If I was tasting this completely blind, I might be inclined to think that these were noble hops on the nose, rather than something like Citra, which I presume has to do with hop rate more than anything. The hop notes, meanwhile, aren’t exactly as expected: More green, spicy and “woodsy” than the “tropical fruit” cited by Labatt. Grainy and slightly toasty, the nose implies a lager with fairly substantial malt backbone. On the nose it’s mildly hop forward, but the things that leap out at me first are largely derived from malt. You expect the “macro” representative to be ultra-pale almost by default, but this lager has a little hint of amber to it that I wasn’t expecting. And I am happy to oblige.Īfter pouring both beers into glasses next to one another (both brilliantly clear), I’m surprised to see that it’s Labatt whose lager is actually a touch darker. Someone was clearly trying to tell me something-the beer gods have demanded a side-by-side tasting. ![]() ![]() And wouldn’t you know it, samples of the two beers showed up on my doorstep on the exact same day. This one was from well-loved Massachusetts craft lager producers Jack’s Abby, and it announced something quite timely: They are also introducing a light, “golden lager” featuring Citra hops. After publication, someone from Labatt USA reached out to see if I’d actually like to taste the thing I was chiding, and it seemed only fair that I do so.īut then I got another email. ![]() It’s just such a cynically “big beer” concept, to stick something popular from the craft beer world-in this case, Citra hops-into the standard lager you’ve been producing for decades and see if that will help it sell. Like the summer of 1998, when we got Deep Impact and Armageddon within the span of a couple months, so go things within the beer world as well.Ī few weeks ago, I was made aware of the existence of Labatt Blue Citra, and predictably I couldn’t keep myself from snarking a bit about it. It’s strange just how often two instances of what are essentially the same product crop up on my radar.
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