Next Up: Mosaic IPA

I've finally decided it's time to try my Mosaic IPA.  This is a beer I've been wanting to try for a while. 

It's inspired by a batch of test IPA's I brewed a while back: five one-gallon batches using a simple grain bill and US Magnum bittering hops (bitters clean and I don't have to worry about the differing levels of alpha acids in the flavor/aroma hops), each featuring a different flavor/aroma hop.  The hops I used were: Cascade, Citra, Falconer's Flight, Mosaic, and Simcoe. 

(The guy at MyLHBS put me on to the Mosaic and Falconer's Flight, btw.  I very much recommend the shop.  My only gripe is that if you need more than five pounds of grain crushed they require a full 24 hours advance notice--and they actually enforce that.  So basically, if you are doing any kind of all-grain batch you need to call them a day before you want to pick them up.  Jay's Brewing is much more laid-back about it--they just want you to call/email if you want something ridiculous like 50 lbs. so they can start grinding it before you get there.)

The idea behind this beer is similar to my hop-test beers: it's designed to be a showcase for a specific hop (in this case, Mosaic).  I've found Mosaic has a beautiful bright, fruity flavor.  Most places seem to describe it as tropical fruit, but it tastes more like pink grapefruit to me--a bright citrus tang, but sweet rather than sour.

I'm not using any bittering hops in this.  Instead, I chose to hopburst, which is a technique where all of the bitterness comes from late additions of flavor/aroma hops.  It takes a lot more hops to do this, but it gives you a crazy amount of flavor and aroma of the hop(s) you're using.

I decided to go with an extract recipe, because I've only made one all-grain (my Centennial Blonde), and I haven't tested it yet.  Given the crazy amount of hops (9 oz!), this would be a really expensive beer to screw up.

BrewSmith says it will look something like this:

which is exactly what I want.  The recipe is as follows:

• 8.5 oz Crystal malt (20L), steeped for 30 min. at 155.0 F
• 3 lbs. 3.1 oz Light Dry Extract, added for full boil (60 min)
• 4 lbs. 4.1 oz Light Dry Extract, added for the last 15 min (late extract additions keep the extract from darkening and caramelizing too much)
• 0.5 oz Mosaic hops, added for last 15 minutes
• 1 Whirlfloc tablet added for last 15 minutes
• 1.0 oz Mosaic hops, added for last 10 minutes
• 1.0 oz Mosaic hops, added for last 5 minutes
• 2.5 oz Mosaic hops, added at flame-out

Once it's cooled I'll pitch  about a 2L starter of California Ale yeast (White Labs WLP001), and dry-hop with another 4 oz. of Mosaic hops at the end of fermentation for four days, so it has a nice burst of Mosaic aroma when you pour it.  I will probably add gelatin at the same time for fining.

The numbers for the beer are:

• Original Gravity: 1.066 (style guidelines: 1.056-1.075)
• Final Gravity: 1.015
• Bitterness: 45.0 IBU (style: 40.0-70.0 IBU) (I wanted to stay on the less-bitter end; my goal isn't to make you pucker, like so many IPA's, but to give you that great fruity flavor I like about Mosaic)
• Color: 9.1 SRM (style: 6.0-15.0 SRM)
• ABV: 6.7% (style: 5.50-7.50%)

Once it's ready I'll post my tasting notes, but here are my goals/expectations:

Aroma: The dominant aroma should be an intense citrus/tropical fruit notes from the hops, likely with some piney/resinous notes beneath.  Possible grassy aroma from the dry-hopping.  Some sweet malt or caramel notes possible but unlikely.

Appearance:   Light copper color.  Probably somewhat hazy due to dry-hopping.  Large off-white head that persists with good lacing.

Flavor: Hop flavor should be extremely high, with the dominant flavor being citrus and tropical fruit, with additional piney and resinous notes as well.  Medium-high hop bitterness.  Sweet malt backbone should support bitterness nicely.  Low malty sweetness with potential caramel notes.  No diacetyl.  Finish likely bitter, lingering into aftertaste.  Finish medium-dry.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, medium-bodied mouthfeel with no hop astringency.  Malt sweetness likely to be counteracted by moderately-high carbonation, making mouthfeel somewhat dry.

Overall: This should be a showcase for the incredible aroma and flavor of the Mosaic hop.  Drinkers should get a burst of hoppy aroma right from the get-go, and that flavor and aroma should dominate the beer from start to finish.

