Tasting: Citra Loves Sorachi Pale Ale

This is our base pale ale, brewed with equal amounts of Citra and Sorachi Ace hops throughout. It’s appeared before on this blog as a chamomile pale ale, but here we’ve brewed the clean, pure version without the tea infusion. No adjuncts, although we do love adjuncts.

Lara and I brewed this beer in mid-December with our friends Michael and Susan, who’ve been flirting with getting into homebrewing and wanted to take part in a brew day. Hopefully this will convince them.

Citra Loves Sorachi is slightly odd pale ale in that it’s darker and slightly maltier than your standard pale ale (~11 SRM), and while its 38 IBUs fall well within the American pale ale range, the perceived bitterness is a touch higher to me. Blame the high-alpha hops and dry body for that, I guess. However, Citra is such a juicy, tropical hop that we don’t stray out of balance.

Look
Toffee with maybe a rosy tint in bright light. It’s a touch hazy, but clarity should improve as it chills in the keg. It’s been in the keezer for just shy of 1 week. A nice, creamy head that dissipates fairly quickly.

Smell
It really depends. At rest, this beer gives off both a fruity candy sweetness and a touch of caramel. It may be just a hint grainy, which I’d like to eliminate in the future. Citra hops lend it a tropical character reminiscent of saltwater taffy or berry tea with a hint of lemon. Swirl it, though, and the hops take off. You still get mostly Citra’s damp, tropical pungency, but Sorachi Ace is in there, albeit muted. I expected more of Sorachi Ace’s characteristic lemon notes in the aroma, but I won’t exactly say I’m missing it.

Taste
The aroma hops really did their job at the end of the boil. You get a ton of Citra, which makes the beer taste sweeter than it is. It’s like biting into a tangerine. Sorachi Ace is there, though, primarily in the bitterness. It’s somewhere between lemon and grapefruit and hangs around on your tongue after each sip. It’s a touch malty for a pale ale, which was planned, and cutting out some of the caramel specialty malt might ease that perceived sweetness---if that’s what you’re into, of course---but it may also bring the lemony bitterness up front too much.

Feel
Again, the huge dose of Citra makes this beer feel sweeter than it is, but it’s actually rather dry. The final gravity is 1.007. It feels smooth. Carbonation is just about on target for the style---active and crisp without feeling harsh.

I like this beer. The aroma is wonderful. It's nice to look at and has great tropical depth. I don’t know if I quite love the beer yet, though. It might have a bit too much body and a touch too much grain in the taste. Sorachi lends a bit of a harsh bittering note, and Citra might need a simpler, lighter malt bill to really bloom. Or not. We’ll have to play around and see. For now, we’ll enjoy having a few gallons of juicy, hop-forward beer on tap at the house.

Tasting: Chamomile Pale Ale

This is how you drown your witbier sorrows.

Our chamomile pale ale, the last in a trio of flower-forward beers we brewed this summer, is easily the most successful of the three. The rosewater saison was nice, if a little touched by sharp fusel alcohol and overburdened by the rosewater addition, and the lavender witbier suffered from heavyhanded spicing with both lavender and coriander. (We call the witbier Hot Ham Water, if that gives you an idea where that one stands in the farmhouse.)

The chamomile pale ale, however, is pretty nicely balanced, and the chamomile addition does work well between Citra and Sorachi Ace hops. It certainly helps that chamomile is naturally mellow, unlike rosewater and lavender.

Look
Deep caramel, almost coppery. It’s clarified nicely in the keg, and pours a two-finger head thanks to a healthy dose of gas. It may be a little dark for a typical pale ale, but this is what we were aiming for.

Smell
Two things immediately stand out: the ripe, tropical tone of Citra and the mellow fruitiness of chamomile. Sorachi Ace doesn’t really push through like I thought it might. I had in mind a lemon wedge in a pungent tea. The aroma is lovely, though. I imagine if we scaled back or altogether dropped the chamomile, Sorachi Ace would reveal itself.

