Double Airwave Hands the Whole 8.5 Percent to Citra Alone

Most double IPAs this size blend three or four hops to cover the gaps. This one is double dry-hopped with Citra and nothing else, which leaves a single variety responsible for the entire aroma.

Style: Double IPA
Release Date: 2026-09-18
ABV: 8.5%
Hitchhiker Brewing Co. (Pittsburgh, PA)

Hop bills have been getting longer for a decade. Three varieties is standard for a hazy double IPA, four is common, and the reasoning is sound enough: different hops cover different parts of the aromatic range, and blending them fills gaps that any one variety leaves open.

Double Airwave does not do that. Hitchhiker Brewing Co.'s 8.5 percent double IPA is hopped exclusively with Citra, and double dry-hopped at that.

The choice narrows the beer deliberately. Citra is the most widely planted aroma hop in American craft brewing, and its reputation rests on a fairly specific set of notes - grapefruit and citrus rind, passionfruit, a tropical sweetness that reads as juice. In a blended beer those characteristics get shaded by whatever is sitting next to them. Here there is nothing sitting next to them, and a double dry-hop means the variety gets loaded in twice after fermentation, when the aromatics survive rather than boiling off.

The grain bill is built to support that. Oats and wheat are the standard foundation for a hazy IPA, contributing body and a soft texture that keeps a beer this strong from turning sharp. At 8.5 percent, there is also a fair amount of alcohol for the hops to sit on.

For anyone who has wanted to know what Citra tastes like without a committee attached, this is the format that answers the question.

Double Airwave is available for online pre-order now, with pick-up beginning Friday, September 18 at Hitchhiker's Mt. Lebanon and Sharpsburg taprooms.

Editor’s Take

There is a particular kind of nerve involved in the single-hop beer, and it is not the kind anyone gets credit for. Blending hops is insurance. If the Citra lot is a bit flat this year, the Mosaic covers it, and nobody outside the brewhouse is ever the wiser. Committing to one variety at 8.5 percent and then dry-hopping it twice means the lot in the bag is the beer, and there is no second act to hide behind.

Citra is the reasonable choice for that gamble, being the hop most likely to show up and do the job. But it also means everything a drinker gets - the grapefruit, the passionfruit, whatever lime is in there - arrives from one plant, at volume, with the oats and wheat underneath holding the texture steady. I find single-hop beers the most honest things on a taplist. They are the only ones where you can taste an ingredient rather than an arrangement.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.