Citra

Citra was developed by the Hop Breeding Company of Yakima, WA and released to the public in 2008. Gene Probasco, who led the hop breeding program at John I. Haas for 39 years, originally created the plant that would eventually become Citra back in 1990. Gene crossed two unnamed varieties and formed what was known as X-114 or HBC 394 for years. While the two hop varieties directly used to create it were unknown, their parentage included American Tettnanger, Brewer’s Gold, Hallertau Mittelfrüh, East Kent Goldings and an unknown hop variety, most likely an American wild hop. A single plant was selected by hop farmer Jason Perrault in 1992 and then expanded to a test plot of four plants in 1993. This plot was located in Washington state. The evaluation went so well that by 2003 it was expanded to 21 plants. It would be more than four additional years before the hop would be ready for commercial tests.

Citra is a dual-purpose hop that can be used in all hop additions throughout the brewing process.

The Citra hop is a high alpha acid hop with a strong, yet smooth floral and citrus aroma and flavor. It has specific aroma descriptors that include grapefruit, citrus, peach, melon, lime, gooseberry, passion fruit and lychee. These tropical fruit flavors have made Citra the most popular hop to craft brewers in the world. Citra adds a smooth bitterness when added to the boil. This is due to Citra having a fairly high alpha acids percentage, while also having enough flavor and aroma to be considered an aroma hop. Citra overtook Cascade as the most grown hop variety in 2018 and has yet to relinquish that title. Citra has redefined what could be expected out of a hop. It helped push IPAs to the forefront of craft brewing popularity with its extreme citrus flavors.

Some hops just taste better together. We recently analyzed [ 1 ] hundreds of the most popular beers to find which hops are commonly paired together. We found that Mosaic , Simcoe , Amarillo , El Dorado , Galaxy , Columbus , Centennial & Chinook hops are commonly used alongside the Citra hop. This is not a complete list, but should give you a good idea of what hops are commonly used together.

Citra is also sometimes featured as a single hop in beers to highlight its unique flavors and aromas. It can be added either as a fresh hop, or via hop pellets. Some popular examples of commercial beers that use 100% Citra hops in their recipes are Three Floyds Zombie Dust , Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue , Hill Farmstead Citra Single Hop Pale Ale & Verdant Fruit Car Sight Exhibition .