Mosaic’s tropical fruit aromas make it the hottest hops around

If you are a frequent browser of grocery store beer aisles and brewpub beer lists, you have almost certainly come across the elegant name of a hop variety that has gone from zero to hero in less than a decade. After emerging from a Washington state breeding program in 2012, the Mosaic hop quickly became one of the most wanted among craft brewers trying to push the cutting edge of flavorful IPAs, and today it remains one of the hottest hops around.

Over at Adobe Creek, brewer Jonathan MacDonald says that Mosaic’s tropical fruit aromas make it one of his favorites.

“We are big fans of Mosaic hops at Adobe Creek Brewing, and they are in the top three hops we use by volume and in the number of recipes,” MacDonald says. “Mosaic hops can do many different things for a beer depending on when you use them in the process, but we enjoy using them in the whirlpool and dry hop for their more fruit-forward aromatics.”

That is, he prefers adding Mosaic after the boiling stage (bittering hops are added during boiling) to preserve their aromas, which tend to vent off at high temperature.

The Mosaic hop emerged from a Washington state hop breeding program in 2012 after about a decade of trialing. In less than a decade after its release into the beer market, Mosaic has become one of the most popular hop varieties, especially when it comes to making IPAs. Mosaic hops furnish a beer with a blast of mango aroma, as well as what some describe as fruit punch or bubble gum. It is, in fact, so distinctive and forward-flavored that it has become one of the most popular hop varieties to use in single-hop beers.

In fact, MacDonald is preparing to brew a single-hop Mosaic hazy IPA in the next few days. The beer, part of the Novato brewpub’s single-hop Terp Sauce IPA series, will be hopped only with Mosaic. Single-hop beers are a concept very appealing to the more cerebral of beer drinkers. The idea is that the beer vividly showcases how the featured hop variety smells and tastes. Drinking single-hop beers can be a learning experience.

Tim Hemmelgarn, MacDonald’s business partner, had this to say about Mosaic: “I think it’s one of the most versatile and complex hops there is. It touches all the bases for me, fruity, herbal, floral and spicy. It seems to go well with anything and can be in East Coast or West Coast hoppy beers.”

At State Room Brewery in San Rafael, brewer Larry Berlin is another Mosaic fan.

“It’s a great dual-purpose hop,” he said. “It has a high-alpha acid content, which makes it good for bittering, and it also has those fruity, floral, tropical aromas.”

Berlin’s Hazy Session IPA is hopped primarily with Mosaic, giving the beer notes of blueberry, papaya and rose, while the addition of several other hop varieties rounds out the beer with citrus and pineapple. (While much of the online literature cites Mosaic’s dominating aroma as mango, Berlin says, “I get a little more papaya.”)

The available inventory of hops today is vast, and many of them offer up similar aromas. Citrus and tropical fruit aromas, for instance, are advertised as the takeaway effects from most varieties available. Indeed, redundancy of aroma and flavor certainly makes many hops more or less the same, and I am compelled to wonder how much new ground hop breeders can possibly be breaking nowadays. (Email me, please, to school me if you want.)

But Berlin says the subtle differences between hop varieties is important.

“If every brewer out there was using the same three aroma hops, all their beers would taste the same,” he says. “The more varieties that come out, the more different breweries can differentiate themselves.”

Even if they’re all using at least a touch of Mosaic.

Alastair Bland’s Through the Hopvine runs every week in Zest. Contact him at allybland79@gmail.com.