A Different Kind Of Hybrid Ale...

[MadBrewer]

A friend has helped formulate a beer that he wanted to be one of a kind. He wanted a Pale Ale on the verge of being an IPA with a Wheat Beer kind of base and feel to it. Sure, you can probably just say it's pretty much an IPA by it's stats, but it's been fun to bounce ideas around and mash them together. This is going to be for a party at the end of the month so I'm brewing it up tomorrow morning. The grist and yeast is set, grains are bought and crushed but the hop bill is up for any tweaks. I come to some of you hop heads here to look it over. I have brewed something like this for him a few times in the past yet this one is a little different and all it's own and hops are different. This will be my first time using Mosaic.

Magnum for some smooth bittering, some Columbus at 30 to fill it out and add some more IBU's without being too aggressive. I want to add the late additions as a hopstand. I have done them in the past, I was thinking 180* for 30 mins while the temp free falls. Another idea was 1 oz of each at flameout and then 1 oz of each for the hopstand. I'm trying to get away from some dry hopping, so I want to limit the dry hop to only 1 oz of Mosaic or just add that last oz of Mosaic to the hopstand. Looking at the IBU's, I know it looks to be insainly hopped, but I know better and my hoppy beers just do not carry the hop character and IBU's that the recipe indicates. Most often I feel the beers could use more bitterness after tasting them. But anyway...so ideas, suggestions?

Recipe Specs
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Batch Size (G): 5.75
Total Grain (lb): 12.500
Total Hops (oz): 9.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.060 (°P): 14.7
Final Gravity (FG): 1.015 (°P): 3.8
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.89 %
Colour (SRM): 8.3 (EBC): 16.4
Bitterness (IBU): 108.4 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
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7.000 lb American 2-Row (56%)
3.500 lb Red Wheat (28%)
1.000 lb Munich I (8%)
1.000 lb Crystal 40 (8%)

Hop Bill
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1.00 oz Magnum Pellet (13% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes
1.00 oz Columbus Pellet (15% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes
2.00 oz Centennial Pellet (10% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes
2.00 oz Citra Pellet (12% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes
2.00 oz Mosaic Pellet (10% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes
1.00 oz Mosaic Pellet (12% Alpha) @ 5 Days (Dry Hop)

Single step Infusion at 154°F for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 66°F with Danstar Nottingham

[Inkleg]

Looks like a fun and interesting recipe. Since you're looking for some bitterness as well flavor and aroma your thinking of 1oz each at flameout and then the rest later will work well. Through some research and trial and error I've found that I seem to get my best results with my hop stands at 160* for about 12 minutes.

[MadBrewer]

Thanks for the input. I haven't done a whole lot of trial and error myself but I have liked the character from a hopstand. It also seems to stick around longer in the finished beer. I think I might go the route of some at flameout and the rest in the hopstand.

So what are Mosaic hops like? I have read all the descriptions, anything to add? Do they mix well with other hops? Do they kind of take the show?

[Kealia]

Sorry, late to the game but here are my thoughts:
1) I love hoppy wheat beers. They work well together (wheat and hops) IMO.
2) I agree that my beers with hopstand hops tend to keep their aroma and flavor longer than standard dry hopping.
3) The lack of bitterness could be because of the hopstand - it tends to round out the flavor. It could also be the Crystal. After hearing a number of folks like Mitch Steele (while he was at Stone) talk about how they stopped using Crystal malts in hoppy beers, I can taste a difference without that bit of sweetness to balance.
4) I love Magnum as my bittering hop of choice. I also love Mosaic.
5) Mosaic to me is tropical: guava, pineapple, floral. It plays well with a LOT of different hops so I think you will be very pleased with what it brings. FWIW, I've used it for bittering and it brought out something "funky" that I didn't care for but for flavor and aroma it's a rockstar!
6) Here's where the variables come in - I've had great success with hopstands @ 180 for 30 minutes and that has become my standard when I do it. Granted, I've not tested lower temps and shorter times, but after the reading I did in BYO magazine a few years ago, I chose this time/temp. Your mileage may vary

I hope your brewday was good!
Cheers!

[MadBrewer]

Thanks Kealia, great info. It was a great brew day, I just finished clean up. About 6 hrs today, which is average for me. No rushing, just an easy going day. I did plan on splitting the late hops between flameout and a hopstand, but I forgot to add some at flameout and started cooling to ~185* added all the late hops and did a 30 min hopstand. I haven't done much experimenting, but I have also settled in on this time and temp combo for hoppy beers.

I'm looking forward to this one. It smelled great, color was what I was looking for and hydro sample had all that fruity, piney, catty dank goodness.

[MadBrewer]

I just had a small carbonated sample of this. I'm happy to report, it's quite tasty and for the first time in a while it's pretty much just what I had in mind. Like I said, it's a beer I have brewed a few times before, this time with a few tweaks to make it more sessionable and I needed it to be ready quicker.

Also happy to report this beer also has me sold on Whirlpool/Hopstand additions. This beer had only a 60, 30 and a 30 min hopstand at ~180*. It did have 1 oz of dry hops, but just about all it's hop character is coming from the hopstand and I quite like it. It's clean, sessionable and quite hoppy with great aroma. It's a little Dank and Catty from the Citra. If I was to do it again I might swap the Centennial for Amarillo to bring the Citra more in check. I can't really say if I get much of the Mosaic, unless that hop can also be Dank, Catty like Citra? I did dry hop with Mosiac and the aroma in awesome, so there is that. Just a nice mix of Dank, Catty, Pine, Grapefruit and slight Fruity Citrus. I usually do not have the hops this "bright" in the finished hoppy beers I make, so these tweaks have really worked nice.