Etcitra, Etcitra (my rendition of Widmer's Citra Blonde)

[philm00x]

Summer in Florida blends into Spring, so it's already starting to get hot out and I want to keep the refreshing, lighter beers on hand for the season. I really, really enjoyed Widmer's Citra Blonde so I decided to try and brew something close to cloning it. With guidance from their website, I learned what the OG, IBUs, and ABV should be, so I plugged in some numbers and started fiddling with the amounts to get a recipe that sounds like it would be similar. Now I know I can't get their Alchemy hops anywhere, but since it is a blend of hops, I figured I would use Falconer's Flight in their place for the bittering addition. Then it's just a late addition hop burst of Citra, coupled with a Citra dry hop.

Recipe: Citra Blonde
Brewer: Mr. Rufus Brewing Co.
Asst Brewer:
Style: Blonde Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 3.40 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.60 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 2.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 4.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 87.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.5 %
0.10 oz Falconer's Flight [10.80 %] - First Wort Hop 3 10.7 IBUs
0.08 oz Citra [14.80 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 4 4.8 IBUs
0.08 oz Citra [14.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5 3.5 IBUs
0.08 oz Citra [14.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 1.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 7 -
0.60 oz Citra [14.80 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 8 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4 lbs
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 5.92 qt of water at 161.8 F 152.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun , 1.32gal, 1.32gal) of 168.0 F water
-------------------------------------------------

[Kealia]

Looks good. After having this and Kona's Big Wave Ale a couple of years ago I did something similar (before I knew about hop bursting or hop stands).

I tried a quick recipe using Light DME. Pilsner LME and a touch of Munich along with 60 & 20 minute additions of Citra. It turned out pretty good but knowing what I know now I think yours is going to be much better.

[braukasper]

looks tasty

[Gymrat]

Should be a really nice beer.

[BlackDuck]

That does look good. And a very simple recipe too.

[Kealia]

Damn, Chris just called you "simple"

[philm00x]

I was debating whether to use 05 on this, or try to use steam beer yeast or kolsch yeast. I know blonde ales are supposed to be a hybrid style.

[swenocha]

Nice...

[philm00x]

Good news to report right now as I wait for the wort to come to a boil- This time around I measured out my water volumes precisely instead of using the markings on the pot, and my preboil OG and volume are spot on at 1.031. I've got high hopes that this beer will actually hit my target OG, which verifies that my water volumes were off in the last two batches.

[philm00x]

Just finished brewing, and although I didn't hit my target OG, I got 1.040 so that's only 2 points shy of the 1.042 target. This confirms that my water volumes have been off (but I still need to dial in the boil off rate on my equipment since I ended up with a tiny bit more wort than intended, thus not reaching my target OG). I pitched this wort on top of the yeast cake from the Citra Wheat that I just bottled so I have no fears that this will ferment strongly and finish where it needs to.

[Inkleg]

Just reading this makes me want to go cut the grass, Ok, not really.

.002 is not off, I've missed by .010. Yeah that's not a typo.

[philm00x]

I finally had the opportunity to bottle this today, and the brew gods took their share (which fortunately was only 1 bottle's worth). FG came in at 1.007, so the 2 points I missed on the OG, I made up in FG and ABV finished at 4.3% as estimated.

When I dry hopped this yesterday, I didn't even measure out the hops. Just grabbed a solid fistful from the bag and put it into a mesh bag to drop into the fermenter. I figure the more I use, the more aroma I'll get. Boy did it smell good when I bottled today! Even my wife couldn't get over how citrusy it smelled from the bucket, as she sat on the opposite end of the living room.

When racking to my bottling bucket, I never realized that the tip of the spigot on the bottling bucket was broken off. I went to hook up my wand, and was like "WTF where'd it go?!" So I opened up the valve and it poured fairly slowly, but I had to leave the valve open and continuously fill bottles, ortherwise it would make a worse mess than I got. SWMBO came over to help me put the bottles into carriers while I filled empties and she knocked one over in the process. Lost half the beer in the one bottle. Still managed to get one shy of a case, so that was alright.

Anyhow, really excited to see how this turns out. The aroma and flavor has very high potential. Summertime, I'm ready!

[philm00x]

Popped one of these open tonight to taste test. I was worried that it may be bad because I found one bottle that definitely was infected, and all the other bottles had some floaties on top that made me worry. Lo and behold, the beer is perfectly fine. Could stand to use a little more grain flavor, but overall I'm stoked at how this turned out. Really strong citrus/passion fruit aroma from the hops. Well balanced flavor. Excellent golden color. I might have to pick up another Widmer to do a side by side comparison.

[Kealia]

Tasted good after 6 days in the bottle, huh? You're in for a treat when these mature a bit more, too.

And if you HAD to have another Widmer that's not the end of the world!

[philm00x]

So I'm fixin to brew this again but I'm changing all the hops to only Citra and omitting the dryhop in place of a hopstand at the end of the boil. Also, increasing the base malt to have a little more malty backbone. Hoping this turns out as well as I'm picturing it!