Mosaic "ISA" Recipe Advice

[sj90]

Hi all,

Been reading lots on here for the last few months as I've been learning to brew, and I finally have a question I can't find an answer for.

One of my favorite day drinking beers, is Central City ISA (Link Below). So I decided to take a swing at making a clone. Since I couldn't find a recipe out there, I made one based on what the ingredients listed for the beer are. If you guys could take a look and give me some pointers, that'd be great!

http://centralcitybrewing.com/product/red-racer-isa/

2 kg Canadian - Pale 2-Row
1.5 kg Liquid Malt Extract - Light
0.5 kg American - Munich - Light 10L
0.2 kg American - Caramel / Crystal 60L
4.2 kg Total

Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Boil 30 min 27.83
1.5 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Boil 5 min 10.83
2 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Boil 0 min
2 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Dry Hop 0 days

Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Temp Time
8 L Infusion 65 C 60 min
8 L Sparge 70 C 10 min

Yeast
Danstar - American West Coast Yeast BRY-97


Thanks!

 

[xpops]

VERY interested. I'd like to see how this pans out for you. i also LOVE their ISA and IPA. so good! i had planned on trying out a NE IPA next, but maybe i need to make an all grain version of this instead!

-caravienne correlates to more of a C20 rather than C60. almost 1/2 LB of C60 might darken it up a little much? wihtout beersmith handy right now, id guess at either cut the c60 by half, or switch to c10.

-How come you're going with LME rather than extra 2 row/pale malt?

-hop schedule looks good to me being heavy on the knock out/dryhop. maybe even do the 0 min boil as a whirlpool instead to really boost the aroma kick. i assume your "0 day" dry hop is actually more like 5-7?

-good mash temp, should be very nice summer drinkeable beer!

when's brew day?

 

[sj90]

VERY interested. I'd like to see how this pans out for you. i also LOVE their ISA and IPA. so good! i had planned on trying out a NE IPA next, but maybe i need to make an all grain version of this instead!

-caravienne correlates to more of a C20 rather than C60. almost 1/2 LB of C60 might darken it up a little much? wihtout beersmith handy right now, id guess at either cut the c60 by half, or switch to c10.

-How come you're going with LME rather than extra 2 row/pale malt?

-hop schedule looks good to me being heavy on the knock out/dryhop. maybe even do the 0 min boil as a whirlpool instead to really boost the aroma kick. i assume your "0 day" dry hop is actually more like 5-7?

-good mash temp, should be very nice summer drinkeable beer!

when's brew day?

Yeah their IPA was my favorite for a long time, right now it's Fat Tug. Central City's brewery (both the original and the new comercial brewery) is about 5 min from my house, so I've spent a fair bit of time hanging out there, trying whatever they sell. I met the Brewmaster Gary Lohin at the brewery once, super nice guy.

- I got caught up in what others were expecting for ISA colour and went to C60 to get there. When I change it to C20 I end up with a SRM of 5.5 on brewer's friend. Sound closer? I'm still quite new, so I haven't developed much of a feeling for this yet.

- I don't have a big enough kettle to do a full all grain 6 gallon batch. That's next on my list of items to buy, but for now I do partial mash on my 5+ gallon batches.

- I haven't done any whirlpool additions yet, maybe I'll give that a go on this batch. Yes, likely a 5 day dry hop, just a typo there.

Brew day should be this weekend if I can get the recipe figured out by tomorrow afternoon.

 

[xpops]

sounds awesome!

my experience is beers tend to darken up more than what most software indicate they'll be. that 5 may become closer to a 8-9 kind of thing...not sure if colour matters much, just wouldnt want to see an extra residual sweetness hang around from a c60 vs a c20. what if you keep your c60, but reduce it by 50%. how's that effect your colour/abv?

only way to tell...will be to brew it twice!

keep me posted on how brewday goes, and how it turns out! i'll be adding this to my list for sure.

cheers,

 

[xpops]

hey SJ! did you end up brewing the ISA on the weekend? how'd it go?

 

[sj90]

Made a bit of a rookie mistake and had to bail on the brew day. Going to try again tomorrow evening, hopefully no more brain farts! I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[sj90]

Okay, things went much better yesterday. The Colour looks close, possibly still a little dark, and the wort seemed thin. Keep in mind this is the first beer I've brewed below 5.5%, so I was expecting it to be less sweet. As of this morning, no airlock activity, but it looks like this yeast is a slow starter.

