I have a pound that I haven’t touched, so I’ve been thinking this too. I’ve been thinking finishing with a 3:1:1 ratio of meridian:citra:simcoe… Maybe bitter with Columbus.
More great writeups - thanks! I’m really liking Meridian as well. I have used it to dry hop an IPA along with Mosaic and Simcoe, and recently used it to dry hop an IPL at a ratio of 1:1 with Mosaic and it was very nice.
I’ve heard that copper (such as in a copper immersion cooler) suppresses the onion/garlic.
Also thanks for the notes.
Lovin this thread. Are you fermenting these in glass wine jugs? I hope at the end you can make another thread about the recipes you decide to make with your new knowledge. Your description of Apollo sounds great. Keep it comin
Yep, most of the beers were in 1-gallon jugs. I ran out of jugs, so a couple went into 3-gallon Better Bottles and one into a 2-gallon bucket. Of course I didn’t stop to think that I should have used the bucket for the one brew that I had whole hops for until it was too late. Every try to stuff half an ounce of leaf hops in a glass jug? Real PITA.
I have a few more tasting notes left to post, but I’m fighting a summer cold right now so it will be a couple more days before I get to taste them.
Well, life got in the way for a while, but I finally ended up sitting down with the last two brews from this series. First up is Mosaic. These were 12.3% AA whole cone hops from Freshops. The raw hops smelled grassy, with some sweet fruitiness and a hint of tomato vine.
The nose on the Mosaic beer was very powerful with citrus (I picked up both grapefruit and lime), mango and some pine/dank notes. I also got a hint of onion, but just faintly.
On the palate I get citrus and tropical fruit notes balanced with dank & piney notes. I also pick up faint herbal notes, some anise and a hint of onion/BO. Again, the onion is there, but not overpowering. Bitterness level seems to be middle-of-the-road.
Of all the hops I trialed in this series, Mosaic was the only one that I’ve used prior to this. It’s interesting that I’ve never noticed the onion in any beers using Mosaic prior to this. I’m not sure what to attribute that to, but it’s something I’ll be looking out for in the future.
It’s no wonder that Mosaic has become such a huge hit. It just screams “IPA”. It’s a powerful, oily, complex hop and it tastes fantastic. Every brewer who’s into hoppy beer should have a pound or two in their freezer.
Last, but not least, is Summer. This is a fairly new Australian variety that I picked up on a whim because the description intrigued me. The pellets I used were 5.9% AA from Austin Homebrew Supply. The pellets had an herbal/noble-type smell with some sweet spice and some faint floral/fruit notes.
The aroma of the finished beer had notes of vanilla, leather, and earthiness. It also seems to really enhance the bready/toasty munich malt character.
On the palate I picked up cedar, vanilla, some dry spiciness and woody notes. Bittering level was moderate.
I was really surprised by my results with Summer. It was nothing like the apricot and melon descriptions I had read. I’m really not sure what to make of it, but the hop character I was getting from this beer is quite unique. It would fit in really well in English styles, but I could see it working well in dark beers, wood-aged beers, Brett-aged beers. I’m actually tempted to dry-hop a dunkelweizen with it as well. I’d be interested to see how this blends with other hop varieties.
I echo the findings for Mosaic. I did pick up garlic/onion notes in the aroma and flavor initially. They were to the point of distraction. However, after a few minutes in the cup, those garlic/onion notes dissipated and allowed the fruity notes to display. With time, those fruity notes were Juicy Fruit with a hint of tropical fruits and citrus. Very pleasant.
So I recommend that anyone facing a garlic/onion bomb let a few minutes go by in the glass and see if those ‘off’ flavors and aromas dissipate. They seem to be fleeting.
Great tasting notes again. Thanks !