Vienna and Citra SMaSH?

anyone do this one before? How did it turn out? I was thinking of trying this in a half batch with some San Francisco Lager yeast I have laying around that I should probably use up.

I don’t know that I’d go bready with the Citra. I have done it SMaSH and as a IIPA. I like to keep it simple with a hop that awesome. If you’re going to SMaSH, do 2-row or Pils.

Good to know. Perhaps I will go with that, probably just the 2-row. Do you think the SF Lager would be a good fit for this.

Are you going to use it as a lager yeast or do the hybrid cali common thing? I think I’d go with straight lager. I didn’t really like SF lager yeast for the steam method, had some odd esters. I’ve never had a citra lager, would probably be delicious.

I was going to go with the hybrid fermentation; maybe around 60* or so. The yeast is actually from a Cali Common that turned out wonderful. Seriously one of the best beers I’ve made without any of the odd esters you talk about. Well see, if this beer turns out as well as the last this might be my favorite new yeast strain.

You should try out Cry Havoc, I liked that much better for hybrid.

Why not US-05 at 60F for a nice, clean ferment? Will allow you to really evaluate your SMaSH.

Well…once again my SMaSH has become a thing of the past. I can never seem to follow through with it. Instead I’ve switched from just Vienna to just 2-Row to 2-row plus a little honey malt (read somewhere it went well with Citra) to 2-Row, Honey malt and a touch of Midnight Wheat to bring the color to 15. I know, epic fail for a SMaSH. I have the yeast started so I’m gonna do it tonight or tomorrow.

Maybe someday I’ll stick to my intentions but this one has morphed into a hybrid APA of some sort.

I thought the Vienna and Citra smash sounded good! I made a Vienna & Calypso IPA last fall. It wasn’t a smash, but was 96% Vienna with just a little C120 and Caramunich. I bittered with Magnum and added 3 late additions and dry hopped with Calypso. It was mighty tasty. I don’t see why Citra wouldn’t work just as well… if not better! Go for it.

:cheers:

So I just killed the three 2-liter bottles of this beer (which was nothing like the title posting) and I’d say it turned out pretty nice for a camping trip beer.

2.25 Gallons:

4 lbs 12.0 oz Briess 2-Row Brewers Malt (1.8 SRM) Grain 1 92.7 %
4.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.9 %
2.0 oz Midnight Wheat (550.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.4 %

0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 4 21.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5 15.4 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 9.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 7 0.0 IBUs

1.0 pkg San Francisco Lager (White Labs #WLP810) [35.49 ml] Yeast 8 -

Overall I though the honey malt addition added a bit of sweetness which really did compliment the citrousy notes of the hops. The beer was clean, crisp and went down super easy. The 2-liter bottling was easy-peezy and I had no real problems since a full campsite drank it easily before the beer had a chance to go flat. If I had to do it again I would go with a more traditional bittering addition and maybe one additional flavor hop before pounding on the Citra for aroma. Also, the Midnight Wheat I had laying around from a free sample and made it way darker than both I and Beersmith had anticipated.

I wrote a bit more about it in my blog if anyone is interested.