Thursday, February 23, 2017

Barley John's Brewpub Citra Smashsd

I received a growler of this beer from the man who brewed it, Andy Rosenthal, the ginger elf himself.

I tried finding information about it and went in search of it's Untappd entry, but that was a chore, indeed. I was searching through all of the recent entries under Barley John's Brewpub in New Brighton, MN, but all that I ended up wading through was check-ins for cans from Barley John's Brewing Company of New Richmond, Wisconsin. Much confusion. Many of them are the very same beers, names, brands, recipes, etc, as the ones that originated, and are still brewed, at that premier spot in NB, MN. Eventually, I just sorted the beers by "most recent" and this one popped up first.

After all my blather about people confusing these two
operations, here I am using a Brewing Company glass
with my Brew Pub beer. I had a Brew Pub glass once,
years ago, but busted it up by accident, like so many.
I still miss it so. 
6.5% ABV. IBU:?. I tried to find out more from the website but it's not there. What did Andy tell me? That it's a SMaSH (single hop, single malt) with Citra. What else do you need to know? (The malt, maybe?) Let's drink it....

Clear, bright golden coloring, lush white head, leaving lace, lasting. Looking nice.

In the nose: lemon, grapefruit, orange. Huge citrus. That's why it's called Citra, right? Little piney, but mostly citrus fruit. Beautiful.

In the mouth: Bright fruit, low bitterness. Supremely drinkable. Light-ish bodied. Clean, and well-balanced. Fine pale ale with bountiful citrus flavors. Big bitterness increases on the palate. Is this more IPA than APA? It's got the hops. It's got the bold citrus, and a bit of the tropical, too, a hint of pineapple and mango. Tasty, tasty stuff, indeed. Delicious.

I keep wondering, though. Maybe the website is up to date, and it's no longer available.  The last entry on Untappd was a full 4 days ago. Did Andy give me the last of it before it ran out? If so, thanks, Andy, thanks, this is a good one, indeed.

I also tried looking this one up on BeerAdvocate but it was unlisted there. Not enough users keeping up with the place. Maybe that's why I turn to Untappd more and more these days. Unfortunately, Untappd calls it "Citra Smashsd", and I know that can't be right. My lid merely reads "Citra", so I can't be sure. They're not bad spellers over there at Barley John's. They're better than that.

Breaking news: I've been informed by both Andy and Brewing Company head brewer Bob McKenzie that the "sd" at the end stands for "single decoction." Well, that's cool, and there we have it.

1 comment:

Ed Jackson said...

Had it a couple days ago @ the pub. Loved it!