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Single Hop: Lemon Drop - Homebrew Recipe
Single hop beers are all the rage nowadays, and the kegerator at Clawhammer's HQ has been running low lately. With Summer just around the corner, we need a tasty summertime beer that we can start drinking immediately. That's why we brewed a Session IPA with Lemondrop hops using Clawhammer's 10.5 gallon Electric Brewing System. It's our first crack at making a single hop beer using this variety. Will it be good? Read on or watch the video to find out.
Session IPA Style Guidelines
- Golden or copper color
- OG - 1.038 - 1.052
- Low ABV - 3% - 4% - Beers exceeding 5% ABV are not considered Session IPAs
- Medium Bitterness - 40 - 55 IBUs
Single Hop Lemon Drop - Homebrew Recipe Video
Here's the video, in case you aren't the readin' type. However, if you're interested in brewing this beer, scroll down for full recipe details.
Water
Beginning water volume: 7.04 gallons (26.6 liters), with chemistry adjusted to produce the following profile:
- Calcium: 100ppm
- Chloride: 136ppm
- Sulfates: 75ppm
- Sodium: 14ppm
- Magnesium: 6ppm
- Bicarbonates: 25ppm
Note: we also added half a campden tablet at the start of the brew day.
Malts
- Pilsner (2 row) Ger (2.0 SRM) - 6lbs. (2.7kg) (70.6%)
- Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) - 1lbs. (.5kg) (11.8%)
- Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) - 1lbs. 8oz. (.7kg) (17.6%)
We finely crush all of our malts in a mill before mashing
Mashing
We mashed at 152F (66.7C) for 60 minutes then did a mashout for 10 minutes at 170F (76.7C).
Mashing in
Hops
We added our Lemondrop hops after our 60-minute boil. We cooled the wort down to 165F (73.9C) and did a whirlpool addition using 4 oz. (113.4g) of hops.
Weighing out hops
Adding them to our hop basket
This is our first time using Lemondrop hops and we're hoping it gives our beer a nice citrus, lemon flavor. Although, others who have used this hop tell us the lemon flavor it yields is fairly subtle.
Fermentation
We used Imperial A24 Dry Hop Yeast at the end of the brew day.
This yeast will make our final hop aroma excellent. We fermented for 13 days at 68F (20C).
Pitching yeast
Dry Hops
We dry hopped this beer with 2 oz (56.7g) of Lemondrop hops starting on day 4 of primary fermentation and left the hops in the beer for 3 days.
Benchmarks
- Post boil volume - 6.04 gallons (22.9 liters)
- Post-boil gravity - Actual: 1.042
- Volume into the fermenter - 6.04 gallons (22.9 liters)
- Final Gravity 1.010
- Final keg volume: 5.0 gallons (18.9 liters)
- ABV - 4.20%
Tasting Notes
This one finished with a nice golden color and a little bit of haze. When we tasted it, we could immediately tell why they're called Lemondrop hops. There were a lot of lemon and citrus notes we could smell and taste and no perceivable off flavors, making it a really refreshing and light beer. With an ABV of 4.20%, this should be your go to summertime beer to brew.
"A crushable summer beer for sure"
Totally made this making ONLY A FEW SLIGHT ADJUSTMENTS. ONE MY LOCK HB STORE WAS OUT OF OATS AND MY DUMB SELF GRABED CORN. LOL. BUT HEY IT WORKED FOR REAL AND TWO I WANTED A FAST QUICK GRAIN TO BOTTLE BREW SO I ADJUSTED THE YEAST TO A KEVIK YEAST THAT THAT WOULD FINISH A SMALL BATCH I A WEEK.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/brewsession/441504/recipe/print/1314069
Just made this but couldn’t get the A24 yeast. So I used Lithuanian farmhouse because its primary profile is lemon. All the flavors are subtle and refreshing. Overall not bad and a reminder of warmer days.
I brewed this beer just recently and it came out awasome. Will defently have this one for the summer time. Recommend if you like the citrus style beer.
Brewed up a mini-mash version of this, and tasted first bottle today. Turned out pretty good as described, good summer beer. I will be drinking this while my quad ages.
Mini-mash: Added 1 lb of Carapils as someone had recommended in the comments.
Replaced the 6 lbs of Pilsner with 1.6 lbs of Pilsner + 3.3 lb Briess Pilsen Light LME
OG:1.044, 5 gallon. 2 days later dryhopped and left it in (to reduce oxidation, since wasn’t going to leave it in the fermenter long). Bottled on day 8. FG:1.012 , 4.5 gallons. Drank one 13 days later.
After the fermentation. When you put it in a container howlong do you rest it before you can drink the beer? Im an amateur im brewing my first beer with a kit but i want to brew with grain.
Hey,
my questions are: When did you put the hops into the beer? Before ending or before? Primary or secondary?
I’m a newbie with a silly question. Do you dry hop the lemon drop hops in the secondary fermentation phase or the primary fermentation phase? Thanks in advance.
If no hops are added during the boil do you need to boil for 60 min?
Sound awsome, I live in Lincolnshire England,, can you get the lemon drop hops over here and could any of you guys convert the all grain recipe into a dry extract recipe with steeped grains for me, would really appreciate it if could, ain’t gone all grain yet 👍
I made this a few weeks back. Followed the recipe exactly and it came out great! made it on my old all grain, gravity fed system. everyone that has tried it has loved it. I actually made a shandy out of it by adding 1/4 to 1/3 parts “simply lemonade” to a glass and then filling the rest with this brew. tastes awesome on a hot summer day! I’ve since bought clawhammers biab system and I’m brewing a oktoberfest with it. so far, I’m extremely happy with this system! keep up the great work clawhammer team!!
Just made this in the Clawhammer and yep it’s awesome! Thanks for the recipe! I added an extra pound of Pilsner to bump up the abv to 5.1.