Citra IPA (Zombie Dust Inspired) Wrap Up and Tasting Notes

This beer was in the fermentor for twelve days (five or six very visibly active days, after which I raised the temp on my controller by four degrees to help the yeast do their cleanup work), cold crashed and on the yeast for another week, and then transferred to a keg and lagered for another week.

After a lot of reading this summer and fall (particularly Jamil Zainisheff and Chris White's Yeast book), I've switched to a process that relies more on temperature than on racking to achieve clarity in my beers. It seems to be working pretty well...

So on to the fun part - drinking the beer! 

Appearance: Straw colored, leaning ever so slightly towards copperish. (Thank you melanoidin malt.) Bright white head which sticks around and leaves a defined lacing down the side of the glass.

Aroma: I love Citra. Seriously. The nose on this one is resiny, overlaid with the tropical fruit you pretty much only get from Citra. Negligible malt on the nose.

Taste: Starts out with the same pine and resin and note you get on the nose, after which you move to the residual malt sweetness and some slight bread / toast notes and then finishes out with that tropical fruit funky bitterness. The first couple pours had some distinct sulfury yeast flavor from the Wyeast 1056 which I've picked up on other batches, but that's disappeared either on account of cold and time or just being pulled out in the early pours.

Mouthfeel: Light body and lively carbonation. 

Drinkability: Win. For a beer that came in at 7.5%, there is almost no aggressive alcohol character or other hints that it's a big beer. The low finishing gravity and the dry finish make this a dangerously session-able beer.

I'll post pictures shortly and do a side by side of the Wyeast and White Labs batches soon!