Hop Back Citra
Hop Back Citra – new on today at The Fox Inn at Fox Corner.
Hop Back Citra
Brewed with American Citra hops, this golden thirst-quenching ale has a lemony, grapefruity aftertaste with a crisp dry bitterness, making your tastebuds yearn for more.
ABV 4.0%
Hop Back Brewery
John Gilbert was a pioneer of the new wave of microbrewers that appeared in the early 1980s, running the Battersea and Brixton Brewing Companies.
In 1986 John decided to strike out on his own, so sold his house in London and bought a traditional street-corner pub in Salisbury from Ushers of Trowbridge. The Wyndham Arms suited John’s needs perfectly, with a large cellar and yard for a microbrewery, two cosy bars, accommodation and a private room for events.
John adopted the carved cornerstone above the front door, the laughing face of Dionysus (Greek god of wine, winemaking and general good times!) as the logo for his new venture, the Hop Back Brewery.
From the beginning, the quality of the beer and the ambiance of our first pub proved a hit with local drinkers and The Wyndham Arms has appeared in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide every year since.
About HOP Back Brewery
1989-1995
In addition to a strong local reputation, national awards (including Champion New Brewery 1989) led to demand from wholesalers, free houses and tied pubs. This success encouraged John to expand and he purchased a second pub, The Waterloo Arms in Southampton, in 1991.
Further awards from beer festivals spurred demand beyond the capacity of The Wyndham’s cellar. Hop Back Brewery Ltd was formed in October 1991 and we moved to a small industrial unit in Downton, just south of Salisbury. After refurbishment and installation, brewing on the new 20 barrel plant started in June 1992. The following August, Summer Lightning brewed on the new site won the award for Best Strong Beer at CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival.
Although output had increased to 350 barrels per month, demand continued to grow and they leased a second adjacent unit to allow for warehousing and (desperately needed) office space. In 1993, under the Business Expansion Scheme, Hop Back raised over £500,000 from individual subscribers and the following year acquired a further industrial unit with space for more fermentation vessels. Barrelage increased to 500 and then 1000 barrels per month by 1995.
1996-2000
In this time, Hop Back acquired two further pubs, The Sultan in Wimbledon, South London and The Hop Leaf in Reading, both traditional friendly local watering holes.
Success continued in 1996 with a win at the Brewing Industry International Awards for the session beer G.F.B. (Gilbert’s First Brew), claiming Gold Medal both in its class and the overall Championship, beating 232 other cask beers!
With an eye on the increasing demand for quality bottle-conditioned beer, in 1996 they invested in a bottling line and the following year Summer Lightning was awarded the Gold Medal for Bottle Conditioned Beer at GBBF and Cask Ale Brand of the Year from the Morning Advertiser.
They celebrated their tenth anniversary with a party for over 400 shareholders and customers, using the event to launch the adventurous Crop Circle, brewed to a complex recipe including malted barley, wheat and maize along with a selection of English and continental hop varieties.
Building on the success of their bottle conditioned beers in the mid 1990s, including a CAMRA Gold Medal, they struck a deal to make bottles of Summer Lightning available in Tesco stores nationwide. With the growth in sales of bottle-conditioned products, they acquired yet another industrial unit to provide additional storage space and they further expanded the range with the lemongrass-infused Taiphoon, marketed to off-licences and supermarket chains.
Hop Back continued to innovate, introducing monthly special brews to add variety to the cask range and were rewarded with some further prizes, including Gold Medal from the National Hop Association for Summer Lightning, local awards for seasonal beer Winter Lightning and bottle-conditioned Crop Circle winning the Tesco Spring Challenge, gaining national exposure and availability.
2000
In the early 2000s, they continued investing in the brewhouse, with a new copper and fermenter and a new, larger capacity bottling line to accommodate increasing demand, particularly from national pub chains. Between 2002 and 2005 they also grew the Hop Back pub estate further, with the acquisition of four more pubs. They now have pubs in six counties from their base in the South West to Shropshire and Staffordshire in the Midlands.
While they may be most famous for yheir trademark pale hoppy beers, their brewing team also pride themselves on the quality of their darker beers. This quality was recognised at the 2011 CAMRA Winter Beer of Britain awards, where Hop Back Entire Stout was named Supreme Champion Winter Beer of Britain.
In 2012 Hop Back celebrated its 25th birthday, having retained John’s original philosophy and passion for beers that he would want to drink. Brewing great beer requires enthusiasm, knowledge, great raw materials and attention to every aspect of quality. The brewing team is three strong with John Gilbert very much hands-on with recipe design and raw material selection. Head Brewer Steve Wright and brewer Rich Beal have both been with Hop Back for many years and between them have done just about every job on offer in the brewery! The brewers are ably assisted by brewery and packaging plant operators, warehouse and delivery team, administration team and a small salesforce. Not bad for a company that started in the back of a pub!
2013 saw the 25th birthday of their flagship beer Summer Lightning. This trend-setting golden ale has won more than 70 major awards since first brewed, making it probably the most awarded cask ale in Britain.