Brewing Bucket List

A few beers from Radical Brewing I really want to try:

• Two Bits Abbey Dubbel (p. 124)
• Three-Nipple Tripel (p. 125)
• Roggenbier (p. 149), possibly with add some grains of paradise, or scaled up to a bock
• Oatmeal Cookie Ale (p. 149).  I want to redeem myself on this one.
• Witbier with chamomile and grains of paradise, and possibly orange blossoms.
• Caramel Quadrupel (p. 166)
• Spiced Cherry Dubbel (p. 166)
• Spiced Bourbon Stout (p. 169)
• Gordon Strong's Chai Brown Ale (p. 170)
• Mister Boing Boing Cherry Barley Wine (p. 178)
• Black Ship Pirate Stout (p. 200)
• Sahti (p. 244).  I'll have to find a source for fresh juniper branches.

A Return to Mashing: My First All-Grain

I've been determined for a while now to try my hand at mashing again.  After my disastrous previous attempt at doing a mash, I spent a lot of time thinking about what went wrong.  My conclusions were two-fold: 1) I did a horrible job of temperature control; and 2) I have no idea what really went wrong.

I've since attempted a mini-mash with three pounds of left-over grains (the same size as my previous partial mash), and it went pretty well.  I learned a few things, the biggest being that there's a significant temperature differential between the top of the grain and the middle.  In other words, laying my floating thermometer on top of the grain bed won't give me an accurate reading.

Still, given how poorly my first attempt went I don't want my first all-grain to be an expensive or difficult recipe.  I asked around on homebrewtalk.com, and I got a fairly universal response: BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde recipe.  So, I'll be making a 5-gallon batch of this on Wednesday:

BeerSmith's estimation of the color of the Centennial Blonde

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Nottingham
Yeast Starter: Nope
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: Nope
Original Gravity: 1.039
Final Gravity: 1.008
IBU: 21.6
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60-75
Color: 3.9
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 4 days at 68 Degrees
Additional Fermentation: Kegged, chilled and Carb'd for one week
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 5 Days at 68 Degrees

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (55 min)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (35 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (20 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) (Hydrated)

Mash at 150 degrees for 60 minutes.

This will also be my first time attempting to calculate my efficiency (things went so badly last time it wasn't worth the effort).  Wish me luck!

Hefeweis City, Part I

I'm still relatively new to brewing.  I've been brewing for less than a year, but I'm passionate about it.  So it's something I talk about with my friends ad nauseum.  It's that same passion that led me to create this blog.

So when a friend expressed an interest in some of the craft beers I was talking about, I jumped at the chance to introduce him to the world of quality beer.  To my surprise, his palate progressed quickly and he was able to describe very well what he tasted in various beers and what he liked and disliked.  (He dislikes most lagers' relatively light body and neutral flavor and stouts' often roasty flavor, for the record; he's a big fan of IPA's and other hoppy beers.)

I swear, this is going somewhere.

He called me a little less than a month ago to see what I was up to.  As it happens, I was going to brew a Bavarian hefeweisen that weekend, and I invited him to join me.  To my delight he agreed, and we had a pleasant day brewing an extract-with-specialty-grains hefe.  The recipe is below:

• 1 lb crystal 10L malt
• 2 lbs wheat DME (60 min boil)
• 3 lbs wheat DME (15 min boil)
• 0.5 oz Tettnang hops (60 min boil)
• 1 pkg Munich (Lallemand) yeast

It's a pretty simple recipe.  The original gravity is on the low end of the style guidelines (1.045 according to BeerSmith; the style guideline is from 1.044-1.052), with average bitterness (11.0 IBU), a somewhat dark color (7.2 SRM; guidelines are 2.0-8.0) and below-style alcohol content (4.2% ABV; guidelines 4.3-5.6%).

I could have bumped up the gravity and ABV by adding another pound of DME, but I wanted this to be a nice light summer "lawnmower beer"--something crisp and refreshing that won't knock you over if you down one quickly when you come in dehydrated from working outside.  The darkish color (it's still only a medium amber) is probably due to the fact that I'm using extract (for those who aren't familiar, a rather complex set of reactions called Maillard reactions tend to cause malt extract to caramelize and darken during the boil--which is why the majority of it didn't go into the boil until later).

The beer style was my friend's choice, by the way--I was leaning toward something hoppier, but he'd suggested a hefeweisen for the summer.

Our brewday went fairly well.  I had a lot of fun teaching him about brewing, and he seemed to enjoy watching me scramble around to deal with the inevitable problems that crop up (primarily boil-overs due to using an outdoor burner for the first time--one of the boil-overs was severe enough to extinguish the burner after I was out of matches, so I had to put my old Boy Scout skills to use and light a branch on fire using my smoker and re-light it the hard way).  My wife also seemed to enjoy correcting me every time I mangled a scientific explanation (she's a biology teacher).

I'll chronicle the rest of the process in a later post.