So, I may have forgotten to take pictures last Friday when I brewed up that Citra Pale Ale...
My bad.
The good news is that it fermented nicely and will start cold crashing Monday most likely. That means I'll be bottling it later next week, and after carbonating in the bottle for another week or two I'll finally get to enjoy the fruits of labor.
In the mean time, here's a little info about the brew and the specs I've gathered from this session.
The Citra Pale Ale is (obviously) brewed with Citra hops - a very tropical, high alpha, delicious hop variety - and fermented with a unique yeast strain from White Labs and Austin Homebrew Supply: WLP299, the Persica Ale strain. This yeast is similar to WLP001, California Ale, but is a bit fruitier. What appealed to me when selecting this strain is that the "fruitiness" is supposed to be of the peach/apricot variety. I can't wait to sample this stuff!
As far as specs go - this brew session I undershot my target efficiency of 75%, ending up with only 66%. I believe I can correct this, however, since I accidentally used pure RO water which can throw off the mash pH (I think) and just isn't suitable for brewing; some mineral content IS necessary for positive results. Also, the software I'm using underestimated my boil-off, so in subsequent sessions I'll need to sparge an additional quart or two to compensate.
I'll report back soon with the results of the CPA, and possibly a run-through of bottling (if I remember to snap some photos, that is). Cheers!
