Citra Sunrise
I was recently up in the Midlands visiting friends when I had a really excellent Citra-based American IPA called Infinity+1 by the Blue Monkey brewery. It reminded me of how good a single-hop Citra beer can taste and so I'm taking a break from English bitters and IPAs to brew something that's heavy on the Citra hops.
Starter
I got the starter going on the Tuesday before Sunday's brew day as usual. The yeast will be my favourite Brewlab Yorkshire strain. I've decided to brave the conical flask and am hoping that the biggest 5 liter one that I have will be enough to contain the very excitable Yorkshire yeast.
Well it certainly tried to escape but thankfully didn't get any higher than this so there was no mess to clean up. After a few days it had fermented out and I saved back 500ml in the fridge for next time and the remaining 1.5l will go into the beer on Sunday.
Brew day
Here's the recipe, it's a straightforward brew that targets 5.4% as the ABV to match the Infinity+1 that gets its name from being 1% stronger than their original Infinity IPA.
Recipe Specifications
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Date: 17 May 2026
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 6.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 43.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Water profile: Ca:67 Mg:13 Na:10 SO4:79 Cl:77
Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type %/IBU
29.78 L Tesco Water Water -
2.90 ml Lactic Acid (Mash) Water Agent -
2.50 g Calcium Chloride (Mash) Water Agent -
2.00 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash) Water Agent -
1.50 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash) Water Agent -
4.500 kg Crisp Clear Choice Extra Pale Malt (4.0 EBC) Grain 92.8 %
0.350 kg Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC) Grain 7.2 %
0.50 g Calcium Chloride (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.40 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.30 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.30 ml Lactic Acid (Sparge) Water Agent -
7.00 g Hallertau Magnum [11.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8.9 IBUs
30.00 g Citra [15.10 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 18.3 IBUs
0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins) Fining -
35.00 g Citra [15.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 11.7 IBUs
35.00 g Citra [15.10 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 5.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Brewlab Yorkshire (Brewlab #Yorkshire) Yeast -
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 4.850 kg
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Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 24.78 L of water at 72 C 67.0 C 60 min
Sparge: Dunk sparge with 5L
That's a whole 100g bag of Citra hops in the last 10 minutes so hopefully it'll bring a lot of flavour. I added a bit of Magnum at the start just to get the IBU up to a level where I want it. The torrified wheat should help with head retention.
The estimate was 1.047 and I actually got 1.047 so it's bang on target. I chilled to around 20C, transferred to the fermenter, added the Yorkshire yeast starter and put it in the brew fridge at 20C to ferment for two weeks.
I've become accustomed to my brews taking off very quickly so at first I was a bit concerned because by the evening (8 hours after adding the yeast) there was no sign of bubbling. Anyway, by midday next day it had started and by the evening it was going like the proverbial clappers so I breathed a sigh of relief and left it alone.
Kegging day
I kegged this one after 2 weeks in the fermenter. The final gravity was 1.007, giving an ABV of 5.3%, more or less as I thought. I got a full keg and 4 bottles from the fermenter. As usual I purged the headspace with 5x15psi and plan to leave it for 2 weeks to condition.
Tasting notes
It's a good one! The Citra hops don't really need anything to accompany them and the final result has all the flavours of a good American IPA. If anything, mine has more malt flavour than the beer I was inspired by. This is probably because I don't dry-hop my beers. One way to compensate in the future might be to make up the gravity from brewing sugar to reduce the maltiness.