After our comparison session with the Mosaic SMaSH beer, we decided to do a full examination of the Citra SMaSH beer. In the long series of hop evaluations, these Brew Dudes did not get to brewing a Citra focused beer until now. We didn’t get to it because Citra seemed to be used a lot in commercial beers and we didn’t feel the need to give it our point of view. Well, the people spoke and we got to it. Here is our Citra SMaSH tasting notes!

Brewing Notes

As usual, I brew these SMaSH beers in one gallon batches and this beer was no exception. The base malt was American 2-row and 1 ounce of hops was added throughout the brewing process.

Because we really wanted to get the flavor and the aroma of these hops present in the beer, most of the hops went into the end of the boil and were used as a dry hop during fermentation.

The slight difference with this beer (and the Mosaic one) was that all the dry hopping was done on the third day of active fermentation.

On day 10 of primary fermentation, the beer was racked to a small keg and carbonated.

Tasting Notes

Mike said he got these notes in the aroma:

  • Juicy Fruit – like the gum
  • Pulpy Orange Juice
  • Green Grape Juice

In the flavor, he named off these descriptors:

  • Segmented pink grapefruit wedges
  • The flavor is not tropical fruit, it’s definitely citrus
  • White pithiness in the aftertaste

I found that once you got past the citrus notes, there were some delicate fruit notes that were like a passion fruit. It was very slight but present.

Final Thoughts

A hop variety that changed the world, huh? This Citra SMaSH beer was more delicate in its flavor and aroma than I expected. The hop flavors were good and it made a nice beer, but the hype made me expect that this hop variety was going to slay. This hop will make for a mild hoppy beer but probably will pair better with other varieties (like Centennial?) in your next IPA.

BREW ON!