Opinon on Mandarina

[Zucker Bee]

we have the opportunity to contract Mandarina, but we don't necessarily want to expand our hops portfolio. I haven't got the chance to try this hops in either a finished beer nor at brewing. What should be expected: something along the lines of Citra or closer to Amarillo? Or is it absolutely unique?

Thanks

Ben

[mattriggs]

I've got to say that I'm not a fan of Mandarina. The aroma is not powerful enough to stand on its own like all of the other modern aroma varieties. What is there in the way of aroma, in my opinion, resembles German noble hops much more than any type of fruit. I think this was an example of the German hop marketing folks rushing a product to market in order to offer something in response to all of the American fruit hops. Hull Melon is better, but I'd pick about 20 types of American hops before going to a German hop for a fruit character.

[ben@atlas]

Mandarina is unlike any hop varietal I've encountered. It has a wonderful mandarin orange aroma and flavor. It is not intense, but it's clean and, in my opinion, delicious. It's not the best hop to use if you're trying to brew a fruity hop bomb.

[patbrewer]

I would agree with most of the above, our Mandarina single hop beer had a nice mandarin hop nose and an intense herbal hop flavor. Too much, but then we used 11lb in the whorl pool and 11lb in the dryhop of a 15bbl batch, golden promise malt btw. Not an IPA hop in my opinion, farmhouse ale hop, yes, blend with other hops for IPA, yes; see Firestone Easy Jack, it uses Mandarina, Galaxy and Citra I believe.

[brain medicine]

im unimpressed i have to say. its seems to be very easy to overpower the mandarina with another hop. i've typically found low to moderate aroma contributions from it, which is a bummer because the little you get is very good. and its got a flavor that also seems to be easily overpowered as well. i even used it in a single hop wheat beer and while you got a faint aroma, there just wasnt any flavor at all.

kind of a dud in my opinion.

[beerguy1]

I currently have the Mandarina and some hull mellon sitting in my hop area. I was planning on using the mandarina for bittering and then the hull mellon for the aroma side. Seems from what I read here that it could be the way to go?