Mosaic | Four Brewers Podcast

Season 2, Episode 6 – We’re starting early for this show, eleven in the morning to be exact, and were taking it easy and ramping up to the bourbon barrel-aged blind tasting with session beers from around the world.

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It’s all about pacing yourself and easing in. That’s what we’re doing this week. Our blind tasting, bourbon barrel-aged stout series is happening next week, so we decided to do a little beer tour and sample some session-able beers from around the world. We had a really early start for this recording session, so it seemed appropriate.

First up is a classic English bitter from Fuller’s called London Pride. This beer is a really great starter due to it’s caramel, malty flavor that’s balanced with just the right amount of bitterness. It isn’t too harsh, and really wakes up the palate.

Next up is a beer on the other side of the spectrum, Lost Coast Brewery’s Sharkinator white IPA. Described simply as a dry hopped version of Lost Coast’s Great White witbier, the hop aroma of this beer is very much in-your-face, and has a nice, burst of citrus flavor with a malty, wheat finish. We get into a discussion about dry hopping techniques, as well as the effect a bottle label can have on a consumer looking for new beers.

The bottle label discussion brings us to a beer from Green Flash Brewing Co. called Mosaic Session IPA. Green Flash, like many other breweries, jumped on the session IPA bandwagon with this beer, and while the beer has a nice hoppy aroma, the mouthfeel and flavor leave you wanting something more. Session IPAs in general seem to suffer from this as a whole. This is definitely an evolving style that will either find it’s groove, or fall by the wayside like other beer style trends.

The next beer is a great example of why green bottles are so bad for beer. Brasserie Dupont’s Avril is a 3.5% ABV table beer that is normally an outstanding example of a low alcohol, easy drinking, Belgian saison. However, upon pouring this particular bottle of beer, that skunky, stinky smell associated with light struck beers presents itself. Green bottles are just as bad as clear bottles when it comes to blocking ultraviolet light, while brown bottles perform quite well at this task. From a purely aesthetic point of view, this is a very sexy, well designed bottle, but when it comes to beer, the form of the packaging should always follow its function. Consuming this beer fresh is ideal, so be careful when purchasing any beer in a green or clear bottle as it will only accelerate the beer’s deterioration.

We’ll save you the trouble of reading about the next beer. Fürst Wallerstein’s Zwickel is normally a pretty tasty brew, but this bottle has seen better days, and the beer inside simply just fell apart. We found out on the show that this style of beer doesn’t travel very well, and has poor shelf life. It was a bummer for sure, but it happens.

Finally, we end the show on a high note with a favorite of Jason’s, Köstritzer Schwarzbier. This 4.8% ABV black lager is delicious. It was a “craft conversion” beer for Jason, and rightly so. Described by Matt as a “helles with cocoa”, the beer is super-dry, and the style can range from 14-28 IBU. It’s very accessible, so pick up some cans if you see it.

This week’s show was sponsored by the Beachwood BBQ & Brewing Pliny Fights Cancer Charity Raffle, and Firkfest. We’ll be broadcasting the raffle drawing live from Beachwood BBQ in Long Beach on February 23rd. Firkfest is March 21st at Farmers Park in Anaheim, California. Tickets are going fast, so get ’em while you can. Links for both events are below.

BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT.

Links to things from this week’s episode:
S2/E6 Show Outline
Pliny Fights Cancer Charity Raffle
Firkfest 2015

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Season 2, Episode 5 – We’re back in the South Bay at our final stop of our on-location recording session, El Segundo Brewing Co., with special guest and Certified Cicerone, Thomas Kelley.

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El Segundo Brewing Co. (@ESBCbrews), located in the city of its namesake, has quickly gained recognition as one Southern California’s best IPA breweries in the last few years. After opening its doors in May of 2011, brewer Rob Croxall and self-titled “Rain Maker” Thomas Kelly, set their sights on making great beers, one style at a time. This logic was partially due to their limited access to some of the more popular hops, such as Citra and Mosaic, as well as Rob’s limited experience as a professional brewer. Rob had some solid recipes from his days of homebrewing, and eventually, they secured the ingredients and the experience they needed to make the beers that would eventually make them stand out in a heavily competitive Southern California craft beer market.

We kick the show off with a delicious pale ale made with Citra hops, named Blue House Citra Pale. It’s a fairly simply grain bill, consisting of 2 row and Vienna malts. The Citra hops provide flavors similar to tangerine juice and lemonade. It’s ESBC’s biggest selling beer, and rightly so. At 5.5% ABV, one could down a few pints without regretting it the following day, while still experiencing a beer with the hop punch of an IPA.

Next up is a very popular ESBC IPA that’s in limited rotation, Mayberry IPA. It was first brewed last year, and it flew off the shelves. The beer is brewed with mostly Mosaic hops, with Chinook used early in the boil for bittering and Cascade added later in the boil. One interesting thing about the way Rob dry hops his beers is that he doesn’t recirculate the hops in secondary. A common practice is to recirculate the beer with the dry hops with the use of a pump to maximize the exposure of the beer to the hops. Rob chooses to simply let the hops sit in the beer for a week or so, and occasionally inject carbon dioxide into the bottom of the tank to get the hops back into suspension. For home brewers, this is the equivalent of gently rousing the carboy to get the hops back into solution. Mayberry IPA has huge hop character, which goes to show that just because something is common practice doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best practice for everyone.

El Segundo Brewing Co. - NO BEARDS WITHOUT GUARD — El Segundo Brewing Co. – NO BEARDS WITHOUT GUARD

The final beer is a departure from the others on the show thus far, a malty, fall seasonal beer conjured up by Thomas and other Certified Cicerones local to ESBC, a beer named Horn of Plenty. Part of ESBC’s “Cicerone Series” of beers, Horn of Plenty has the grain bill of a dunkel weisenbock, but is fermented with Westmalle Abbey Ale yeast. Lemon peel, thyme, and coriander were added in the brite tank, giving the beer a slight lemon edge on the nose. Special B malt was added to give it a rich, bread crust character, and Munich malt was used to help give the beer it’s ruby red hue. This beer was made to be paired with food and span different courses of a meal. The conversation on the show tangents for a bit into discussions about beer pairing, dinners, restaurants, and craft beer adoption in fine dining establishments.

Thanks to the folks at El Segundo Brewing Co. for having us at their brewery. They’ve got fairly wide distribution in Southern California, so be sure to pick up a few bottles of ESBC brew when you see them. You won’t regret it.

BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT.

Links to things from this week’s episode:
S2/E5 Show Outline
El Segundo Brewing Co.

Subscribe to the show:
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iTunes – While you’re there, leave a review of 4B!
Stitcher

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