Did you document this?...love to see what you came up with.
So I did the tasting today, me along with three other people. What we found was that we could easily tell that there was a noticeable difference between each one, but identifying the specific flavors of each hop was a little more challenging for us. Once we read the description of each hop then tasted again we'd be like "oh yeah, I taste that." For example, I would sample, pick up 'fruit' notes but I was unable to refine it further from there. Then I would read the description of the hop see it should have 'apple and pear notes' taste again and pick up on the specific flavors.
A couple of times I read an incorrect description as kind of a blind test and both times I got "I'm not getting that flavor at all" from those doing the tasting with me, so I don't think by telling them what flavors to expect it was me planting ideas on what flavors they should be picking up in their heads.
The hop flavor really did come through with the Bud Light, not so much on the aromas unfortunately. I would pick up on that generic hop aroma, but not really any of the unique notes I should have been getting. I wonder if this from trying to dry-hop an already carbonated beer.
Despite that, I think the experiment went well and would be a really interesting way to test different dry-hop combinations when developing a recipe.
Couple of things I learned was that I don't care for Columbus by itself as much as I thought I would, but blending it with some of the more fruity options (such as Citra) worked well. Now I know to use it as a complimentary hop in my IPA's not a feature hop. The other thing is that even hops that are recommended substitutes for each other can be vastly different. Something to keep in mind if the LHBS is out of the variety you are looking for, especially if trying to clone something.
