Citra: the hop

Hops are one of the key ingredients in craft beer, and among all the varieties out there, Citra stands out as one of the favourites for its aromatic profile and intense citrus and tropical flavours.

In our craft beer online store, we offer a wide selection of beers with Citra hops, including our classic single-hop IPA and the rest of the beers that make up the range featuring this hop, to which we even dedicate an annual event, Citra Invasion Day, which this year will take place on Friday, November 29.

But before we talk about our beers, we’ll give you some clues about Citra hops, their origin and what makes them so special.

The origins of Citra hops

Citra hops are a relatively new variety, developed in 2008 in the USA by the Hop Breeding Company, specifically in Yakima, in the state of Washington, one of the main hop-producing regions in the North American country.

For many years, a team led by geneticist Jason Perrault sought to create a variety that would stand out for its unique aromatic profile and an intense blend of citrus and tropical flavours. To do so, they crossed other more classic hops, such as the German Hallertau Mittelfrüh and Tettnanger, or the English Brewer’s Gold and East Kent Golding.

The first commercial use of the Citra hop was in a collaboration with Sierra Nevada, one of the pioneering breweries in the craft beer revolution and currently one of the most important in the sector. Always innovative, Sierra Nevada decided to use 50 kilos of Citra in the first batch of its famous Torpedo Extra IPA. The final result caused a strong impact among the brewers of the time, as the aroma had an unusual intensity for those times. From then on, thousands of craft beer factories, first in the United States and later around the world, went after this wonderful hop.

What makes Citra different?

Citra hops are primarily characterized by their powerful citrus aroma and flavor, with notes of lime, grapefruit, and passion fruit, as well as tropical hints of mango and papaya. In terms of bitterness, Citra has an alpha-acid content ranging from 11% to 13%, giving it a medium-high bitterness. This makes it a versatile hop that can be used both in the boiling phase and in the cold fermentation or dry hopping phase, depending on the brewer’s intention. If used during the boil, it will mainly provide bitterness, to which flavor notes will be added if it is used in the final phases or during hop back. If used during the fermentation of the beer, its contribution will be more focused on the final aroma of the beer.

Its unique flavor and aroma profile makes it ideal for styles such as IPAs or Pale Ales. Not in vain, there are thousands and thousands of references that have been made with this hop by craft breweries around the world, making it the favourite and most sought after in the sector. Today there are many more varieties of hops than when Citra was developed in 2008, but instead of losing prominence, it has become a perfect complement to other more modern varieties.

10 Cierzo beers that use Citra hops

It’s one of the 3 most used hops in our beers and more specifically, the first. We use it mainly in fermentation (dry hopping) or just after boiling (hop back), since what interests us most about this variety is its flavour and aroma. In our online store you can always find references made with Citra, but we wanted to highlight these 10 for different reasons:

1. Citra: our most iconic and most often brewed beer, a single-hop IPA present since our beginnings.
2. Tremendous Dynamite: a fantastic Hazy DIPA, in which Citra is accompanied by Centennial, Mosaic and Azacca.
3. Fogbound: another classic, in this case in the form of a Hazy IPA and with Citra in combination with the other 2 hops that we use the most, Mosaic and Simcoe.
4. Zombie: another Double highly valued by consumers and in this case a single-hopped.
5. Olympia: Citra couldn’t be missing from our collaboration with Soma, accompanied by Nelson Sauvin, Rakau and El Dorado.
6. Taste of Thunder: lots of Citra, as well as Strata and Columbus, in this collaboration with Garage.
7. Voodoo: gold medal at the 2022 Beer Championship, for this collaboration with Oddity, which also contains Azacca and Mosaic.
8. Spirited Away: one of our gluten-free beers, specifically an IPA that also contains Columbus and Mosaic, and which we share with Mononoke.
9. Artistas del Gremio: our American Pale Ale in homage to this famous Aragonese band.
10. El Basket es Vida 2.0: a solidarity beer, in which Citra shared a recipe with El Dorado and Mosaic.

Citra Invasion Day

This hop is so important to us that since 2023 we have dedicated one day a year just for it. This is Citra Invasion Day, an international event in which bars and beer shops from all over Europe join Cierzo to pay tribute to this variety of hops to which we owe so much.

Every year, and on the occasion of this event, we launch a new single-hop Citra beer, meaning that we only use this variety of hops in its production. In 2023, it was a Triple IPA called Citra a Ciegas, which joined the classic Citra, in addition to the DIPA, Citra², and the Pale Ale, Alter Citra. In addition, we distribute exclusive merchandising, such as t-shirts, tote bags, stickers or coasters, and we raffle off 10 packs with all the Citra varieties.

This year, the event will take place on Saturday, November 29, and the new beer is a Hoppy Pilsner called Citrissima. The first bottom-fermented beer to join the Citra family. We recommend that you don’t miss this event, try all the varieties and continue to toast for many more years to come to this fabulous hop.