I tried to snap a photo of the wort sample, but my phone died when I tried, so I'll have to wait until I take my FG measurement.

 

[xpops]

looking forward to hearing about the outcome! i think i'm going to brew an iteration of this in a couple weeks.

 

[xpops]

Have you used that yeast before? did it ever pickup and go for this batch?

 

[sj90]

Nope, first time using it. It was recommended for some other ISA recipes I read, so I figured it was worth a shot. It just started going this AM at 36 hrs. Way slower than I've seen with notty or US-05. Next time I'll try a different yeast I think, unless something stands out with this.

 

[xpops]

well at least she's going now!
what temp did you pitch at? do you hydrate your dry yeast first?

 

[sj90]

Yup! Was starting to get a bit worried, but since others had the same issue I figured it'd go.

Pitched at 70F, dropped it 66F over night in my swamp cooler. It's still around there now. Rehydrated at 90F for 20 min (temp dropped over the 20 min).

 

[xpops]

Yeah maybe just slow yeast. I always wonder about dry yeast, and if local brewery shops take as good of care with dry yeast as they would with liquid? I've had some slow starting us-05 and some that have produced krausen in less than 12 hours...At least those yeasties are resilient! Keep me posted how it turns out post fermentation! I have 2 weeks to make a decision, lol. I'll be doing all grain and probably 10gal, but will post my "version" here if I go this route!

 

[sj90]

Looks like fermentation is coming to an end already, it went off hard once it got going. I had some IPA made with Nottingham in the same swamp cooler that was 66F and I couldn't keep the ISA below 70F. I'm going to take a FG measurement tonight and see where I'm at.

I'll post up a picture of the sample and how it's tasting.

 

[sj90]

Well not sure how, but I'm under my target FG. Last 2 partial mashes I did have ended up about 2 points lower than target. Any idea where this could be coming from?

I've checked my temp reader using an ice bath and boiling water, it reads within .3C at both ends. My Hydrometer is measuring water at .999-1.000 at 68F (same temp at my gravity measurements). So I'm pretty sure I'm measuring things correctly.

Anyways, on to the sample I took last night. Taste was still green, as expected, but overall I think it's going to be pretty close. I'm still concerned about it being thin, but I'll reserve judgement until it's aged a bit and carbed up. The colour looks close, but it hasn't cleared at all, so it's a bit hard to tell. I think was it's been crashed and cleared up it might even be a bit lighter.

Edit: Mines on the left, but I'm pretty sure everyone could have guessed that.

 

[xpops]

my beers sometimes come in at 1 or 2 points below FG as well...i really haven't worried about it too much. I also take into account that numbers and ingredients i'm putting into beersmith, may have some minor variables vs the actual ingredients i'm using...so i can see how my readings may vary slightly from software outputs.

at the end of the day, if it tastes good and your enjoy it - you might as well enjoy the minor increase in alcohol too!

but yes, it looks like once it clears up, it will be pretty darn close!

 

[sj90]

Ok, it's carbed up now, and cleared a bit (still super cloudy compared to the real one).

I'd say it's still a bit thin just on mouth feel, but I think the malt flavor is about right. It is way more hoppy than Central's, but low on IBU's. I think I added a lot more late additions/dry hops, but I like that part of mine better. Overall definitely a good easy drinking beer

I think I fermented a bit warm at 70F at the peak of fermentation, but I have my "fermentation chamber" built now, so next time I should be able to keep it in the low 60s. I think the other change I'll make for next time is replace some of the 2-row with munich to try and increase the mouth feel slightly.

If you brew this xpops, let me know how it goes!

 

[xpops]

I'll keep subscribed and will update! Was going to do it this coming weekend, but doing a batch of two hearted ale, and a batch of cream ale that were going to split into a jalepeno cream ale and a coconut cream ale.

ISA is still on the list for future brew though!

 

[sj90]

Xpops, did you take a swing at this? Thinking about brewing it again this week.

 

[xpops]

Ugh - not yet...I ended up doing a 2hearted brew...now brewing is on hold until I finish building a keeper because I'm very tired of bottling every batch. It's still on my list though!

 

[sj90]

I'm giving it a go today. I changed out 2-row for Maris Otter. Looking at the website again it lists the base malt as "Canadian Pale Ale", which is a bit different than the pale 2-row I had used last time. My local homebrew shop didn't have any Pale Ale malt, so I'm hoping the Maris Otter brings me a bit closer and adds some flavour.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

 

[xpops]

Yes keep me posted on outcome! Cheers,