Author: Brian Hall

Valued by brewers and beer drinkers for the intense fruity aromas and flavors it imparts to beer, Citra was released by the Hop Breeding Company in 2007 and quickly became one of the most popular hops in the craft beer world. As hop bloodlines go, Citra is a veritable mutt with a complicated lineage including Brewer’s Gold, Hallertauer Mittelfrüh, US Tettnanger, and East Kent Goldings. In addition to its low cohumulone and high alpha acid content, Citra’s popularity stems largely from it’s particularly high myrcene levels, a hop terpene that adds citrus, tropical fruit, and “green” character to beer.

Alpha: 11 – 15%

Beta: 3 – 4.5%

Cohumulone: 20 – 24%

Total Oil: 1.5 – 3 mL/100g

Myrcene: 60 – 70%

Humulene: 7 – 12%

Caryophyllene: 5 – 8%

Farnesene: < 1%

Linalool: 0.6 – 0.9%

Geraniol: 0.3 – 0.5%

ß-Pinene: 0.7 – 1%

Parentage: Hallertau Mittelfruh, US Tettnang, EKG, Brewer’s Gold, unknown varietal

I’ve been using Citra for years and adore the characteristics it adds to my hoppy beers. While I’ve tasted several examples Citra-centric beers, they’re often blended with other varieties, which made me all the more excited to make a single-hopped Citra beer for this edition of The Hop Chronicles!

| MAKING THE BEER |

I designed a simple Pale Ale with the goal of exemplifying the Citra hops.

Citra Pale Ale

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 40.6 IBUs 3.4 SRM 1.052 1.012 5.3 % Actuals 1.055 1.005 6.6 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pilsen Malt (Franco-Belges) 10 lbs 90.91 Vienna Malt 1 lbs 9.09 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Citra 12 g 30 min Boil Pellet 14 Citra 12 g 15 min Boil Pellet 14 Citra 24 g 5 min Boil Pellet 14 Citra 97 g 1 min Boil Pellet 14 Citra 114 g 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 14 Notes Water Profile: Ca 126 | Mg 0 | Na 0 | SO4 118 | Cl 135 Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

I ran the brewing liquor through my RO filter a day ahead of time, adjusting it to my target profile before setting up my heat stick for pre-heating.

The following day, I weighed out and milled the grain.

With the water appropriately heated, I mashed in then checked to make sure I hit my target mash temperature.

The mash was left to rest for 60 minutes.

When the mash was complete, I removed the grain bag and let it drip until pre-boil volume was reached. As the wort was heating up, I weighed out the kettle hop additions.

The wort was boiled for 60 minutes with hops added as stated in the recipe.

I quickly chilled the wort to 68°F/20°C with my immersion chiller.

A refractometer reading of the chilled wort showed it was at a respectable 1.055 OG.

I racked the wort to a glass carboy then pitched a fresh can of Imperial Yeast A07 Flagship. The beer was placed in my fermentation chamber and left to ferment just over 1 week before I added the dry hop charge. I let the beer mingle with the dry hops for 2 days then took a hydrometer measurement to confirm the beer was done fermenting.

After racking the warm beer into a CO2 purged keg, I placed in my kegerator and hit it with a brief period of burst carbonation before reducing the gas to serving pressure. After a few days of cold conditioning, I began serving the beer to unsuspecting participants.

| METHOD |

Participants were instructed to focus only on the aromatic qualities of the beer before evaluating the flavor. For each aroma and flavor descriptor, tasters were asked to write-in the perceived strength of that particular characteristic on a 0-9 scale where a rating of 0 meant they did not perceive the character at all and a rating of 9 meant the character was extremely strong. Once the data was collected, the average rating of each aroma and flavor descriptor was compiled and analyzed.

| RESULTS |

A total of 10 people participated in the evaluation of this beer, all blind to the hop variety used until after they completed the survey. The average aroma and flavor ratings for each descriptor were plotted on a radar graph.

Average Ratings of Aroma and Flavor Perceptions

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being most prominent by participants:

Aroma Flavor Tropical Fruit Citrus Citrus Tropical Fruit Stone Fruit Pine

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being least prominent by participants:

Aroma Flavor Onion/Garlic Onion/Garlic Earthy/Woody Berry Berry Earthy/Woody

Participants were then asked to rate the pungency of the overall hop character.

Next, they were instructed to identify beer styles they thought the hop would work well in.

Finally, tasters were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the hop character on a 1 to 10 scale.

My Impressions: I love Citra and I felt this single-hopped beer had everything I expect when using it– a pungent fruity aroma with delicious flavors of citrus, tropical fruit, and a bit of lime. The only potential flaw in this beer had to do with the malt character, which I thought was a bit too light. In the future, I might go with either straight Pale malt or a mix of Pilsner and Pale malts to provide a better canvas on which the hops can be displayed.

| CONCLUSION |

I think it goes without saying that Citra has left its mark on the brewing world, which as a lover of pungent citrus and tropical fruit character, I sure am happy about. Not only did the data from blind participants corroborate pre-existing descriptors of this variety, but tasters also seemed to enjoy the single-hopped Citra Pale Ale quite a bit, perhaps an indication that its popularity won’t be waning any time soon.

Considering participants’ generally positive response to this Hop Chronicles beer along with Citra maintaining its place as one of the most popular modern varieties, one might wonder if there can be any downsides to such a delicious and versatile hop. Indeed, some claim to perceive a particularly unpleasant aroma in beers hopped with a large amount of Citra. As Dave Green notes in his article Advanced Dry Hopping Techniques, certain hops contain “thiols like 4MMP, a polarizing compound some beer drinkers liken to cat pee while others perceive it as tropical fruit aromas.”

Having never owned a cat or consumed cat urine, I honestly don’t know if I’ve noticed anything particularly feline in the beers I’ve made using Citra, including the Pale Ale I made for this Hop Chronicles. It’s possible I don’t have whatever genes cause some to perceive this seemingly awful aroma, or perhaps I’m simply less sensitive to it. However, given the relatively low rating and lack of expressed perception of this character by participants, I’m compelled to think it was either absent or present in low enough amounts to be overshadowed by Citra’s more desirable traits.

Overall, this experience only confirmed my existing belief about how how fantastic Citra really is. Despite so many new and experimental varieties popping up, Citra continues to be used in the production of deliciously fruity styles ranging from Blonde Ale to New England IPA, and I’ve no shame in admitting I’m a dedicated fanboy.

Citra is available now in various package sizes at Yakima Valley Hops, get them while you can! If you have any thoughts on this variety, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Support for The Hop Chronicles comes from Yakima Valley Hops, suppliers of over 40 varieties of hops ranging from classics like Saaz and Cascade to yet-to-be-named experimental options fresh from the source. Offering great prices with reasonable shipping, consider Yakima Valley Hops for your next hop purchase.

Support Brülosophy In Style!

All designs are available in various colors and sizes on Amazon!

Follow Brülosophy on:

If you enjoy this stuff and feel compelled to support Brulosophy.com, please check out the Support Us page for details on how you can very easily do so. Thanks!

Advertisements

Share this: Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Tumblr

Email



Like this: Like Loading...