Hop
Mosaic
A complex modern hop layering blueberry, mango and stone fruit over a resinous base — the other half of the modern IPA pairing.
Mosaic is the daughter of Simcoe and a Nugget selection, and it inherited an unusually wide aroma range — blueberry and dark berry alongside tropical fruit, citrus and a pine backbone. The name refers to that variability rather than to any one note.
Because the profile shifts with dose and timing, the same hop can read tropical in one beer and resinous in another. It is one of the most-used varieties in modern hop-forward brewing and one of the hardest to substitute for.
Aroma and flavour
Descriptors are impressions rather than analytical results. BeerHQ rates this characterisation as well established.
Belongs to
Analysis
| Alpha acid | 12–14% |
|---|---|
| Cohumulone | 24–26% |
| Total oil | 3–4 ml/100 g |
| Purpose | aroma |
| Origin | United States |
| Breeder | Hop Breeding Company |
| Released | 2012 |
| Ancestry | Simcoe |
| Breeding code | HBC 369 |
| Storage stability | moderate |
The name is a registered trademark rather than a plain variety name, which affects what a label may say and who may grow it.
How it is used
- Whirlpool / hop stand. Steeped below boiling after flameout. Extracts aroma and flavour with limited additional bitterness.
- Dry hop. Added after the boil, during or after fermentation. Contributes aroma and flavour with essentially no isomerised bitterness.
- Late boil. Added in the last few minutes, retaining more aromatic oils while adding modest bitterness.
If you like Mosaic
Hops with comparable character. Similarity and substitutability are different questions, so each entry says which it is: a hop can smell alike and still change the beer if its alpha acid is far off.
Citra 11–13% alpha · editorial
Its parent lineage, more purely citrus and tropical.
Not the same: brings citrus that Mosaic does not; lacks the berry and pine and resin of Mosaic.
Close enough in both aroma and alpha acid to swap in a recipe.
Galaxy 12–16% alpha · editorial
Comparable tropical intensity with less berry.
Not the same: brings citrus that Mosaic does not; lacks the berry and pine and resin of Mosaic.
Smells alike, but the alpha acid differs enough that a like-for-like swap would change the bitterness.
African Queen 10–12% alpha
Shares tropical fruit, berry, stone fruit with Mosaic; an aroma variety at a comparable alpha acid.
Not the same: lacks the pine and resin of Mosaic.
Smells alike, but the alpha acid differs enough that a like-for-like swap would change the bitterness.
Idaho 7 9–14% alpha
Shares tropical fruit, stone fruit, pine and resin with Mosaic; a dual-purpose variety at a comparable alpha acid.
Not the same: brings earth and wood that Mosaic does not; lacks the berry of Mosaic.
Close enough in both aroma and alpha acid to swap in a recipe.
Styrian Wolf 10–15% alpha
Shares tropical fruit, stone fruit with Mosaic; an aroma variety at a comparable alpha acid.
Not the same: brings citrus that Mosaic does not; lacks the berry and pine and resin of Mosaic.
Close enough in both aroma and alpha acid to swap in a recipe.
Straight substitutes
Close enough in both character and alpha acid to swap at a similar weight. Substitution is directional and imperfect — these are the nearest available options, not equivalents.
- Citra — Its parent lineage, more purely citrus and tropical.
- Idaho 7 — Shares tropical fruit, stone fruit, pine and resin with Mosaic; a dual-purpose variety at a comparable alpha acid.
- Styrian Wolf — Shares tropical fruit, stone fruit with Mosaic; an aroma variety at a comparable alpha acid.
- Superdelic — Shares tropical fruit, berry, stone fruit with Mosaic; an aroma variety at a comparable alpha acid.
Combines well with
Used in
- American IPA
The defining modern craft beer: intense citrus, tropical and resinous hop aroma over a lean malt base, finishing firmly bitter.
- New England IPA
Hazy, soft and intensely aromatic: tropical and stone fruit hop character with deliberately low bitterness and a full, juicy body.
- Session IPA
IPA hop intensity at a strength you can drink several of — lean, dry and aromatic, with the malt kept minimal.
- Double IPA
IPA scaled up: more strength, more hops and more bitterness, while staying dry enough to remain drinkable.
- Cold IPA
A lean, dry IPA fermented with lager yeast at higher temperature, using maize or rice to strip body and expose hop aroma.
- India pale lager
A lager hopped at IPA intensity: clean cold fermentation carrying bright American hop aroma and firm bitterness.
- Milkshake IPA
A hazy IPA with lactose and fruit added for sweetness and a fuller, creamier body.
- Alcohol-free IPA
An alcohol-free beer built around heavy dry hopping, since hop aroma is added after fermentation and survives the process intact.
Evidence
What BeerHQ knows about this, and how. Every statement carries the state of the evidence behind it rather than being presented flatly as fact.
On Citra
BeerHQ treats a hop substitution as a nearest-available match rather than an equivalence: substitutes share a broad aroma family, and the differences between them are usually the reason a brewer chose the original.
BeerHQ’s own reading