Citralicious
Urban South Brewery

Pours a hazy golden color with a nice head and lacing
Aroma has tropical and citrus hints
The taste follows the nose with a tropical and citrus flavor
A medium bodied well carbonated beer
A good IPA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAN: 2019 vintage. A 4 pack of 12 fl oz pull-tabs ran me $10.99 USD plus tax at a Rouses Market in New Orleans, LA. Packaged 09/25/2019. Colorful label art.

"Citra Wet Hop IPA." This is Holy Roller IPA hopped with wet Citra hops from Yakima valley. Runs $7 USD per 16 fl oz pour at the brewery (where they'll serve it to you in a plastic cup while children run amok and babies cry around you...).

APPEARANCE: Murky dirty orange body - lacks vibrance and life. Translucent but nontransparent. I see no yeast/lees within, but it does appear unfiltered.

Head is white but the consistency isn't great...lacks fluffiness, vitality, creaminess, and froth. Starts at ~5cm and sticks around for a good ~6 minutes.

Appears adequately carbonated.

Looks okay for the style. We've all seen better looking IPAs.

AROMA: Citra isn't terribly well showcased considering Yakima wet hops were utilized. Pleasant tropical fruit notes, pineapple, faint orange/citrus, floral hop aromatics...where's Mosaic's signature blueberry note?

I can see where fans might applaud the "green" citrus hop aroma, but this seems less fresh and certainly less pungent Citra hop-wise than many canned and bottled Citra IPAs I've had that weren't brewed with wet hops at all. In any case, Mosaic's full potential does not seem to be fully realized here going off the aroma.

I hope the taste delivers more...

TASTE & TEXTURE: Better than it looks and smells, but not by a wide margin. A bit thin and weak for an IPA, lacking a robust body or mouthfeel. Smooth, wet, somewhat refreshing. Luckily, it's not a juicy pulp texturally, but it's also not as juicy as many drinkers might desire flavour-wise.

I wouldn't know this was either Mosaic-hopped or wet Citra-hopped if I tried it blind. There's some of Citra's citrus and mild amounts of Mosaic and Citra's shared vaguely tropical fruit notes, but it doesn't come across as horribly fresh, "green," or pungent. Compared to say, Kern River's Citra, it's a joke, and it doesn't distinguish itself from the myriad Citra-Mosaic hopped IPAs brewed across the U.S.

The usual benefits of wet hops aren't realized here, nor is Mosaic's full potential (and its signature blueberry note is conspicuously absent to its detriment). Why its hop pungency is so limited is beyond me.

Flavour duration is briefer than that observed in most IPAs. Flavour intensity is mild.

Pale malt/2-row anchors it, but there isn't any seeming hop bitterness to begin with. In any case, it's well-balanced, but it does drink more like a pale ale in terms of hop pungency (Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale showcases Cascade better than this showcases Citra).

No overt alcohol is noticeable. I find no off-flavours.

OVERALL: It's not a bad beer, but one does expect far more from a wet hopped Citra & Mosaic IPA sold at $10.99 USD/4 pack. It's certainly drinkable, but if you served it to me and told me it was a pale ale I definitely wouldn't dispute it, and it just plain doesn't showcase its hop varietals well which runs against the point of brewing the intended style.

Is it better than Holy Roller? Not particularly, no. But I wouldn't soon buy either - especially considering their prices.

C+ (3.06) / ABOVE AVERAGE

 

 

 

 

Hazy amber brew with swirls of foam in the tumbler. It's described as "Whole Cone Citra Juice Fall 2017." Tangy but not overly acidic, and the carbonation gently fizzes in the mouth. The fresh hops are very aromatic with hints of orange and citrus peel.

There is a little malty sweetness. Orange is the flavor. Not much bitterness, but enough sharpness and hoppy zing to balance the malt. Overall this is a hoppy but mellow brew that is highly drinkable. From the 12 oz can, a four-pack picked up at the brewery tasting room in New Orleans.

 

Crowler