Tasting Room Series: DDH Citra IPA
Boulevard Brewing Co.

Boulevard Brewing Co. "Tasting Room Series: DDH Citra IPA"
12 fl. oz. brown glass bottle coded "L121718 0803 C 16MAY2019"

Niotes via stream of consciousness: I can't tell from the coding if this beer is fresh or old. WTF? Why is that? I'm going to guess that May 16, 2019 was the production date and that this is now, on the 18th of August, three months old. OR... was 121718 the production date and the 16th of May was the best by date? At this point I don't care. If the beer is crap it'll still get the piss-poor review because I don't know if it's fresh or not; but fuck Boulevard or whomever owns them no for not doing a better job. On to the beer, it's poured a very hazy yellow-gold with visible sediment in suspension. That's a sign of age and that doesn't make me feel any better. The head is a short cap of creamy off-white. The aroma is sweetish and bready with a distinct lemony and otherwise citrusy note. It smells good. Oh, wait, there's also something a little catty about it. Yeah, that's pretty distinct, cat urine. Moving forward... the flavor also delivers a little bit of that cattiness but it's wrapped in a limoncello-like malt and citrus kind of thing. A very firm bitterness backs it and keeps it in check, and eventually leads to a dry finish. I'm completely down with this, including the cattiness. It's unique. It's not the only one, but it's different than most of the IPAs out there. And, the rich Boulevard maltiness is there. Yeah, I'm liking this one. In the mouth it's medium bodied and crisp, no surprises there except that I should note that it's a fairly fine-bubbled carbonation that seems almost natural. Going back, I feel like I skipped over some of the flavor too quickly. It's not just lemony, there's also a touch of grapefruit and orange to it. What else did I miss? Oh yeah, the head retention and lacing. The head retention is excellent. I still have a short, solid head of foam covering the entire surface. The lacing however, is not that great. I can't tell if it's a 4 or a 4.25 right now. Anything else? No, I think that about covers it. This is a pretty damned good beer.

Review #6,655

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the bottle, it pours a lightly hazy yellow color with a modest head that slowly diminishes and leaves a bit of lacing. The hop scent stands out in the nose, completely covering the malt - in a nice way. The mouth gets a solid smack of hops with a super malt base. Nice!

 

 

DDH Citra IPA pours a bronze color, with a big, long lasting, lacing head, perfect look. Big fresh wet hoppy aroma. Flavor is lighter, but a nice fresh hop flavor, and sweet sugary finish. Good body and feel. Overall, easy drinking hoppy beer. Light sweet flavors hurt in the end.

 

 

 

12 oz bottle poured into Yakima Valley glass.

Nice hazy honey amber color with a fluffy head of 1 finger, lots of gorgeous hilly lace on the sides from the head sticking to it.

Damn fine clean aromas going on here with lots of citrus pith, orange juice, and peeled oranges. The citra hop is definitely spotlighted in this beer, no argument there.

Flavor is again, wonderfully clean, with orange pith and grapefruit flesh, slight acidic orange juice, following with bright herbal qualities and slight dirty armpit note that's 100% characteristic of a huge citra burst; finishing out on stringy grapefruit and orange juice.

Feel is clean, with slight creaminess and a nice full carbonation. Medium bodied. Resiny finish.

Overall, a lot like Pseudo Sue, and that's saying a lot. Definitely give this a try if you see it.

 

Impression from a 12 fl oz bottle acquired as part of a Boulevard variety 12-pack:

5.9% ABV. 37 IBUs. Best by 07DEC2018. "Double dry hopped Citra IPA."

APPEARANCE: Head is 2.5cm in height, frothy, and off-white in colour. Body is a transparent vibrant copper of above average vibrance.

AROMA: Tangerine, citrus, passionfruit, crystal malt, pale malt, candied orange peel.

Aromatic intensity is average.

TASTE: Subdued, but it does match the aroma. I can't say Citra is well exploited or showcased here, but it does have a muted though dominant citrusy flavour.

TEXTURE: Smooth, wet, medium-bodied, somewhat refreshing, and approachable.

OVERALL: Drinkable but ultimately underwhelming coming from a brewery as usually impressive as Boulevard. Seems like a beer meant to cash in on the "DDH" marketing fad rather than an inspired beer the brewers wanted to make. It doesn't help that its hop pungency and depth of flavour are more on par with a pale ale than an IPA, but it's not a bad beer.

C+ (3.07) / ABOVE AVERAGE

12oz bottle. Poured out a slightly hazy, golden orange color with a small, tan head of foam. It smelled of citrus, pineapple and sweet caramel. Nice citrusy bite with a mild bitterness and toasted caramel.