All Mosaic Hop Black IPA Tasting Notes - Pennsyltucky Lucky Black IPA (Double Dry Hopped)

Typically when you brew a beer with a single hop, the flavor and aroma tends to be very one dimensional. For instance, my IPA trials with Cascade hopes had dank but well defined citrusy notes; and as expected (and well-studied) the trials with Centennial (Cascades big brother) had noteworthy floral notes but also achieved big grapefruit and orange tones (according to my nose).

So let's discuss the Mosaic hop, which my Pennsyltucky Lucky Recipe used a whopping six ounces in the boil alone, followed by a three ounce addition for three days just following primary, and another three ounces for three days in the secondary after conditioning. One caveat I should mention, the boil was for a ten gallon batch and the primary was also ten gallons. The secondary was split into two five gallon batches, one which received the second dry-hop...the other that did not. This is the tasting of the double dry hop version.

According to the book "For the Love of Hops - The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hops" by Stan Hieronymus, the Mosaic Hop (HBC 369) is "a daughter of Simcoe crossed with a disease resistant, Nugget-derived male. Rich in mango, lemon, citrus, pine, and, notably, blueberry." The top two essential oils in the Mosaic hop are Myrcene at 54% followed by Humulene at 13%.

For this tasting, the beer has only been carbonated and kegged  for three days as I wanted to taste at the utmost freshness. With that being said, I would still consider this beer in the conditioning phase and I believe the hop flavor will work itself in with the other characteristics of the beer with time.

The tasting notes:
Aroma: First quick hit of aroma comes off as fresh cut spring onions and a blend of lemon and mango. The spring onion hint may be due to the large second does of dry hops, but I believe will balance out in another ten days. A long slow aroma pull after a glass swirl indicates more mango presence with a hint of berry, although I am not getting the blueberry.

Flavor:  I get a pine note very similar to Simcoe but backed with some berry-fruitiness. I can't really tell if its berry or citrus...more of a nice blend of the two.  Not very descriptive, but the flavor is very strong. The good news is the Mosaic hops did their job and mask any traces of the Carafa I leaving no dark malt or roasted flavor (see my recipes section for more details about the goal of this beer).

Overall, I can safely say the Mosaic hop is at the top of my list (for now) of favorite hops. I probably won't due another recipe with ALL Mosaic, but I will certainly use it in my IPA's in 15 minute and under intervals, and certainly in the dry-hopping phase to add that fruity/berry characteristic. If you can find this note at your favorite home brew store, grab some!

PROST!