I made a Citra IPA with Amarillo as a dry hop last year that took 1st place in a competition. Want to make it again, but change up the hops a bit. Basically want to use more Amarillo and use something other than Citra as the bittering hop. After a while, the beer did take on a bit of a “cat urine” smell, which I’ve read can come from using Citra for bittering. It also didn’t have much of a bitter bite that I enjoy in my IPAs. Late hop additions I’d still like to use Citra/Amarillo combination (at 20, 10, 5 0…) and dry hop once again with Amarillo. Any suggestions on a bittering hop to replace the Citra? Can I just use Amarillo?
Amarillo, Centennial, Columbus, or Simcoe would all work.
any of the suggested are fine, but I would lean toward Centennial or Columbus
+1
for my taste, out of those two i would lean towards Columbus.
i made a Citra and Amarillo imperial IPA with Summit hops for bittering, it is one of my favorite recipes
I vote for bittering with Simcoe. Simcoe and Citra is a match made in heaven! I would go to great lengths for a Simcoe rhizome…
+1
for my taste, out of those two i would lean towards Columbus.
i made a Citra and Amarillo imperial IPA with Summit hops for bittering, it is one of my favorite recipes[/quote]
Same way I like to do things, save the aroma hops for aroma, and bitter with something like summit/CTZ/warrior/magnum. Ive heard both bad and good from bittering with citra/simcoe, so I just stick with what I know works.
I like to use Magnum for a bittering hop. Seems to work pretty good with the Cascade, Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ and Chinook when they’re used for flavor, aroma and dry hop. YMMV. Cheers!!!
I like to use Chinook for bittering also.
I bitter IPA’s with 2/3 Warrior and 1/3 Chinook by IBU. Seems to work pretty well. When I was using only Warrior I found the impression of bitterness wasn’t as high as I wanted. This blend works well - something I heard Vinnie from RR talk about re: Pliny the Elder. You could substitute Magnum or Horizon for the Warrior pretty easily IMO. Not sure about Summit. They’re nice for the crazy high AA% but I’d be worried about Summit flavor creeping in at some point.
+1 I do the same thing with Magnum/Chinook
Chinook, dawg! Them’s the sh!ts!
Knowing absolutely nothing about brewing but knowing what Summit Hops are like, I’d say stay away from them for bittering for that beer. Summit used for bittering would probably impart some kind of grassy and dank flavor even at 60 min compared to something like Chinook.
But I don’t know anything.
ive heard summit can impart a onion character and that it will fade in time. but i never experienced that.
i was VERY satasfied with summit bittering in my IIPA. but to each his own i guess.
what makes you think summit will give a grassy and dank flavor?
Summit can definitely be quite oniony/garlicy when added late in the boil. Probably this would not apply to bittering with it but it might depend on how much you used.
Columbus, Summit, Chinook, Simcoe… with that late hop combination it would be hard to go wrong with any American-type hop, really.
