This Week On Tap: 450 North’s Citrafest Session IPA

As I type this, I’m watching the NBA Playoffs on my iPad, listening to the new Mumford and Sons album, and have the surprise 2014 hit John Wick playing on the television. I like clean Nikes and delivery Chinese food. I am a sucker for popular things.  And not much is more popular in the craft beer world right now than Citra hops.

Citra hops are finding their way into innumerable amounts of beers now, and for good reason: they’re freaking delicious, and they pair exceptionally well with IPAs, probably the most popular style of beer in America at this moment. Big zesty notes of grapefruit, melon, and passionfruit, among others, the Citra hop is bursting with flavors that nearly every beer drinker can get behind. There are over 20 beers listed on BeerAdvocate with the word Citra in the name alone. And it’s not just big bitter IPAs the hop has found its way into – Plainfield’s Three Pints makes a Citra hopped wheat beer that was my favorite beer of the day at last month’s Indy Brew Fest. This hop is for everyone.

So, when I made my weekly stop at Kahn’s this week and saw that they had stocked 450 North Brewing’s (Columbus, IN) new session IPA, dubbed Citrafest, I had to stock up. I mean, Citra hops AND only 5% ABV? Hello summer drinkability!

(Brief note: Citrafest also some of the best branding I’ve ever seen. Seriously good label.)

Citrafest is hopped with, obviously, Citra, but also Simcoe and El Dorado hops to really kick the fruity flavors up a notch, giving this session beer more hop flavor than normally expected from beers with low ABV. It pours about a 12 on the SRM scale with little head, and though it bursts with flavor and aroma, the body is light enough to not bog you or your tongue down during your hopefully multiple day drinking sessions. I also find it better out of a glass than the can, but to each their own. 

450 North is slowly gaining steam as an Indiana brewery with that certain “it factor,” and rightfully so. Citrafest will surely be a regular in my fridge as these summer months creep up on us. Now, back to basketball (go Warriors).