Beer Review: Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery)

First off, let me say happy Drinksgiving for tonight, and hope you have a very blessed, happy, and fun filled Thanksgiving tomorrow. Moving on from there…. this might be a bit of a short beer review tonight, and a smaller blog post….. I might have started my Drinksgiving early – hitting Troegs right after work and having a flight there; which included Mad Elf and Mad Elf Grand Cru. As well as their scratch beers, and I picked up the Coco-Nator that we had previously reviewed and discussed when Troegs first presented the beer as a can released scratch variant of Troggenator.

So after all those, and now just having eaten a big meal, I find myself writing this blog post up. So it will be quick, succinct, and to the point.

So as a quick preamble, I had gotten this in a beer mail for trading some of the local breweries. Along with the Southern Prohibition, Edmund’s Oast, Westbrook, Fonta Flora, Parish, and Pretoria Collective; this was another southern brewery I got to try out thanks to beer trading. I love doing the local for local trades; I get to try small breweries I’ve never even heard of, and I get to ship some locals of my own – in these past scenarios: Troegs, Boneshire, and Tattered Flag – giving these local breweries some wider recognition and letting others try out breweries they’ve never heard of as well. Its a total win – win for everyone.

Beer: Citraquench’l
Brewery: Heist Brewery
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7.1%
IBU: 70
Untappd Write-Up: 100% Citra hops, NE Style IPA

For those of you unfamiliar, Citra hops are a bright, juicy, hop explosion every time they are used, especially, particularly, definitely, when used in New England style IPAs. Citra hops are pretty much instantly recognizable in any drink, and are just so full of flavor and juicy goodness you can easily spot it, even amongst a heavy hop lineup.

Appearance is bright yellow to orange, orange juice like in color and texture and sediment is heavy. Nice head that stays and a good lacing.

Aroma is pure citra hops. Powerful, heavy, juicy, fruit hop explosion as soon as it hits you, as soon as you crack the can open, the hop aroma is super powerful, knocking you back as you pour it into your glass. As it flows into the glass it really opens up and the aroma wafts out and just envelopes the area.

Taste is once again: pure Citra hops. Just through and through. As I think this should all be obvious by now, given the can art, the description, what we know of the beer going in, and what I’ve said so far in the review – this is pure Citra hop goodness. This is all kinds of fruit explosions in hop form, you get peach, pineapple, lots and lots of mango, some citrus, some melon rinds, but overall its just a fruity concoction hitting you all at once. As a whole this beer is just a pure hop (fruity hop) bomb, very hazy, very juicy, very dank, little bitterness despite its 70 IBU, and not really much of a hit with alcohol at only 7.1%.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.27 (as of 11.27.19)

I’m off to finish and polish off this Mad Elf Grand Cru bottle and hit the bed. Watching The Irishman by Scorsese on Netflix. Peace all and Happy Thanksgiving and Drinksgiving and see you here tomorrow!

-B. Kline