Scratch Beer 31 - 2010 (Citra Of Brotherly Love IPA)
Tröegs Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acquired via trade. Poured the bottle into a pint glass.

Moderate head white with a peach tint. Receded quickly and left some nice lace on the sides of the glass. Color is bright apricot with some haze. Definitely not clear.

Smell is of aged hops - some orange peel. Some thistle and some heather flower honey.

Taste is heavy on the honey sweetness. Not a tremendous malt presence but plenty of citrus hops and good bitterness. Kind of reminds me of year old hopslam. Not sure when it was brewed but i think its best days are behind it

Good mouthfeel and drinkability is great

A= Got this in a recent trade... Not sure when it was brewed but reading some reviews on it I figured now is the time to crack it. The pour is a beautiful golden color with a thin head on it that barely rises to a full finger high. There isn't mich retention after it forms a ring around the glass and the lacing is minimal.

S= Very pineappley. I can tell the hops are starting to fade away leaving behind a nice balance of hops and malt causing the semi sweet pineapple smell. There is a bit of grapefruit to it as well but mostly a nice pineapple smell that is pretty nice for a slightly aged IPA. It shows they payed a little attention to the malt backbone on this beer.

T= The taste isn't as nearly as faded as the nose was. Solid hop flavor that is just begining to fade away. It doesn't display as much malty sweetness to it either. Tons of citrus hop flavor instead of the pineapple flavor and the grapefruit comes bursting through. There is still a lot of hops.

M= Prickly and much more carbonated than the pour lead me to believe. Finishes semi sweet.

D= This beer has held up really really well. I'm not sure how old it is again. Loads of nice hop flavor and though the aroma is starting to fall a little. Thanks Kevin for the trade!

A-Lightly hazed, golden kissed copper. A medium off-white slowly fades to a thin cap and leaves nice, intricate lace.

S-Even though there are signs of aging this one still packs a nice punch of bitter citrus rind and a touch of spiciness. Mild caramel malt sweetness adds support in the background.

T-While the Citra hops have faded a bit this one still packs a nice punch up front. Spicy notes become more prevalent with warming. Caramel malt sweetness is still secondary and does a good job balancing out the hop bill.

M-Medium-bodied sharp and crisp with long lasting hop bitterness. This one is still holding on well.

D-Despite a bit of age on this bottle it is still a good drinking hop forward brew. Certainly showing a touch of age but as with any well made beer it is admirably holding it's own.

12oz bottle thanks to StormKing47.

Pours light amber in color with a nice lasting white head. Not as clear as I'd like.

The aroma is a little faded but still good, with citrusy hops and a nice barleywinesque malt smell.

The flavor has sweet malt and faded citrus - tangerine and grapefruit - and resin notes. Definitely east coast style.

Good hop resins on the palate with medium-plus body and a tiny bit of syrupiness.

Pretty good IPA, maybe a little past prime but still enjoyable.

Scratch 31 pours a dark, hazy copper color with a pretty good amount of fast-moving carbonation bubbles. The head is about two fingers tall with a soapy look to it. The head has pretty good retention, and a thin ring of it remains on top of the beer the entire time that I am drinking it. The lacing comes in sheets, covering up most of the glass.

The aroma is very good. A good amount of fruity hops, with an emphasis on grapefruit and a balancing malt body.

Scratch 31 is a little tamer than the aroma would suggest, and a lot tamer than my experience with the other scratch ipas/iipas lead me to expect. Up front is a blast of pure fruit, with grapefruit and orange headlining. The fruit flavors come with just a bit of bitterness, but that quickly fades into a lightly toasted, biscuit-like malt base that is as powerful as the hops. A little bit of bitterness pokes its head up again in the finish, along with a resinous flavor.

The mouthfeel is pretty good, maybe a tad light on the body.

Scratch 31 is a drinkable IPA with pretty good balance. I have to admit that I liked the other Scratch IPA better though. Honestly, this beer isn't old, but if I tried this the week it came out I might like it a bit better.

Huge thanks go out to bjspicer (Brian) for an awesome box of Scratch beers! Thought I'd give this one a go right away as I want to get the hops as fresh as I can. I'm sure this has already faded a tad, as this is #31 and they are currently pushing out #35, but we'll see how it goes.

12oz bottle poured into a conical pint glass. Pours a very cloudy dark orange with a large foamy off-white head on top. Excellent retention on this one. Leaves lots of sticky globs of lace behind. I imagine the nose on this one fresh was standout, but it has since faded, I'm afraid. There's still some minor citrus tones, but it's not as powerful as I can only imagine it was. Orange zest, and lemon faintly.

The mouth still retains a firm feel. Carbonation level is good for the style. Not too much, but enough to keep it lively. This is actually a pretty filling beer. The hops have definitely taken a hit in the freshness dept, but this is still pretty good. I'm getting lots of sweet tangerine, mango, and orange. Sweet finish. Bitterness is pretty low now.

I think this beer would have been stellar fresh, still though, however many months later this is, this is still a really good beer. Thanks again, Brian. Killer trade.

On Tap at The City Tap House during Philly Beer Week 2010, just found some old notes.

Citra looks nice with a mix consisting of orange and a tangerine color with a white ivory head. Spots of lace here and there, not super clingy.