Taste
Here’s where Sorachi Ace shines. Lemon peel is prominent in the flavor, as is chamomile. The chamomile imparts a soft fruitiness that I think is a little strong for this beer, but it’s tasty. Citra’s in there, too, providing a papaya flesh depth behind the chamomile. I’m pleased with the bitterness. It’s bright and clean, with the IBUs well within the pale ale range and making a nice counterpoint to Citra and chamomile.

Feel
This is not a thin beer. We mashed at 154, so there’s plenty of body to back up the flavors, and I think it works.

We’ll rebrew this one for sure. In future batches, we’ll probably halve the chamomile addition just to see how that affects the aromatic hops, and we’ll also brew it without chamomile at all just to let two of our favorite hops (if you couldn’t tell by the blog’s name) really play together.

Brew Day: Chamomile Pale Ale

You saw this coming, right?

Given the blog’s name, it was inevitable we’d brew a beer that pairs Citra and Sorachi Ace hops. Lucky for us, they do seem to love each other. Citra’s pungent, tropical depth should play nicely with the crisp lemongrass of Sorachi Ace. Our base is a standard pale ale, which should provide just enough of a malt base to let the hop pairing shine, and we’re trying to bridge the flavor gap between the hops with soft, fruity chamomile, which i’d happily match one on one with either hop.

Yep. Another flower beer. That’s how we roll.

We did something different this brew day, though. If you’ve been reading thus far, you know our division of labor is natural---Lara managing the technical and engineering side and me working out recipes and running brew day.

Lara mentioned last week that she wanted to take a turn at the helm of our next Sunday brew day. I think it’s a great idea. I served as assistant brewer, dealing with undesirable tasks like keeping 7.7 gallons of boiling wort from cascading over the lip of an 8 gallon kettle, but I tried to stay in the background.

Lara managing the boil after adding chamomile, Citra and Sorachi at 60 minutes

Not a flawless brew day, if we’re being honest with ourselves. We ran out of propane while heating the strike water, and below you’ll see a photo of me splattered with yeast slurry after Lara took the term “smack pack” literally and jackhammered it all over me.

Bumps aside, it was a lot of fun, more fun than usual because we were both so actively involved in talking through each step. I think we’re going to do a lot more side-by-side brewing in the future. On to the details...

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Expected OG: 1.053
Expected FG: 1.012
Expected SRM: 10
Expected IBU: 39

Grains
8.75 lbs. Maris Otter
1.25 lbs. Victory
1.25 lbs. Crystal 40L

Hops
2.0 oz. Citra (13.9% AA)
2.0 oz. Sorachi Ace (10.5% AA)

Yeast
Wyeast 1272 (American Ale 2)

Extras
2.0 oz. Chamomile (at 60 minutes)
1.0 tsp. Yeast nutrient (at 10 minutes)
0.5 tsp. Irish moss (at 15 minutes)

Mash: 4.12 gallons at 154°F
Sparge: 5.53 gallons at 168°F
Boil: 90 minutes

Hop schedule
60 minutes: 0.4 oz. Citra, 0.4 oz. Sorachi Ace
5 minutes: 0.5 oz. Citra, 0.5 oz. Sorachi Ace
Flameout: 0.5 oz. Citra, 0.5 oz. Sorachi Ace
Dry hop: 0.6 oz. Citra, 0.6 oz. Sorachi Ace

Primary fermentation: Pitched at 66°F, fermenting at 72°F
Secondary fermentation: 5 days at 72°F

We aimed for a 1.33 water/grain ratio but found ourselves at a surprisingly high mash temperature of 157°F, so we added about 5 cups of cool water to get us down to 154°F, which was still a touch high but would do. We’ll see how that final gravity measures. This will not be an exceedingly dry pale ale.

Our OG was a couple points below target (1.051) but is within range.

Tasting notes will follow in 3 weeks.

Slurried