additions, 25g at 30m 25g at 10 minute and 100g cube hopped.

[guypettigrew]

What does "cube hopped" mean, please?

Thanks.

Guy

[jonnyt]

I use no chill cubes so after switch off transfer the wort to 25L cubes after around 20 minutes settle time. Cub hopped means adding the hops to the cube thus effectively the hops are steeped from around 85C down to ambient temperature in what is effectively a sealed environment. Thus the aroma's etc should not be evaporated off.

I'm only on my second such brew, the first was a SMASH with Marykna hops which is going to be bottled / polypinned this week so to date I cannot 100% vouch for the method, but the samples of the Marykna brew definitely have the hop shinning through.

[seymour]

Oh man, I love Marynka hops. I've only found pellets and extract here in the States, but I'm always on the lookout for whole hops. Love that cedar and licorice essence!

[Invalid Stout]

I have made a 100% Maris Otter and Citra beer and it turned out lovely. You could even go 100% lager malt if you wanted.

[weiht]

Made a all citra APA earlier this year and it was amazing!! Careful on dry hopping as they carry lots of oils, a little goes a long way or it can be too grassy.

23L OG - 1.051
35IBU
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.10 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 82.00 %
0.35 kg Munich Malt (6.0 SRM) Grain 7.00 %
0.35 kg Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 7.00 %
0.20 kg Caramalt (15.0 SRM) Grain 4.00 %
10.00 gm Citra [13.90 %] (60 min) Hops 15.1 IBU
60.00 gm Citra [13.90 %] (30 min Flame Out Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
22.00 gm Citra [13.90 %] (20 min) Hops 20.2 IBU
15.00 gm Citra [13.90 %] (3 days Dry Hop) Hops
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale or US05

[wjohnson12321]

This combo made my best beer to date...

4000g Maris Otter
250g Torrified Wheat (Altho you don't technically need this if you don't want)

20g Citra @ 90
30g Citra @ 10
30g Citra @ 0
20g Citra @ Dry Hopped

Lovely and zesty (Summer Tipple) with a nice grapefruit/passion fruit hit.

[seymour]

This combo made my best beer to date...Lovely and zesty (Summer Tipple) with a nice grapefruit/passion fruit hit.

Sounds delicious!

[Matt12398]

No wonder they seem to be out of stock of Citra everywhere, you buggers seem to have taken them all.

[oneilldave]

This combo made my best beer to date...

4000g Maris Otter
250g Torrified Wheat (Altho you don't technically need this if you don't want)

20g Citra @ 90
30g Citra @ 10
30g Citra @ 0
20g Citra @ Dry Hopped

Lovely and zesty (Summer Tipple) with a nice grapefruit/passion fruit hit.

Funnily enough, I've made something like this once when I was still in the days of extract brewing. I got a very pale malt extract and used nearly the same quantities of hops and the beer was lovey, but incredibly bitter. Since then, I have moved on to all grain and made one with pure lager malt but only 10g of citra at the start of boil and 20g at 20mins from the end and 20g at flame out. T'was a lovely brew, with all the wonderful fruit flavours mentioned. I used Safbrew's T58 yeast as I like the spicyness it adds to the overall flavour.

But a mini word of warning - the AA on citra is so high you could over bitter your beer if not careful, and I also found that the flavour attenuated quite quickly over time and I started to loose those wonderful citrusy notes. So, drink it young!

Enjoy,

Dave.

[GrowlingDogBeer]

I have made an all Citra beer very similar, turned out great. I didn't dry hop though which was a mistake, I will dry hop the next one which I hope to make in a fortnights time.