whats up with the 2013 citra crop?

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
zodiak3000

zodiak3000

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2009
Messages
587
Reaction score
5
Location
Sacramento, CA
just cracked a new bag for brew day and thought it smelled "off". reminded me of summit with a blend of simcoe/apollo or something alike. lots of onion, garlic, real catty, etc. decided to open some citra i had left from 2012 to do a comparison and it was the normal juicy tropical citra that i love and expect. anybody else experience this from our most recent crop? fwiw, i decided to blend both crops for essentially a single hop citra 2xipa. very interesting aroma, the 2013 def dominated in pungency. tough to say if its due to it being fresher crop...
 
If it smells onion or garlic, it's probably oxidized. I have 2013 citra and it's same as last year, IMO


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
kchomebrew said:
If it smells onion or garlic, it's probably oxidized. I have 2013 citra and it's same as last year, IMO
Click to expand...

I have noticed that smell in wild hops growing around in the street. But hove come they are not get oxidized in the nature/during drying? Do they get harvested while the hop cones are green and closed?
 
oxidized? doubt it. purchased from a reliable vendor vacuum sealed. if anything, the 2012 crop might be getting slightly oxidized from age. 2013 smell very fresh, just not the same characteristics from the typical citra. maybe this crop suffered some wind burn or got harvested too early? i dont know...
 
It's an agricultural product. You can get one batch of citra from one field, and one from another and have differences. Not to mention the fact that there are a number of different farms producing the hop. There is a reason that a lot of brewers make trips to the hop brokers and hand select which lots of hops they are buying from.
 
I used Citra the for the first time a few weeks back in a PA. I noticed the pungent garlic onion scent when i opened it but once it went into the beer (1oz at flameout) all that left and I got the classic tropical fruit flavors I expected citra to be.
 
wonderbread23 said:
It's an agricultural product. You can get one batch of citra from one field, and one from another and have differences. Not to mention the fact that there are a number of different farms producing the hop. There is a reason that a lot of brewers make trips to the hop brokers and hand select which lots of hops they are buying from.
Click to expand...

Also you have to realize that as homebrewer's we are second class citizens to breweries. They get their pick of hops for their contract's and we get the crap that's left over.

This maybe a bit different if you order the hops from Midwest/NB as they may be buying big enough batches to get this treatment, but i doubt it when compared to the big breweries like Sam Adams, etc that use it.

Listening to Jamil talk about how stupid the Hop farming market is was rather enlightening. Its one of those things you hear and dont believe, then when you realize its true you cant help but laugh at how stupid some things in this world are that you cant do anything to change.
 
I just want to revive this thread. I bought a 1lb of citra probably in March or April and I've made several all citra beers (Lawson's Sunshine Double IPA clone, and then an all citra session amber to get rid of the rest) and while other like the beers I've brewed, I'm not getting that tropical fruit, grapefruit, etc aroma and flavor. Its more of a strong simcoe flavor. Any other have similar experience, the vendor was Hop Union. I'm usually very happy with their product, but I can help to think something is off with this batch, or maybe I just don't like citra.
 
I've got the zombie dust clone being poured out of of one of my taps currently, 2013 Citra bought at my lhbs and it's fantastic. No garlic only beautiful tropical notes.
 
RmikeVT said:
I just want to revive this thread. I bought a 1lb of citra probably in March or April and I've made several all citra beers (Lawson's Sunshine Double IPA clone, and then an all citra session amber to get rid of the rest) and while other like the beers I've brewed, I'm not getting that tropical fruit, grapefruit, etc aroma and flavor. Its more of a strong simcoe flavor. Any other have similar experience, the vendor was Hop Union. I'm usually very happy with their product, but I can help to think something is off with this batch, or maybe I just don't like citra.
Click to expand...

I bought some from Farmhouse back at the end of July. After brewing my ale it taste very bitter like dirt and grass clippings.
 
I ended up with a pound of oniony Citra from Farmhouse. I sent them an email and they said they did end up with some and they are more closely monitoring what they receive from Hop Union. From what I gather, a portion of the 2013 harvest was not up to par and since breweries get first shot, the bad hops were dumped on the homebrew market.

EDIT: My takeaway from the experience is to open my bulk hops as soon as I receive them and if they smell off to send them right back. Sucks to pay the money and then find out several months later that you wasted your money and have a pound of hops to throw away.
 
ktblunden said:
I ended up with a pound of oniony Citra from Farmhouse. I sent them an email and they said they did end up with some and they are more closely monitoring what they receive from Hop Union. From what I gather, a portion of the 2013 harvest was not up to par and since breweries get first shot, the bad hops were dumped on the homebrew market.

EDIT: My takeaway from the experience is to open my bulk hops as soon as I receive them and if they smell off to send them right back. Sucks to pay the money and then find out several months later that you wasted your money and have a pound of hops to throw away.
Click to expand...

Or 20+ gallons of beer that tastes off.
 
Hmmmmm....... Just got a pound from Farmhouse the other day - have not opened them to check, but I will be doing that this weekend.

I have already went through 4lbs of Citra from my LHBS - HopUnion Nitrogen Flushed bags. They were great - I have been brewing an all-citra IPA about once every 5-6 weeks and it is fast becoming my "house IPA." So, all of those hops were awesome.
 
Braufessor said:
Hmmmmm....... Just got a pound from Farmhouse the other day - have not opened them to check, but I will be doing that this weekend.

I have already went through 4lbs of Citra from my LHBS - HopUnion Nitrogen Flushed bags. They were great - I have been brewing an all-citra IPA about once every 5-6 weeks and it is fast becoming my "house IPA." So, all of those hops were awesome.
Click to expand...

John at Farmhouse assured me that all the Citra they have on hand now is good, but it might be a good idea to give them a whiff.
 
I bought 1 lb of Citra right after harvest and they were fine, but I've got this problem with the last lb of Columbus and Calypso that I received (about a month ago). There is something off about both of them.
 
ktblunden said:
I ended up with a pound of oniony Citra from Farmhouse. I sent them an email and they said they did end up with some and they are more closely monitoring what they receive from Hop Union. From what I gather, a portion of the 2013 harvest was not up to par and since breweries get first shot, the bad hops were dumped on the homebrew market.

EDIT: My takeaway from the experience is to open my bulk hops as soon as I receive them and if they smell off to send them right back. Sucks to pay the money and then find out several months later that you wasted your money and have a pound of hops to throw away.
Click to expand...

Given that I bought many pounds of hops from them a little less then a month ago, more info on this would be helpful. I'm not doing a thread or calling directly, but I think John should probably post so everyone can see it. I love doing business with them, but I'd like to hear more the hearsay about this.
 
My purchase was from around the beginning of the year, I believe. I contacted John back in July after brewing the two bad batches and tracing it to funky hops. What I already posted is basically what John told me.
 

Similar threads

zodiak3000
galaxy hops not like citra?
Replies
5
Views
4K
inhousebrew
inhousebrew
J
  • Article
Hops, What Are They?
Replies
14
Views
2K
jducharme
J
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top