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[Review] Craft Range Citra American Pale Ale

Started by LordEoin, September 11, 2014, 12:01:25 AM

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LordEoin

September 11, 2014, 12:01:25 AM Last Edit: September 11, 2014, 12:19:29 AM by LordEoin
It's 'brew like a demon' week here in LordEoin's BrewDungeon, trying to get all of my bottles filled, so I figured a nice quick and easy kit APA would be a good call.
I figure it'll be perfect for around Halloween and should keep me refreshed right through to Christmas (so long as those pesky freeloaders keep their dirty mits off it)

Anyway, I grabbed me a Craft Range Citra APA. i was going to go down the coopers Australian PA, but by the time I added up all the extract, sugar, yeast and hops it was coming out about the same price anyway.

So where do I start..
What's changed since the craft range was launched?
The kits now have both BBE date (04/15) and priming sugar (100g)
The instructions are more comprehensive too, but still easy to follow.
Kudos for listening to feedback :)

What's in this kit?
This kit comes with 3kg hopped LME, 650g sugar, 100g priming sugar, generous 60g (citra) hop pellets, muslin bag, 1pk West Coast ale yeast, instructions.
The box hasn't been updated with this new kit yet, but all of the information is on a sticker


I didn't deviate from the instructions at all, apart from using 2l of boiling water instead of 3 as i had noted that 3 puts pitching the wort a little too warm for pitching.
You just need to put a little more effort into stirring to dissolve the LME.
Handy thing about these big pouches of LME is there's no rinsing cans and fumbling with oven mitts etc, you can just squeeze all the gunk out by rolling it tight from the bottom.
The LME smells great as usual, fresher than most other kit brands, and tastes lovely. Not too bitter.

Using 2L resulted in the wort settling at about 23°, grand job
pitch, stir, seal, sit.
The yeast is nice and fresh with a good smell

The whole brewday took me about 25minutes including sanitizing and cleanup. (a big difference from my 10hr brewday over the weekend)
OG 1.049(ish) so it should be bang on the estimated target ABV of 5.7% after priming
The wort is a nice pale colour (below)


Instructions say to ferment at 20°-24°, so i set it to 20° for a week, and dryhop 4 or 5 days before bottling.
I have a feeling this room will smell great in a day or two :)

I'll update this thread later on.

Will_D

Remember: The Nationals are just round the corner - time to get brewing

LordEoin

ahh feck, i never cropped the 'wall of death to little creatures', it was a million o clock and tired...
There's so much stuff in my room at the moment that everything in the background is normally invisible to me at this stage.
but yeah, medals! hopefully they'll be hanging in my brewshed soon :)

LordEoin

I guess I forgot to empty the trial jar!  ;D
It's looking very healthy, but god knows what it'll pick up off the bottom of the trial jar.
I'll wait and see. World's smallest batch!




dcalnan

Picked one of these up at the weekend, but both my fv are being used so I'll have to wait till I bottle those before starting it. But I can't wait to try it out.

LordEoin

I know what you mean. I have 3 FVs on the go at the moment and one empty for priming/bottling.
This is still bubbling away but starting to slow and the krausen is showing signs of thinning.
I should probably empty that trial jar and take a reading soon..

LordEoin

Dryhopped this tonight (day 14), it's still got a bit of a krausen and bubbling occasionally but it seems to have settled at 1.012
The 60g of hop pellets smell great, nice and fresh.
Although warm and flat it tastes like beer. Quite bitter, but that's to be expected with an American Pale Ale, the dryhop should balance it out nicely.
looking forward to having this cold and carbonated :)

dcalnan

I'm two weeks behind you. Just started it Thursday night, wasn't much activity for the first 24 hours, just checked it today and there's a big kraken and its bubbling away steadily. Hoping it'll be good in the keg. Might be interesting to compare the two at a meetup.

LordEoin


Will_D

A long long time ago in a distant galaxy (Ok its Wales in 1968) I had to sit English literature!

Now apart from the compulsory Shakespeare play there were 3 novels  ???

Imagine MY delight when they were all sci-fi!

War of the Worlds
Fahrenheight 451
The Kraken Wakes

Against all expectastions I got a great grade in Eng.Lit.!
Remember: The Nationals are just round the corner - time to get brewing

dcalnan

That's autocorrect for you. Well now I have a name for a future beer, Kraken Ale. Smells great whenever I open the press it's in, slightly warmer then I would like at 23 but hopefully it'll be ok.

LordEoin

23 should be fine, the instructions say the yeast's ideal temperature is 20-24.
20 seems to ferment out pretty slowly.
It's only just finished up now and I'll try get it bottled tonight.
The dryhop makes a HUGH difference to the beer, smells and tastes lovely :)

cochised

Kegged this kit today.
A bit above 1007 but went ahead anyway

Tastes and smells lovely  :)

LordEoin

October 01, 2014, 01:34:48 AM #13 Last Edit: October 01, 2014, 01:45:51 AM by LordEoin
Bottled tonight, FG 1.004ish
It was well worth leaving it ferment out fully as all of the hop matter settled nicely making a dual layer of trub with yeast on the bottom and hop particles on top.
The beer is a hazy straw colour and should clear up nicely over the next few weeks.
This'll probably be a good early drinker.
Only criticism so far is that it calls for 120g priming sugar and only supplies 100g

LordEoin

It's only in the bottle a week and tasting great.
If you like citra you'll like this. It has a great hoppy blast to the nose and mouth.
carbonation seems spot on so far, and it has a good mouthfeel.
Noticeable bitterness, but nicely balanced with the hoppiness of it all.
Lacing head lasting all the way down.
It's still a bit hazy, but I'm sure this will clear with another few weeks in the bottle.
I brought a bottle to our barrel emptying and it seemed to go down very well.

Overall: very tasty, well balanced, easy drinking. It might be too hoppy for your lager loving freeloader friends, but that just means that there will be more for you to enjoy.

I'll replace this photo later on once it's had a chance to clear up a bit: