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Citra Hops and the Rise of Fruity IPAs

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Citra Hops and the Rise of Fruity IPAs

2015 Citra Hops – a must have for your beer supplies!

A must have for all Beer Supplies: 2015 Citra Hops a boosted grapefruit flavor to create a standout profile

2015 Citra Hops and Beer Supplies

The hop market is growing, and every beer advocate needs to add 015 Citra Hops to their beer supplies.

Lets start at the top, with the growing popularity of craft beer in the United States, the hop market has seen exponential growth this was particularly apparent in the year 2015, when just the Pacific Northwest alone produced around 77 million pounds of these crucial beer supplies. That equated to about 96 percent of the entire United States crop. In fact, hops were able to thrive despite heat and water issues that occurred throughout the summer and during the blooming period.

In particular, Washington and Idaho were hops supplier hotbeds, reaping yield percentages of 50 to 100 percent. These states success have helped the United States to produce 40 percent of the world’s hop supply and led to a 10 percent increase of hops in storage. Overall, the world produced around 186.9 million pounds of hops in the year 2015.

2015 Citra Hops – A stand out

One especially stand-out hop variety from the year 2015 was the Citra hop. Prized for its grapefruit aroma, citrus finish, and smooth taste, Citra hops were developed by the Hop Breeding Company located in Yakima, Washington in the year 2007. This hop performed just as expected, leaving hops suppliers with a product that had outstanding quality. Other hops that performed well included Simcoe, Mosaic, and Nugget.

Unfortunately, other varieties were not able to withstand the challenging conditions. Hops that didn’t fare as well included Goldings, Saaz, Willamette, Fuggles, Centennials, and Hallertau.
However, thanks to better weather during growing season, hops fared even better in 2016, helping to satisfy the home brewing demand for high quality, aromatic varieties of hops like Citra.

2018: The Year of Citra

Citra continued to flourish all through 2016 and 2017. But Citra hops in 2018 proved to be the game-changer. For starters, Citra (278%) had the second-highest growth in harvested acreage within five years next to Mosaic (312%). In 2018, it surpassed the classic Cascade hops as the most-farmed hop variety in the U.S., with Citra being farmed and harvested on 600 more acres of land than Cascade.

The rapid and continuous increase in the production of this hop variety shows that the demand for Citra as a base hop is only going to grow.

Citra Pairings

The fruity taste of Citra hops makes them a great companion to different beers and various bases. American Pale Ale, known for its medium-bodied floral and citrusy base, is an excellent beer for Citra hops to shine, such as in Guayabera Citra Pale Ale. Similarly, this hop variety would do well in American IPA, with this beer’s fruity and earthy aroma as evidenced by Sierra Nevada Brewing’s Torpedo IPA.

Citra would also make for a good base hop in the hop-centric Double IPA, as well as the citrusy and malty American amber ale.

When it comes to complementary hops, brewers can make a citrusy IPA by pairing Citra with Cascade, Centennial, or Amarillo hops. These varieties all have a fruity and citrusy character, making them easy to pair with Citra. Paired with Simcoe or Galena hops, the citrusy flavor of Citra can also shine.

If you’d like to add Citra hops to your repertoire of beer supplies, we can help. As a premiere hops supplier, we have some of the fantastic 2015 vintage year left in stock. You can view all of our hops here.

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