Recipe Critique: Citra Saison

I'd drink it

 

Sounds tasty. I’ll help you drink it.

 

No outrage from me on using good ole American hops in a Belgian (the Belgians do it, so why not?). However, in my experience two ounces of Citra will overwhelm the yeast esters. I recently dry-hopped a Belgian IPA with one ounce of Citra and one ounce of Mosaic . . . it made a nice IPA but the yeast aroma was dominated (3787). I would consider cutting back, or at least tasting the grav sample and determine if less will give you more. FWIW, DuPont dry hops their Saison with French Triskel or Strisselsplat or Styrian Eureka (changes annually).

Not familiar with Imperial yeast, but I use DuPont dregs (source of 3724?) and ferment warmer. Typically start at 77 and finish in the mid-80s, with attenuation in the upper 90s.

 

You could do a whirlpool/ hopstand instead of dry hop. That might keep the Citra from becoming to dominant. I did this with Citra in a tropical tripel that turned out pretty well. Then if you still want more Citra, dry hop later on too.

 

Looks good to me.

FWIW the tank7 recipe given to me by someone who said he worked for boulevard had something like 5.5 oz of Amarillo in 5 gal. Only .5 oz in dry hop, 1.5 in whirlpool, and 3 at 5 min. Never tried it so don’t know.

 

Rustic is the equivalent of 3726, the blaugies strain. I love that strain with fruity American hops, but I would personally back off on the dry hop. An ounce should be fine, but you may want to drop it down to 1/2oz so you don’t overpower the yeast character.

 

You do you bro. I did % 100 pils bittered to 20 tinseth with magnum open fetmented with wyeast belgian ale for two weeks and blasted it with 3oz nelson for a week. It's the best 4% beer I have brewed.

 

Indeed.

That said, do you know what would make this beer even more fantastic?

Noble hops.

Just sayin'.

 

Yeah, I'm a bit burned out on Citra/Mosaic everything nowadays.

 

While I said above I thought it sounded tasty and I offered to help drink it, I would make it with Hallertau Mittelfru. I seem to be on a kick lately with using that hop. I still think the OP should make it as planned because that recipe will make a tasty beer.

 

I normally roll my eyes at the thing where UK / US brewers go (obnoxious beer-nerd voice) "yeah, so we wanted to brew a Dortmunder, but Dortmunders are kinda lame and boring, so we amped it up with a shit-ton of Citra and Simcoe", but I've got a lot of time for dry, slightly rustic Belgian-style beers with reasonably subtle additions of new-world hops. Rulles' Estivale, Blaugies / Hill Farmstead Vermontoise, De La Senne / Two Roads Brothers in Farms, that sort of thing.

Obviously not saying that dry, slightly rustic Belgian-style beers with traditional British or European hops can't be great, too, though...

 

Why does everyone do that?

 

I don't know either. Most esters are formed during yeast's replication/logarithmic phase, so that would be the time to increase your fermentation temperature, if any.