Mosaic Pale Ale Shootout

[BeardedBrews]

Hey Guys,

I am trying to work out a plan to use 6 ounces of Mosaic and thought I'd get some advice here. I have a few things that I've been itching to test out, and am thinking this might be the opportunity.

1. I'd like to test out Brew-in-Bag and see how it compares with extract.
2. I'd like to get a go-to session strength pale ale in my log book.
3. I was thinking about trying 100% mosaic

These recipes are where I'm at right now:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/241963/mosaic-apa-biab
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/228742/mosaic-apa-extract

I scaled them both to 4 gallons in case I wanted to try fermenting in cornys as part of this grand experiment.

Any thoughts? Feedback?

I am starting to second guess my choice to do 100% Mosaic, I'm worried it will be too fruity and not grounded enough. I was at a McMenamin's last night and had their Mosaic IPA and was impressed, they didn't use Mosaic at bitter/flavor, just in the whirlpool.

Snake Doctor IPA
A medium-bodied Northwest IPA made with Chinook, Nugget, Mosaic and Centennial hops for a great flavor and mild citrus aroma.
ABV: 6.32% IBU: 66 SRM: 6

 

[Owly055]

Hey Guys,

I am trying to work out a plan to use 6 ounces of Mosaic and thought I'd get some advice here. I have a few things that I've been itching to test out, and am thinking this might be the opportunity.

1. I'd like to test out Brew-in-Bag and see how it compares with extract.
2. I'd like to get a go-to session strength pale ale in my log book.
3. I was thinking about trying 100% mosaic

These recipes are where I'm at right now:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/241963/mosaic-apa-biab
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/228742/mosaic-apa-extract

I scaled them both to 4 gallons in case I wanted to try fermenting in cornys as part of this grand experiment.

Any thoughts? Feedback?

I am starting to second guess my choice to do 100% Mosaic, I'm worried it will be too fruity and not grounded enough. I was at a McMenamin's last night and had their Mosaic IPA and was impressed, they didn't use Mosaic at bitter/flavor, just in the whirlpool.

I just recently brewed a wonderful Mosaic based lager using Mosaic and Willamette. I incorporated the Willamette for a touch of spice. I named it Mosaic delight because it truly is a delightful crisp flavorful beer. I used an obscene amount of hops. A total of 3 (2 Mosaic, 1 Willamette) ounces in 2.5 gallons, all at 6 minutes, which is about the same things as whirlpooling. It has a lovely complex citrus character infused with a bit of spice, definitely NOT the heavy handed grapefruit that is so common in IPAs. I kept the grain bill pretty light for a session type character, using some invert sugar to give it alcohol without the weight gain from malt. At about 6% abv, 53 IBUs, and 5.85 SRM, it's a real pleasure to drink. I'll definitely do something similar again.

Saturday, I did a pale ale with a similar character. I used Summit at 60 min for bittering, and the same amounts of Mosaic and Willamette, but at 2 minutes, and added half an ounce of Motueka to broaden the "fruit punch" with some of it's lovely tropical fruit / passion fruit flavor. These three were whirlpooled for 15 minutes after spending 2 minutes in the boil, so the IBUs will be a bit higher I suspect.

Mosaic is a wonderful hop. It's complexity really shines when used with a light hand, rather than the heavy hand I used here. One of the few recipes I've ever followed was a Mosaic Rye Wit that comes in at under 2% ABV. It's delightfully crisp and refreshing. A beer you can drink all day long without getting that filled up feeling or getting drunk or buzzed. The complex mosaic of flavors really shine here. (pun intended).

http://beerandwinejournal.com/rye-wit-session-beer/


H.W.

 

[TexasWine]

1. I think you'll really like the simplicity of BIAB. Mosey on over to the BIAB forum should you have any specific questions on it.
3. If you can get your hands on a Yellow Rose by Lone Pint, you'll have a fine example of just how nice a 100% Mosaic beer can be. It's actually a smash and is supremely delightful.

 

[MadHomebrewer]

I've been brewing single hop IPAs and ales for a while to get a better understanding of the hop. Some awesome beers are single hopped. Bell's Two Hearted Ale is centennial, Three Floyd's zombie dust is citra. Look up 15 min pale ale it's an extract, but I just brewed it this weekend with all citra. Very quick, and should give me a very sessionable zombie dust like ale.

 

[BeardedBrews]

Mosaic is a wonderful hop. It's complexity really shines when used with a light hand.

I agree here and will be sticking to session strength with as simple a grain bill as possible to keep from blowing out the Mosaic flavors.

If you can get your hands on a Yellow Rose by Lone Pint, you'll have a fine example of just how nice a 100% Mosaic beer can be. It's actually a smash and is supremely delightful.

Since I am going to do a malt extract version of this I'm not sure I can stick to a SMASH, I'd worry that the batch would just taste extracty. It does make me think that the Maris Otter might not be the right choice for the BIAB version. I might just go to a 2-Row bill and then use Crystal 40/60 to match up the color to the extract batch.

 

[Owly055]

Nearing the end of primary rapidly on my latest Mosaic dominant brew. Massively Mosaic near the end of boil / whirlpool, along with Willamette, and some Motueka to add spice and more fruit complexity, bittered with Summit. Extremely pale with only 2 row and wheat, and some invert sugar...... plus a pound bag of 7 grain Red Mill cereal.... nothing to give it color. It of course will be cloudy with 43% wheat.

