Mosaic Single Hop Pale Ale

Beer Recipes
1

My next brew, probably a bit later today, is going to be an all Mosaic Ale. It is a copy of a Citra kit I bought from Morebeer that I liked. So I thought I would give it a try with Mosaic. It is as follows:

10lbs Great Western Brewers Malt 2 Row Premium
12oz Great Western Crystal 15L
8oz Briess Carapils
8oz Great Western White Wheat

Hops:
1/2 oz Magnum 16.6AA @60min
1oz Mosaic 11.6AA @ 15 min
1oz Mosaic 11.6AA @ 5 min
1oz Mosaic 11.6AA @ 3 to 5 days prior to kegging

Whirflock tablet at 5 mins and 1/2 Campden tablet when the package says to add it. I think it was in the water prior to mash

60 minute mash at about 152
Sparge with 170 water to about 7 gallons
Boil for 60 mins to about 5.5 to 6 gallons
(The amounts are approximate, I am still trying to get a handle on my boiloff rates, but for 60 mins it seems to be somewhere between and gallon and a gallon and a half)

Yeast: I packet of CellarScience Cali (I am tempted to use the Bry97, but the recipe I am loosely following said to use the Cali)

Stats (I hope, LOL)
Pre boil gravity 1.045
OG 1.051
FG 1.009ish (This seems a bit low to me, so hopefully we will finish a bit closer to 1.012 or so)
IBU 51 (This is a bit high due to the Magum being a bit over what Brewfather had, I could cut the Magum down a bit to lower the IBU if I get feedback that says it would be best)
ABV 5.5

My thought is to ferment for at least 2 weeks, transfer to keg and let it sit in the kegerator at about 35 to 38 degrees for another week. Put the CO2 to it and carb at about 15psi until good to serve (that, in the past, has taken about 5 to 7 days if I remember correctly)

I am sure there are some flaws in my thinking here, but thought I would post it to see what you all thought. I am slowly getting the hang of this, and can now keep my mash temps pretty close to where they need to be with flame adjustment on my propane burner. I have about 3 or 4 that I have enjoyed, so my rotation is setting up nicely. Thanks to all, and Rock On!!!

2

Recipe looks good to me.  Good luck with it!

I’ve never used CS Cali yeast before, but according to More Beer, the average attenuation for this yeast is 75-83%.  Just doing some quick math, starting with an OG of 1.051,
75% attenuation ≈ FG 1.013
83% attenuation ≈ FG 1.009

That’s your “expected” range.  But with that grain bill and a mash temp of 152°, I would guess that you will finish closer to 1.009 than 1.013.  Maybe even lower.  I wouldn’t worry about where it finishes as long as you keep the yeast in it’s temperature zone.

3

The recipe sounds good. I’m not sure what good it does to keep the beer in the kegerator for a week before applying CO2. Perhaps I am missing something, but I would add the CO2 as soon as it goes into the kegerator.

4

I agree. Kill 2 birds w/ 1 stone

5

Looks good! Personally, I’d bring the ibus down a bit but that’s just me

6

Well, as most things I do go, nothing went right. My OG was way off at 1.041 instead of 1.051. The drain valve on my kettle clogged so I had to stick my hands in it to undo it. I sanitized them first, but I am sure that wasn’t enough. I go to open the packet of yeast and it slips and dumps some all over my hands. So, this is very frustrating for me because I had high hopes. But like everything I do, including typing this post, I cannot seem to get it right. I am about to give up. I don’t think I am made to do this. I am beyond pissed right now. Have a great day all.

7

Well, I am sure we have all made mistakes, even bad ones. I know I have. The important thing is that you learn from them and don’t make the same mistake again.

8

Don’t give up brother, we’ve all been there.

Regarding your “missed” OG:  in your brewing software (Brewfather?), what do you have your efficiency set at?  In other words, what are you basing your 1.051 OG on?  Some people get “mash” efficiencies close to 90% and some, like me, get nowhere near that.  ;D

If you consistently get 65% from your mash, so be it.  If it’s consistent, that’s all you need to design a recipe, consistency.  I guess what I’m saying is, if you need to use another pound of malt to get where you want to be, no big deal.  Just be consistent.

As far as spilling a little yeast…well, that’s a one-off and it probably won’t matter much in the end.

You’ll get this.

