Single-hop beers are a great opportunity for drinkers to taste different types of hops and learn the distinctive profiles of each. Below are some good examples available in Australia of certain types of hops.
White Lies Single Hop Citra IPA, Ballistic Driftwood Citra XPA, Feral Karma Citra
Citra hops produce bitter citrus and tropical fruit aromas like grapefruit melon and passionfruit. It’s used in many fruity Australian pale ales.
Perhaps the aroma hop of choice for craft brewers around the world at the moment, there are some great examples around in a range of styles from Feral’s black IPA classic to Ballistic’s barrel-aged XPA to limited release IPAs from the likes of White Lies.
Pirate Life Mosaic IPA, Bacchus Single Hop Series: Mosaic IPA & JuiceBox Jury: Mosaic
Mosaic hops similarly has strong aromas of tropical fruits and is really on-trend at the moment especially with the rise of NEIPAs. It’s probably my favourite hop, fruity but not as pithy as Citra, nor as overwhelming as Galaxy.
Pirate Life’s Mosaic IPA has become one of the top rated IPAs in Australia and QLD’s Bacchus have continued to bring back their single hop Mosaic IPA by popular demand and recently made a single-hop NEIPA too.
Ballistic Centennial IPA, Range Centennial IPA
Centennial is a classic hop of many West Coast IPAs. Centennial-hopped beers tend to be bitter resinous and intense. A couple of new releases from QLD breweries are making the rounds showcasing this hop.
Ballistic use a pale malt base to really show off the hop in all its bitter aromatic glory.
Range Brewing are one of Brisbane’s newest breweries and they are constantly changing their beer lineup so look out for what they have on. They include the name of the hops used in the beer name which really helps with the hops education.
Stone & Wood Pacific Ale (Galaxy hops)
The Pacific Ale, long one of Australia’s top craft beers, is a great example of Galaxy’s distinctive punchy passionfruit and tropical fruit salad aromas.
Galaxy is an Australian-grown hop that has drawn many fans locally and internationally, which has made it tough for newer Australian breweries to get their hands on this coveted hop in recent years.
Liberty Sauvignon Bomb & 8 Wired Sauvin Saison (Nelson Sauvin hop)
An intensely fruity NZ hop that draws its name from its white wine-like qualities.
Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale (Cascade hop)
The classic American aromatic hop and an adopted Aussie favourite too with pleasant citrus and floral aromas.
Ballast Point Big Eye IPA (Colombus hop)
Colombus is a high Alpha Acid hop with herbal aromas and is combined with Centennial in this top brew available aroundthe country at Dan’s.
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale (Chinook hop)
Chinook is a resiny hop with pine needles aromas that conjure up images of the northwest USA on tasting.
Hops, hops and more hops
Find more information about the profiles of different hops here including the Alpha Acid range, which signifies the bitterness of the hop type and some notes on what aromas to expect. You’ll also find info on other hops that I haven’t mentioned here.
This flavours and aromas chart for hops is an interesting one to compare different hop types too.
Tidy list. Interested to try the Bridge Road ‘Ella’ single hop variety (it’s meant to be like Galaxy but not. Bit confusing).
Interesting. I just found out that Ella used to be Stella until legal threats from Artois. And I remember tasting Bridge Road’s Stella and definitely preferred it over Galax and Summer, more spicy than fruity, as shown in this cool flavour chart for Australian hops I found http://www.hops.com.au/hop-flavour-spectrum