Tasted it today, and it looks like it will be pure ambrosia....... Only 4 days into it, and I'm already impatient to try the finished beer.


H.W.

 

[BeardedBrews]

I pulled the trigger on these batches with some slight modifications on them. I trusted brewers friend on the color corrections with midnight wheat and either my gold dme was out of spec, or I got much more color out of the midnight in the steep than the biab. I'll call that a miss

I hit the target gravites within 0.001 which I felt pretty good about considering it was my first biab attempt.

The flavors are interestingly different. They both have similar bitterness, and the nut/biscuit comes through from the marris, but the body and taste diverge. The dme version has a fuller mouth feel with more caramel. The AG version tastes cleaner and lighter with more pronounced sweetness.

I am expecting them to ferment down to noticeably different beers with a light dry beer from the AG and a sweeter maltier from the extract. We will see how they react to the dry hops.

I also decided to try fermenting in cornies, so we'll see what happens there. Holding steady at 66 so we should avoid off flavors from the us-05.

You can see some pictures here

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dpm3ecdsau9j3jt/AACJxIaiwgXo9zRO-NrihRqba?dl=0

 

[TexasWine]

Interested to hear updates should you have any.

 

[Owly055]

Here are my recent Mosaic brews. Note that all 3 are 2.5 or 3 gallon brews and use a lot of hops. The first was a lager and was absolutely wonderful, one of my favorite brews ever. The second was an ale and was also superb.

The third brew is not through with lagering, and has greatly reduced hops. It's a very very different brew, that has a grapefruit / honeydew mellon character, but completely lacks the complex mosaic of flavors the other brews had. It's going to be a good beer, crisp and refreshing, but not the "mosaic delight" the others were.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bqzz2d41gf8c981/mosaicspicelager28march2015.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v369ziwx1p3fs2p/MosaicDelight2_9May2015.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tnu86aa8tapiip0/MosaicDelight3_23May2015.jpg?dl=0


H.W.

 

[BeardedBrews]

Interested to hear updates should you have any.

Sorry this took so long to come back to... These didn't turn out the way I hoped so it was hard to put any time into them

I kegged and carbonated both batches on Thursday and while they aren't horrible, they weren't great.

At about one week in primary they both had some off flavors. I bumped the fermentation temp up a bit and gave them extra time to clean up. It helped some, but not enough for my taste.

I pushed the trub out of the kegs with co2 at 15 days and dry hopped. Then dropped the temp to cold condition at day 16 or 17 (cold crashed another batch so I just let these ride). Called it quits at Day 26.

The biab batch had much lower fermentability at 63% attenuation vs 74% on the extract. The color on the extract was too dark but I could have darkened up the biab if I cared. Not surprisingly the biab is sweeter, both have good presence of the tropical side of mosaic, but the dank side of mosaic is bringing out what might be faint oxidation.

I did not stir or bump heat my biab, nor did I de-chlorinate or monitor pH. In general I half assed the whole thing and I ended up with half assed tasting beer. I think that is fair, and to help me learn my lesson I will be drinking all of it.


I will not be fermenting in cornies again, it was more work than it was worth. I will continue to experiment with biab, but I will lean on extract for my "house" taps for now.

The Two Hearted clone kit from Northern Brewer turned out killer good, and was dead simple. (dead ringer)

Always learning, and fortunately the worst that can happen is I have more beer.

Cheers guys.

 

[BeardedBrews]

Side note, these came out almost like a dayglow from elysian.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/700/115232/

Not nearly as good, but the maris and mosaic gave it a similar taste.

 

[heckler73]

my Calypso Mosaic was a winner.

Calypso Mosaic Pale Ale
10 lbs NorthWest Pale Ale Malt
0.65 lbs Crystal 30

1.0 oz Calypso (16%) 60 min
1.5 oz Mosaic 15 min
1 tsp Irish Moss- 10 min
1.0 Mosaic – 0 min

1.5 oz Mosaic Dry Hop 14 days

 

[1977Brewer]

My SonRise is very mosaic forward, I love it.

 

[Owly055]

my Calypso Mosaic was a winner.

Calypso Mosaic Pale Ale
10 lbs NorthWest Pale Ale Malt
0.65 lbs Crystal 30

1.0 oz Calypso (16%) 60 min
1.5 oz Mosaic 15 min
1 tsp Irish Moss- 10 min
1.0 Mosaic – 0 min

1.5 oz Mosaic Dry Hop 14 days

What did the IBUs come out to? .......... I'm guessing close to 80 for a 5.5 gallon brew.... Really an American IPA.

I used my last two ounces of Mosaic yesterday in a 3 gallon brew. I used Summit for bittering..(60 min)...Not all that different from Calypso in flavor. An ounce of Mosaic, an ounce of Willamette, and half an ounce of Motueka all at 5 minutes, and I whirlpooled another ounce of Mosaic in for 15 minutes starting at about 160F.

It should be a tasty beer.......the wort tasted good....... More than an ounce of hops to the gallon seems kind of extreme. The price of the hops far exceeds the grains in most of my beers now days. I'll probably order a full pound of Mosaic next time I order hops... and a pound of Nelson Sauvin (my favorite of all hops so far).

For now, I'm going to run through the many hops I have on hand........ I know what I like with Mosaic.

H.W.