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Mosaic-Citra Wheat Pale Ale

A soft, fruit-forward wheat pale ale designed around a simple 30 litre, single-vessel all-grain setup. This is lighter, less bitter and less heavily dry-hopped than the NE IPA.

  • Batch size: approximately 20 L packaged
  • Original gravity: approximately 1.048
  • Final gravity: approximately 1.010-1.012
  • ABV: approximately 4.8-5.0%
  • Bitterness: approximately 30 IBU
  • Colour: gold to light amber

Ingredients

  • 3.5 kg crushed pale ale malt
  • 700 g pale wheat malt
  • 200 g flaked torrified oats with husk
  • 100 g Crystal 150 malt
  • 15 g Mosaic hops, 13.1% alpha acid, for bittering
  • 40 g Citra hops, 14.2% alpha acid, split as below
  • 50 g Mosaic hops, split as below
  • 1 pack WHC Lab Saturated top-cropping English ale yeast
  • Approximately 110 g white table sugar for priming 20 L at 20°C to about 2.3 volumes of CO2; recalculate for the actual packaged volume and highest post-fermentation temperature
  • Brewing water suitable for approximately 20 L packaged beer

Instructions

  1. Heat the mash liquor and mash the pale ale malt, wheat malt, oats and Crystal 150 malt at 65°C for 60 minutes.
  2. Raise the mash to 75°C and hold for 10 minutes.
  3. Run the wort into a clean fermentation vessel. Sparge as needed, within the vessel's capacity, to collect approximately 24-25 L before the boil.
  4. Remove the grain, rinse the stockpot, return the wort and bring it carefully to a rolling boil.
  5. Boil for 60 minutes. Add 15 g Mosaic at the start of the boil.
  6. With 10 minutes remaining, add 15 g Citra.
  7. At flameout, cool the wort to approximately 80°C. Add 25 g Mosaic and 25 g Citra, then cover and steep for 20 minutes.
  8. Cool promptly to 18-19°C, transfer to the clean fermentation vessel and pitch the WHC Lab Saturated yeast.
  9. Ferment at 19-20°C. Allow the beer to rise to approximately 21°C near the end of fermentation if practical.
  10. If saving yeast, crop it cleanly before dry hopping. When fermentation is nearly complete, add 25 g Mosaic and 25 g Citra for 3-4 days.
  11. Confirm fermentation is complete with stable hydrometer readings. Package promptly and minimise splashing or oxygen exposure.
  12. For 20 L of beer that reached approximately 20°C after fermentation, dissolve 110 g white table sugar in a small reserved quantity of beer using sanitised equipment. Recalculate the sugar if the packaged volume, sugar type, beer temperature or desired carbonation differs.
  13. Divide the priming mixture evenly between pressure-rated bottles, seal them and condition in protected storage boxes for at least two weeks.

Notes

  • Expect citrus and tropical-fruit hop character, peach-like yeast esters, a soft mouthfeel and natural haze.
  • Crystal 150 is deliberately limited to 100 g so that it adds light malt depth without making the beer sweet or muddy.
  • Do not use the full historical spoon range for bottle priming. Measure a calculated total sugar mass for the actual finished beer.