Well Citra makes a mark in the fruit department with a mix of mango, tangerine, orange and some sweet malts backing in there. Comes off with a hit of sugar. Coming from troegs Im glad to see not a huge abundance of pine here.

A nice amount of hops giving off exactly what I just mentioned above in the tropic fruit dept. I do get alot of tangerine quality in this, some pineapple as well. It's a nice IPA.

M- A bit lighter than medium but it feels lighter than that for some reason, it really glides down quite easy. A nice bitterness and afterwards medium sized carb singes the tounge a bit.

D- Could do a few of these. I liked this, I dont love it but Citra is a solid example of the style using this new hop variety, one that I'll be looking more of in the future.

Pours a bright orange with a bit of caramel coloring. Nice white head. Aroma is overflowing with bright citrus hops. Some grapefruit zest and a cornucopia of other citrus notes. Taste is quite similar along with a nice, biting bitterness. A little bit of tropical mango and other fruits here as well. Mouthfeel is dry and well carbonated. Super easy drinking and something I really wish they'd' turn into a year round beer. Troegs needs a full-time IPA, right?

12 oz bottle, thanks to akorsak for this.

Pours a hazed golden honey color with a slightly off white creamy head with nice retention and light lacing. Pleasant aroma of mild citrus hops, grapefruit and pineapple, with a light malt presence; slight rubbing alcohol note in the finish. Strong malt backbone that is dominated throughout by a pleasant one dimensional mildly sweet citrus hop bitterness. Medium thick with light carbonation, very smooth with a long wet finish. An enjoyable, smooth IPA, but nothing remarkable.

ahh the perfect beer to start off my afternoon bbq. i had been dying to try this one for a while an had been staring at it aimlessly in my fridge for what seemed like forever now. served cold an poured into a pint glass, this one was consume on 09/05/2010.

really nice pour with a thick amber color and a light haze to the color. a small head of white covers the top of the glass and leaves a decent amount of lacing in its wake.

aroma is deep fruity hops. lots of nice touches of orange and rich tangerine are all over the nose on this one. even warming brings out pineapple and lots of fresh fruit. this carries over perfectly into the flavor which is loaded down with loads of fresh fruit notes, orange, apples, pineapples, just juciy fresh hops. brilliant i have to say. each sip does not dissapoint as the flavor seems to get sweet and bigger with each sip. nice light dryness and sweet malts in the finish and warm and fuzzy feeling once you are done.

overall as solid of an ipa as you could ask for.

Review #750

Thanks much from StormKing47 & Stakem for generously sending a bottle of this my way. Drank from my Surly AHA Tally pint glass while grilling and listening to TOOL.

Appearance- Pours a lightly hazy orange yellow with a small half finger bright white head. A thin collar and spotty cap remain along with a touch of spotty lacing here and there.
Smell- Fairly fruity smelling with a tropical sort of theme going on. Mango, orange peel and a touch of pineapple peak through. Plenty of malt as well (unfortunate) with a lightly sweet smelling undertone of caramel and toffee.
Taste- Again very fruity with a tropical thing going on with a fair amount of pineapple, peach and mango. Too much going on to really be able to nail down the Citra specifically. Although bitter, there is an underlying sweetness from the fairly sturdy malt. Somewhat toffeeish and somewhat toasted. It's a weird combo I don't like that much. The finish is fruity with a super light tinge of alcohol.
Mouthfeel- Fairly heavy body with an aggressive bite of carbonation.
Drinkability- This beer pretty much tastes like Kern River Citra and I wasn't the biggest fan of that. I don't know who came up with this sort of 'style' but I don't like them. I wish someone would just come out with a nice west coast IPA using an assload of Citra. Thanks much gents!

Big thanks to number1bum for this one, I was really looking forward to continuing the scratch series.

As far as appearances go, there are no complaints. The hue is on the fairer end of the spectrum, hazy gold with decent head and lacing.

And then it goes downhill. Maybe citra is not a hop that holds up well, and I'm not one to age IPA's but at only a month or two old I expected more. The nose is rotten grapefruit and a hint of booze and nothing else worth writing home about.

It tastes pretty much as the nose advertised. The malts come through only because the hops have faded, not because they are meant to shine. It finishes dry, leaving a not-so-fresh bitter citric twang in the back of the throat.

I wish I had this one earlier, maybe something about my bottles wasn't meant to be as other reviews only a few days younger are much more glowing. Drink em if you got em I guess.

Very excited to try this one. Big thanks to Deuane for the bottle.

Pour is a sort of hazy golden, with about a finger of rich white foam. Head doesn't retain for long, but there's some fantastic lacing stuck to the glass.

Huge citric nose. Smells like fresh orange juice, grapefruit rind, pineapple, and tangerine. Definitely a tropical fruit vibe. Some caramel malt sweetness rounds it out.

Flavor follows, though not quite as robust as the aroma. Great citric flavor, just looking for a little more. Nice balancing caramel sweetness. Very, very little bitterness, all in the finish.

Medium-bodied. Decent coating. The little bitterness in the finish lasts for a while, along with a citric sweetness. Very crisp. Carbonation seems perfect.

Very, very easy drinker, thanks in part to the low level of bitterness. I wanted more bitterness out of this one, but it still goes down like water. Very hard to believe the ABV is over 7%. Reminds me of Bell's Two Hearted in that aspect. Very glad I got to try this one.