Dry Hopped DIPA Side-by-Side Tasting

They kind of look like the same beer because they are the same beer

My girlfriend and I are about to make homemade Bavarian pretzels with lye for the first time tonight. Of course, before we do that, I wanted to compare the Dutch double IPA dry hopped with Columbus, Centennial, Nugget vs. Mosaic, Centennial, Nugget. I want to see how switching up one hop in this tried and true hop combination would change the beer. On one level, a test with these particular hops, but on another level, a topical observation on the nature of how dry hopping changes beer flavor and aroma generally. I find that dry hopping changes a beer much more than simply changing the aroma, as one might read or hear in general knowledge. I think it completely changes the flavor of the beer. The comparison of these two confirmed that assumption.

Tasted both at 48 degrees. Compared them both, rather than one at a time.

Mosaic-Centennial-Nugget

Aroma - oranges, hint of strawberry, tropical fruit.

Flavor - the Mosaic dominates completely: tangerine, tropical fruit.

Columbus-Centennial-Nugget

Aroma - floral, grapefruit.

Flavor - interestingly, the Columbus allows Centennial to come out much more and I taste a distinctive Centennial grapefruit character. No dankness.

A couple takeaways:

• Columbus, at least this batch, doesn't lend the dank character that I am seeking or at least not enough. To me, it seems to add more citrus, floral character. As has been said before, it appears to be a great "blending" yeast. It's not overpowering and allows other hop character to come through. I'd like to have one more sample without Nugget to see what character it is lending.
• Mosaic is overpowering. It lends a fantastic tangerine character, but if you want it to blend with other hop flavors, maybe do less Mosaic.