Beer Hunters: Mikkeller Single Hop IPAs

Myself and six other mates get together once a month for a beer club: Beer Hunters. Beer Hunters has been running every month for two years and has seen us try over 100 beers, with the vast majority of those being craft beers.

We've seen our numbers swell from a very humble two (surely the bare minimum of attendees to qualify a "club".) to 7 regular attendees (original hunter JPS, Brownie, BT, Pete, Rich, Leighroy and myself).

Usually we will pick a particular style and do a vertical tasting of four beers of that style. Over the 25+ hunts we've covered a broad range of styles from around the globe. I'll eventually post summaries of all previous Beer Hunters, the hits and the misses.

Last night, one of the Beer Hunters Rich, decided it was a perfect opportunity to change things up and hunt all 10 of the recently released Mikkeller Single Hop IPAs (thanks to Chapel Street Cellars for a discount as well!). To say the Beer Hunters were looking forward to this would be a huge understatement. A brilliant idea - brilliantly executed,  Mikkeller uses exactly the same malt bill to create a base beer and then uses a different hop variety in each beer to highlight the specific characteristics of each hop .

Here's a quick rundown of each of them. Rich wisely ranked the tasting in order of Alpha Acid levels within each hop (which is essentially a measure of bitterness).

Amarillo
First cab off the rank is the Amarillo IPA. You first notice a strong orange aroma, followed by an initial considerable orangey taste. A more piney finish. James Squire Golden Ale apparently use this hop. Imagine a JSGA on steroids. A nice start to the evening.


Centennial
Next up was the Centennial. Research indicated that it was to have a citrus character, but most of us got more specifically grapefruit. A lot drier finish than the Amarillo.


Citra
Was looking forward to this one as it's been used a bit recently in some of my favourite beers (Feral Karma Citra, currently on tap at Chapel Street Cellars for one). A lovely smooth mango on the palate and interestingly it appear boozier than the previous IPAs (even though all of them were 6.9%).


Sorachi Ace
A Japanese variety, I'd been looking forward to this one. My introduction to this beer came last year, in the form of True South's Mint Ninja, which from memory was a pale ale using Citra and mint. A big lemony punch stood out, and a flavour you'd not expect from a hop. A few of us also immediately noticed a coconut like quality and the beer for a second began tasting pina colada-like. Quite intriguing. Sorachi Ace also got the votes for the best beer on the night.


Nelson Sauvin
Another non-American variety, this time the interesting Nelson Sauvin. Named due to it's passionfruit and Sauvignon Blanc qualities, this Kiwi beauty is seriously under utilised on this side of the ditch.  Research indicated we should expect a gooseberry flavour, but as a few of us pointed out, "when the hell was the last time any of us had a gooseberry?". The Nelson Sauvin was a highlight. Another fantastic beer that uses this hop, yet looks beyond the IPA format, is 8Wired Sauvin Saison.


Simcoe
We had a bit of a break after the first five and kicked off the second half with Simcoe. Back to the American hop varieties and the trademark piney, resiny flavours. This beer was one that I really wish we have more of. One of my favourites of the night.


Tomahawk
By this stage some of the beers started tasting a little "samey" and in a Beer Hunters first, a soda water palette cleanser was handed out. Had no idea that this hop is the trading name of the Columbus hop. Copywright issues perhaps? It's a widely used American hop and makes up one third of the three "C's" hops (along with Cascade and Centennial). It may have suffered from it's position on the list, but was the least favourite beer of the night.

Bravo
Had not heard of this variety before, and a presumptuous title if ever I've heard one. Was a very well rounded ale for a single hop IPA. Not one particular flavour dominated. Floral and fruity. Having had this my mouth was coated in resiny hop oils and pretty much all beers form here on in would start tasting the same. Small bravo. Golf clap.


Summit 
The penultimate beer was the prematurely named Summit. As I read back through my notes, hoppy as f*ck stares back at me from my tasting notes. Oh dear, the palate is shot and the brain seems not far behind.


Apollo
Was supposed to be the bitterest of the lot, but the Summit out shone it. Again a hop I'd never heard of. By this stage these was more impressions of Rocky circulating (Apollo, geddit?), than insightful descriptions of the beers.

Wow, what a night! Hats off to Mikkeller for having the clarity of vision and the balls to release 10 beers simultaneously and giving humble beer enthusiasts everywhere an education of the marvellous, multi-faceted world of the hop.

Even though the testing sizes were small, we got through a fair bit of beer. I left realising why we only try 4 beers at a Hunt and not 10. Towards the end the beers did tend to taste very similar. It would have been nice also to have an Australian variety (Galaxy, Prise of Ringwood or Stella) or an "Old World" English hop like East Kent Golding or Fuggles.

But there's never going to be an opportunity to have all these beers again, back-to-back and for that reason alone, the night was a great success. I'd encourage anyone with even a vague interest in beer to really get to know the ingredients in your beer and the vast mount of different flavours that hops impart. Even if you grab two in the range to do a side-by-side comparison, it's a great way to learn a bit more about this most humble beer ingredient - the hop.