Knee Deep Brewing Co - Citra Extra Pale Ale

I know, I know, it's been a long time. I'm sorry.

I got a really nasty cold that's had me out of commission for a few weeks. I hadn't really been drinking beer in that time because for one, I couldn't taste much. Two, I've been busy with other things. I hope you'll understand.

But honestly, I don't care. I'm back with a beer I've never actually had tonight. Some of these reviews are beers I've had previously, but in this case, never had it. So needless to say, I'm pretty stoked.

Tonight I'm drinking Citra Extra Pale Ale by Knee Deep Brewing Co. Citra XPA is a 6% abv single hop ale. If the name of the beer didn't give it away, they used Citra hops! Lots of them. This is 45 ibu which isn't much but for a Pale it's probably higher than a lot. So enough of a pseudo introduction, let's get this beer poured and get into it!

Citra XPA pours out a very hazy golden yellow bordering on a copper color. The haze pretty much makes it so you can't see through the beer. Looks a lot like an IPA honestly. There wasn't much of a head on the pour. It was maybe a finger (being generous) of a foamy white head. It doesn't stick around very long and leaves behind a fairly weak lacing. Overall, it looks pretty standard. Nothing special here. Let's get the nose and hope it delivers.

The nose on the Citra XPA is really nice. Big, bright oranges and other citrus right away. Not a surprise there since they did use Citra hops. The oranges smell real fresh. Almost like a freshly peeled orange. There's a bit of a sugary note I'm getting. I'm smelling a little bit of an earthy, sort of fresh hop dankness. It's a bit subtle but it's there. Honestly, this is just citrus on top of citrus. Not a lot else going on here. Not a bad thing by any means.

Right away on the taste I get a hop bitterness. It's very much reminding me of an IPA. For 45 ibu it tastes a bit more bitter than that. That's followed up by a subtle bit of citrus. It's more of a bitter grapefruit, maybe some orange zest. I'm not getting a lot of that orange I picked up on the nose unfortunately. This beer finishes really dry. Very much more like a lighter IPA than a pale ale. As the taste lingers I'm picking up almost a bitter orange character, perhaps like the pith of an orange. But again, the taste doesn't fully follow the nose like I'd hoped.

So overall, this isn't bad. It's not as good as I'd hoped and I think part of that is how bitter this beer is. I was hoping for more citrus in the mouth but was left a bit disappointed. I'm not sure how old this bottle is and that could very well have a bit to do with it. I'd imagine fresh and from the source this beer is really good. The bottle I got, just ok.

Rating: C