Your experience with Citra

[MotoGP1000]

hey all-

Wanted to get your experience with citra as this tends to be a popular hop and my experience has varied.

So my last brew had about 1oz in the boil and 5oz in a 30min hopstand. 3oz dry hop. I got some real good orange notes and dankness that i really enjoyed. So i thought i might double down on my next brew

2nd brew was 1oz in the boil and 9oz! In the hopstand. And 6oz dry hop. I went wild. This one totally had more grapefruit and zero dankness. Same grist as the first one.

So whats the deal here? Whats your experience and how did you get different characteristics from the same hops?

 

[couchsending]

Hops vary dramatically from lot to lot, farm to farm, etc. Citra was originally grown on one farm. It’s now grown in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Soil, weather, harvest date, how it’s dried, machinery used to pelletize, are all variables that come into play and affect the final product. Not to mention how the hops were handled after they were packaged.

 

[thehaze]

I can add that some hops will give different aroma and flavours when used in specific amounts. The yeast will probably will play a role, so will the malts, water / treatment, etc.

 

[SanPancho]

Never orange, never really dank either. Always tropical fruit, passion fruit and guava. Sometimes a little, sometimes alot. A bit of generic hoppiness sometimes too, but not sure id go so far as to say dank like apollo, eureka, etc.

 

[MotoGP1000]

Never orange, never really dank either. Always tropical fruit, passion fruit and guava. Sometimes a little, sometimes alot. A bit of generic hoppiness sometimes too, but not sure id go so far as to say dank like apollo, eureka, etc.

For some reason i got orange and some dankness. I swear it was citra too. Idk...

My grist and yeast haw stayed the same over the last 4 batches too. As has the alpha of the hop

 

[SanPancho]

Interesting. I dont get grapefruit from it either, at least not specifically. I guess there is some citrus quality to it, but behind the tropical stuff. Amarillo is the one folks say gives orange flavors. But doesn’t mean citra can’t have some too.

It could just be an issue where your impression differ s from everyone elses, or the aromas combined with the yeast’s are coming out as orange. It’s subjective for everyone, but if you ask enough folks, read reviews, look up the grower descriptions, etc then you get to the “consensus” opinion. Share it with some folks and see what they say.

 

[MotoGP1000]

Interesting. I dont get grapefruit from it either, at least not specifically. I guess there is some citrus quality to it, but behind the tropical stuff. Amarillo is the one folks say gives orange flavors. But doesn’t mean citra can’t have some too.

It could just be an issue where your impression differ s from everyone elses, or the aromas combined with the yeast’s are coming out as orange. It’s subjective for everyone, but if you ask enough folks, read reviews, look up the grower descriptions, etc then you get to the “consensus” opinion. Share it with some folks and see what they say.

Only problem is...im limited here in my “educated” audience. Everyone just says it “tastes like beer”

 

[Calder]

"Your experience with Citra"

Great hop - love it.

 

[Iseneye]

I get distinctive tropical fruit plus the "cat piss" taste. I have a NEIPA on tap with 7 ounces of Citra, 7 ounces of Mosaic and 4 ounces of Amarillo and the Citra dominates. Some people detect the cat piss taste and some don't.

 

[thehaze]

Citra can give some cat pee qualities and dankness, which some love, and most hate. Citra is also very mango-ish and lychee forward, especially in combination with other hops, like Amarillo.

 

[Queequeg]

The only thing I ever get from Citra is mango

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

I love Citra hops in my IPA's

 

[cooper]

Citra varies from year to year for me. And if I'm able to get my final pH under control from the massive amounts I use.

 

[danielthemaniel]

I have always enjoyed citra and have had a lot of variation from different beers branded as citra. I brewed an all citra clone of 3 Floyd's Zombie Dust. The beer was fantastic. The citra was mainly a strong tangerine flavor and aroma.

 

[ong]

I kind of feel like brewing with all Citra is “cheat mode.” It’s so distinctive and pungent, that when I use it as a single hop, everyone remarks on how good the beer is. When I use it in combination with others I tend to use about half the amount of Citra as other hops, so it doesn’t overwhelm.

But no, I don’t really get grapefruit or orange so much. Tropical fruit, cat pee, a bit of dankness (like weed).

 

[jaymosbeershack]

I mostly taste pineapple, some other tropical fruit too, and yes some of the cat pee dankness. Among my favorite hops.

 

[ba-brewer]

When used alone it smells like mosquito candles(citranella) with a bit of diesel oil to me, flavor is a generic citrus I don't get anything tropical. To me citra is not very complex and really does better when combined with other hops.

I don't think I get any catty or dank aromas from citra but I did leave some chinook on the bine until they turned brown and those smelled like a cat box. Guessing catty flavors means over ripe or late picking.

 

[Miraculix]

It is surely interesting to see how the perceived taste differs. I only got huuuuge grapefruit from citra. Now that I read about it, I might brew an ipa with it, with 50/50 Amarillo/Citra.

.... So much beer to brew....

 

[thehaze]

The latest IPA I brewed with half Citra and half Amarillo, both for boil, whirlpool and dry hop, was all mango, citrus and faint dankness/herbal in the background. It seems these two hops really work great together.

 

[yowzers]

Don't like it by itself. Has an almost sweet orange type flavor I don't like that way. I like to combine it with Cascade or Amarillo as mentioned.

 

[Lefou]

In one exbeeriment I've done, I've mixed Citra bittering hops with Saaz aroma hops between 25-30IBU.
It gave the light ale a slightly spicy grapefruit essence that mellowed as the beer aged. At around two months it was awesome - to me, anyway. Citra and/or Amarillo is a perfect mix or match for pale ales, blondes, or American wheat beers.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It's worth noting that Citra is a hop that can be biotransformed to different extents by different yeast strains (it's not with 100% Citra but see Scott Janish here) so that may be having an effect. Yeast play a much bigger role in beer flavour than people realise, even in "hop" flavours. So did these beers use the same yeast?

And yes, Citra does seem to be one of those varieties that's quite sensitive to picking time - the huge recent growth in Citra acreage means that there's a lot of farmers that are "new" to it and who are not necessarily picking at the correct ripeness - there were a lot of problems in the early days with that kind of thing, and they seem to have come back a bit recently. In particular a lot of people seem to be commenting on the 2017 vintage as being particularly oniony.