9

When this beer turns out awesome despite all that, promise me you won’t routinely dump yeast on your hands and douse your arms into your wort on purpose from now on, in order to replicate exactly what you did “that one time I made this incredible mosaic ale.”  :smiley:

10

I’ve had to stick my hands inside a fermenter before. Some jackwagon didn’t tighten the spigot nut well enough. (Did I mention I brew alone [emoji23])

Can’t count how many times some addition was forgotten or something spills.

IOW, as already said but worth repeating: we all do dumb stuff.  The key is to adjust, circumnavigate, and move forward.

11

Like so many other folks have already mentioned, we all have off brew days.  It’ll probably turn out fine, and even if it turns not not exactly how you’d hoped, it will probably still taste good.

Keep the faith, man!

I get too uptight over brew days sometimes and I need to remind  myself that I do this hobby to enjoy it.  I’ve only had one experimental batch that I ended up tossing… everything else has tasted OK even if it didn’t exactly match my vision.

Brew on!  [emoji846]

12

I’ve had brew days when everything I touched turned to gold.
There are a few other days that were a nightmare from hell.
In retrospect my mind was elsewhere.  Wasn’t focused on the
tasks at hand.  Attempting to correct mistakes made matters
worse, wishing it was groundhog day.

Cheers

13

I recently brewed an English Porter. It was ok, but too roasty - it tasted more like a stout. Later, when checking my inventory, I found that there was nothing left of the pound of chocolate malt that I had bought. Apparently I accidentally used the whole pound instead of 9 oz as planned. I’ll be more careful next time. As stater previously, we all make mistakes.

14

I have been brewing for 26 years. Very infrequently does a brewday go perfectly and then there is still fermentation and kegging to get through. Hang in there and don’t forget to have fun.

15

Thanks guys.  I hold hope for this only because as it was fermenting I was smelling what seemed to be a pretty good smell.  LOL.  At the very least it was the same smell I had with most of my good beers that I have made, so I am excited to get it in bottles and see what I have.  Thanks to all who took the time to comment.  I am learning as I go, and this one was a lesson on keeping the eye on the prize and don’t get ahead of the game.  Stay focused and keep at it.  Anyway, have a great day all.  And Rock On!!!

16

I got ahold of a few lb of Mosaic when they were still experimental and made an all Mosaic beer. Maybe I used too much, but it had an overwhelming blueberry flavor that made the beer seem too sweet. Has anyone else had that happen?

17

My club did a collaborative brew where each brewer brewed a SMASH base wort with a single hop and everyone’s hop was different from the others.  Several of the hops were then newly experimental (probably 11 or so years ago, I am thinking).  I got assigned Mosaic (or what became Mosaic - it might have just been a number at that point) and I thought it had a fruity - blueberry-ish flavor.  Others agreed, but liked it, anyway and still others thought it was in my head.  The consensus best SMASH was using the New Zealand Southern Cross hops that had been out for a while by then.

Just a casual point of anecdotal “evidence”.

18

That’s about when it was for me, too.  Sierra Nevada had started using them as an experimental. They turned us loose in the hop freezer after Beer Camp and I bagged up several pounds and brought them home. I pretty much liked the beer but even with high IBU it seemed sweet.

19

I’ve never gotten blueberry from Mosaic, but I’ve heard that all over the place. To me, it’s a little like Simcoe but with tropical fruit and a fair amount more hop oils in general. I can see the sweet thing, though. Mosaic is in just about every hazy IPA, and whether it’s from tropical fruit or blueberry, it does seem to lend an almost sweet kind of character to those beers I think.

20

Update to this post.  It has been sitting in the fermenter for about a week and a half.  Activity stopped after about 4 or 5 days, but I left it alone due to work and life, LOL.  Checked the gravity yesterday and it was at 1.006.  Funny thing, I went and actually looked at my notes from the Citra batch I did that is basically the same, just switched the Citra for Mosaic, and the OG was exactly the same.  The FG was also the same at 1.006.  With that said, I added my dry hops and will wait until Saturday and either keg it or bottle it.  The saving grace here is that both recipes, both being the same grain bill, yeast and process both gave me the same gravity numbers.  So, maybe I am kinda getting the hang of this.  LOL.  Now, I just need to tweak my process to try and get a better OG, say 1.050 and up, so I can get a bit higher ABV.  But, with that said, I will update in about a week or two when it is carbed and ready to drink.  Thanks to all who replied.  There is still hope.  LOL