Ok- I was talking over with Mike at his sons’ combined birthday party about my next planned brews. Soon the Dunkelweizen will be brewed and then a simple lambic will be started.
After that, there are some hoppy beers that are the list. There’s an IPA on this list which will have a combination of AU hops.
The other one I want to put out there is this one: A Mosaic hops SMaSH recipe.
We’re trying to answer the question if this hop variety really has a blueberry flavor and aroma or not.
With a single malt grain bill and only Mosaic hops used in all phases of the boil (and beyond), we should get a definitive answer.
Here’s the plan for the SMaSH brew:
Boil volume: 6.5 gallons
Batch volume: 5 gallons
Ingredients:
11 pounds of 2 row pale malt
.5 ounces of Mosaic hops – 60 mins
.5 ounces of Mosaic hops – 15 mins
.5 ounces of Mosaic hops – 0 mins
.5 ounces of Mosaic hops – Dry hopped in secondary fermentor
Irish Moss
Yeast: WLP001 California Ale yeast
Instructions:
Mash malt at 150° F for 60 minutes. Sparge until 6.5 gallons of wort are collected. Add hops into the boil when indicated in the ingredient list. Save a half ounce to add to a secondary fermentor after primary fermentation is over. Add irish moss with fiftenn minutes left to go in the boil. At the end of the boil, chill to fermentation temperatures. Rack to your fermentor and aerate the wort well. Pitch your yeast and ferment at 68° F for two weeks. After the fermentation is over, rack to a clean and sanitized carboy for dry hopping. Add the leftover hops to the carboy and let it condition for 4 days.
Once the secondary is over, bottle or keg as usual.
I may scale this brew down to a smaller volume. It might be better to brew up a three gallon batch for this type of experimental brew rather than have a volume that will take up the same amount of bottle space as a proven recipe.
This recipe is third on my current list so it will get brewed in late April at the earliest.
Have you used Mosaic hops yet? How blueberry are they?
Vinny
I haven’t done a strictly Mosaic recipe, but I recently had Maine Beer Co’s “a tiny beautiful something” which uses predominantly El Dorado hops and MAN is the blueberry flavor strong in that beer.
John
Hey Vinny,
That’s interesting. El Dorado is another hop that has tasty sounding descriptors – pear, watermelon, stone fruit.
I have a few ounces of Nelson Sauvin hops that I want to try next in a SMaSH. El Dorado will be next.
Royce Faina
I have been using Mosaics and LOVE THEM Immensley! I made an all Mosaic IPA that is just outstanding, ferm Temps 65*F-68*F with Burton-on-Trent Wyeast. Blue berry… no, Lots of Pinapple and passion fruit… BIG TIME!!! Stone fruit, some rainy-day earthiness too (can you believe?). I used Munic Malt and a Smack pack Kolsch yeast to make a German Ale and used these hops, outstanding beer! Of course with these hops in that particular beer it would be disqualified in comp since mosaics are out of character for and Alt-Ale… but hey, if it’a a great beer who cares…