Citra hops in light lager

[gwk453]

Yes........No........ Has anyone had good results with this hop in lager? IBU?

[Spurtrax]

I put Citra as the late hop addition and dry hop in a pre-prohibition american pilsner. I was shooting for 30 IBUs, about the level of a pale ale. When it was super fresh I thought the hops were a little harsh but after 30 days of lagering it was awesome. It has been one of my most popular beers.

[gwk453]

I am glad you had good results. I will be lagering 6 weeks after fermentation is complete. Racked off the trub after fermentation is complete. This is a real light premium lager 4.4 SRM/5.8 ABV

Citra is a low cohumulone hop, so I am I correct in assuming that if used at a low 22 IBU, it shouldn't have a harsh bitterness if used for a bittering hop in a 90 min boil. Planning on a very minor aroma addition at flameout just to point back to the bittering hop.

[BrewerJ]

As long as you are not trying to brew for competition I say it should be great. Remember with light low og beers hops can really overpower the beer. A little goes a long ways but its should make an interesting beer. If your not using any adjuncts it might be a real nice blonde ale, lager in your case. That you could enter in competition.

[Kbar]

Widmer has a Citra hopped lighter ale, not a fan. my $0.02

[gwk453]

As long as you are not trying to brew for competition I say it should be great. Remember with light low og beers hops can really overpower the beer. A little goes a long ways but its should make an interesting beer. If your not using any adjuncts it might be a real nice blonde ale, lager in your case. That you could enter in competition.

Well it is for a kind of offbeat weird style competition, no adjuncts!
Hopping citra..... there is not a lot of single hop bittering info out there but everything I have dug up doesn't recommend a 90 or 60 minute bittering additions. It was said it didn't work out well, but there was no explanation, but my guess it is taste related...It was recommended to thow all the IBU's in in the last 10 - 5 minutes of the boil. It will take more hops, but I'm OK with that. Is there a problem getting the IBU's in that late?

[BrewerJ]

No, but I might start with 30 min addition to get 12-15 ibus and then 10-5 min to get your last 10 ibus. There isn't too much out there on citra for bittering because its a scarce hop. Most people dont want to waste it on bittering and save what they have for flavor and aroma.

[spiderwrangler]

I've single hopped with Citra (including 60 min bittering addition) and liked the character I got out of it, but mine was an imperial amber ale ("Amber Alert"). If you are doing a light lager, and are looking for aroma and flavor too, you might get sufficient IBUs from your late additions and not need to add much at all early in your boil due to the relatively high AA% of Citra...