We’ve just launched a new beer called Larkspur. I had two pints of it the other night and it made me weep. Why would beer make me cry?
Is it the nose of ripe tangerine, those oil filled cells that burst and sting your eyes when you hedonistically squeeze the loose peelings, knowing the citrus bouquet that lies within?
The mango that has fallen from the tree and is sliced open on the spot, it’s heady, tropical fruit sweetness invading the senses and transporting you to a beach on Thailand.
Is it the pull of passionfruit, just like those I would pick from my Nana’s passionfruit vine? Their skins all wrinkly after the sun had ripened them to perfection. The burst of flavour as I would bite through the hard skin to reach the rich, juicy pulp inside?
Larkspur is all of these. The fascinating Citra hop from America delivers and incredible tropical fruit salad of aromas. It fools me into thinking I’m drinking juice. The power of the flower.
We only got ten kilograms of the hop this year and already I dream of next year and the possible bounty that will arrive from the American hop harvest. This is what makes me cry! We only brewed thirty five casks of this beer. We based it on our Kipling malt recipe and then used Citra instead of the New Zealand Nelson Sauvin we use in Kipling. This allows us to find out how the hop behaves in a beer we already know a lot about. We can look at it’s perceived bitterness, the flavours, the aromas and of course the drinkability.
The parentage of this hop is also quite interesting… a real international mix of German Hallertau Mittlefrueh and Brewers Gold, American grown Tettanger and British East Kent Golding. Who would have thought the heady mix of fruit salad could have come from such an interesting blend of hop mothers and fathers?!
It’s been great to see a bunch of breweries around the country use Citra to great effect. I just wish they would all stop so we could brew some more.
Larkspur. If you see it in a pub, taste it and let me know what you think…
beeRevolution 
more tropical fruit than Carmen Miranda’s hat… ;-))
Haha! I couldn’t get that image out of my head the whole time I was writing!
K
The first time I brewed with Otley and I tasted the Motley Brew, I had to go and be on my own, I got REALLY emotional, I think it was remembering the effort of brewing and knowing that I’d made something THAT good!
Citra is a great hop to use, not my favourite but it’s up there!
Creation is a wonderful thing!
Agree with you about Citra, it just never ceases to fascinate me that you can get such interesting flavours and aromas from these little green flowers.
I want to tell the world!!!
Right sod it, i’m calling in The Grove on the way home.
I’ve been impressed with all the Citra-led beers I’ve tried so far. Larkspur is next on the to-do list.
But with Oakham Citra set to become a permenant beer for them next year, how much of the hop will still be floating around the market?
Bugger all I’d say! Time to ply the Charles Faram hop guys with loads of beer and man-love… maybe they’ll save me another 10 kg so we can brew it again next year!!!
Have you supplied Larkspur to any pubs in Manchester, by any chance? Would love to try this one.
Unfortunately the closest is The Grove in Huddersfield 😦 And with only 35 casks in the country, may be tough to find!! Good luck and godspeed…
Looks like i’m going to The Grove, then. Never tried Citra before but after your mouth-watering description, I can’t wait now!! Oh and by the way – nice colour scheme on the pump clip (Leeds United)!!!
I too will be be schmoozing the guys at Farams for some of this stunning variety, am I right in thinking that Sierra Nevada played a major role in developing Citra?
Yes, think it might have been one of the varieties they use in their Torpedo??
We managed to get 50kg! God knows how… On another note, Archie was told when he dropped beer off in an Edinburgh pub yesterday that we’d nicked the recipie for Jarl off you guys!! Ah well… Did we???
Haha, brilliant!
Fyne Ales Jarl was the first 100% Citra hop beer that I ever tried, so I’d have to say it was that that excited us into giving it a go ourselves!!
Fyne Ales… YOU were the inspiration 🙂 Well, that and we were keen as hell to see what the hop would do in a brew 😉
Haha! I won’t post what Archies reply was to the barman as this is a family friendly blog… Suffice to say it included references to Aussies and telling the kind gentleman to behave himself!
Anyone who can get to the Grove, Huddersfield this weekend, we’re expecting it to be on Saturday night. If not you’ll have to doss it on Colorado Red until Larkspur arrives… 😉
Congratulations again Steff, Kelly and team, on another truely great beer.
Had a couple of pints at the Peterborough beer festival. I thought Jaipur was superb but Larkspur is even better, pure nectar. Please make lots more and send some south.
Pingback: in the news today… « Beermerchants.com Beerblog
Best beer I’ve tasted this year, thank you!
We had some of this in Cask in London last weekend and loved it. Our favourite of the session by a mile, and it was up against several other of your beers, some Dark Star and some Brew Dog. We’ve made it beer of the week on the blog.
Cheers guys!
And the best news is that we’ve secured some hops for next year, where we’ll brew it as a seasonal release! Hooray!!!