Marks And Spencer Single Hop Citra IPA
Oakham Ales / The Brewery Tap

 

L- Pale gold, clear, pours with 1Cm white head, holds very well.
S- Fresh and somewhat zesty.
T- Bright and into a hoppy-citrus aspect that builds ... quite dry+sharp grapefruit at it's peak, before easing back off. Same repeats on 2nd swig, etc.
F- Dry, refreshing , modern, citrus/citric.
O- A very modern beer (hipsters etc) that comes in the very trad packaging featuring a punting scene on the River Cam in Cambridge. This beer isn't entirely OTT hops-wise, but they are sufficciently out of balance (to a more trad palate) that I wouldn't choose to buy this beer again.
The above was written before reading the cans text, and now looking at it I see it refers to 'powerful grapefruit, lycheee and gooseberry aromas' frankly something I could well do without getting in the way of beer that I'd prefer to taste of beer rather than fruit alco-pops. 500ml can £2.50. BBE: 12/2020.

500ml bottle from M&S (£2.50):
Surprisingly good stuff for what is essentially a supermarket beer, albeit one that's from Oakham Ales. The beer is quite enjoyable from the start, the strong citrus flavours & bitter hops kick things off well & the beer manages to hold its own until the end with some earthy hops & a few pale malts showing at times. It's not quite good as Oakham Citra from the same brewery but it was an enjoyable one that went down better than I'd expected.

Not great. tastes a bit too bitter. citra is not a good bittering hop

Bronze with white film. 3.75
Biscuit, heavy nectar, musty grape, and lemon on the nose. 3.75
Caramel shortbread, then lemon rind, gooseberry, and pink grapefruit. 4.25
Twinkly lime finish and bitter linger.
Crisp, light, oily. 4

Amazingly, not a rebadge; a slightly higher ABV than Oakham Citra. Yet it still has the resin and aroma, with big Citra brightness. How does Oakham use this hop so well? 4.25

 

Purchased at M&S store on Fulham Road. Poured in chalice glass, not much foam at all, yellow pilsner color. Smell straw and sweet grass. Mouth feel very carbonated for IPA, light. Taste clean, sharp, finishes nicely bitter at top of mouth but frankly rather watery in the middle. A fine beer but wouldn't go out of my way and think of it as a day than an evening drink.

500ml bottle - brewed by Oakham Brewery for M&S

Look: Pale, straw yellow with a good fingers-width of off-white, fairly bubbly head. Good retention with some lacing left behind. Not much visible carbonation left after initial pour.

Smell: Hops by the bucketload, as you'd expect from a single variety beer. For a Citra-derived brew it pretty much ticks all the boxes - oranges, lemons and grapefruit predominate, with a faint undercurrent of pine resin and hay. Malt notes, if present at all, are pretty much steamrollered by the hops. Overall, a very 'clean' smelling brew.

Taste: There's a slight bit of maltiness in the taste but the Citra favours cut through it like a very sharp thing indeed. If anything, the hop flavours are even more well-defined, with some sharper, passion-fruit like flavours mixing it up with the more usual citrus and grapefruit. Nicely dry with a lingering bitterness, and fairly well hop-forward as you'd expect.

Feel: Dry, astringent and hoppy - not much else to be said.

Overall: For a 'supermarket' beer it's not bad at all - there are better Citra-based beers out there but they're a) generally harder to get hold of and b) would likely cost you a hell of a lot more than this. If you're jonesing for a hop hit or just want to scratch an IPA itch then you could do a lot worse than this. Top-notch for a supermarket beer and pretty good in the wider scheme of things.

Straw colour. Slight haze. Thin head.
Aroma of citrus fruit. Lemon, lime and grapefruit identified.
Taste follows the smell with added passion fruit and mango. Malt detected.
Soft carbonation.
Easy drinking. More please.

 

Poured a very pale golden with minimal head that dissipated quickly. Fresh citrus aroma that is matched by the flavour. Feels a bit thin in the mouth and lacks any real malty balance to the hop bitterness. This beer is all about the freshness of the hop flavour though and the citrus really comes through to create a very refreshing beer that deserves to be drunk on a hot summer day.

 

 

 

Brown pint bottle purchased from Marks & Spencer in Victoria, London.

Pours a very hazy holden hue, with a foamy, but not very persistent head of white. Lacing forms in fine patterns, however. Carbonation is coarse when pouring, but settling into a fine powder when the glass is tilted. Body is light. Looks decent.

Nose is bright, with a sort of tick-the-boxes hat-tilt to Citra. Bright sweet citrus juice characters of mandarin and grapefruit, with slightly sharper twinges of passionfruit. Underneath though is a slightly rough grain character that turns slightly sweet or muddy, and undermining the fragrance of the hops. It's a shame: otherwise it's fairly pleasant.

Taste is decent enough. Clean malt basis doesn't have that slight funk to it here, and it provides a platform for the hops to do their business. Here they strike out a bit more fully and cleanly, providing citrus-pith and -skin and a clean but robust bitterness. Finish is fairly clean, with a slight undertone of flour. Feel is fairly light but clean and smooth.

Overall, it's okay. It's far from the best use of Citra I've seen, especially in an IPA—there are some weirdnesses in the creation, especially in the malt profile. While it manages to sail through over the top of these in some sense, it's certainly not an ideal outing.

Purchased from the Marks & Spencer supermarket, coming in a 568ml brown bottle; BB 09/2014, served mildly chilled in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: pale orange-golden in colour, coming with light haze (likely unfiltered), a well-lasting, thin layer of off-white froth, and super mild carbonation.
S: very much like the same brewery’s regular beer, Citra, in that the fruitiness has accentuated so well and smells fresh on the nose, with gooseberry cordial, juicy lychee flesh, pears, and honey-ish sweet but light-bodied pale malts coming in a harmony. If anything, the sweetness comes slightly too sharp on the balance.
T: light-bodied but feeling quite a mouthful at the same time, due to the quality English pale malts applied I suspect, supporting clean & focused flavours of Citra hops (quite like all the aroma elements identified on the nose, albeit less assertively), followed by lightly chewy, tannic and moderate hop bitterness as well as a decent dose of acidity to linger in the long, flowery & lychee-ish fragrant finish.
M&O: refreshing with just enough soft fizziness to entertain the taste buds, this medium-minus bodied hoppy pale Bitter is almost as nice as the same brewery’s Citra, with a slightly less pronounced hop profile all in all. Very quaffable and delicious.

 

Bottled
Pours a clear golden body with decent enough foaming white head that pretty much sticks
big lemony aroma
citrus on the front then backed up with excellent bitter finish

 

Poured from a 568ml (pint) bottle into a straight pint glass.

Pours a cloudy golden colour with a small head.

Smells fruity and citrusy, no surprises there, although fresher than I expected, the bottle being 3-4 months old.

Tastes quite hop forward, though noticeably faded compared with a fresher IPA. Still there though, grapefruit and orange with a slight zing of lemon. Fairly strong malt presence as well, with a decent but no overbearing sweet caramel finish.

Overall a pretty good beer, excellent from a supermarket.