Can you believe I’ve been reviewing beers for ten years??? Roses by the Stairs’ single-hop IPA – Isolation: Mosaic
I was looking back and realized I missed a milestone a few weeks ago – 10 years of beer reviews. I never thought that when I started Belt’s Beer Garden on October 10th of 2014 it would still be going a decade later. But here we are.
Over those ten years, I have showcased 763 beers from 514 different breweries across all 50 states and fourteen countries! It’s been an amazing decade! And today I have another new brewery to share with y’all.
Roses by the Stairs is a fairly new brewery that opened up in Phoenix, Arizona back in May of 2022. But in that short amount of time, they have quickly become one of the better breweries in the southwest.
They aim to explore “boundaries of what it means to be a farmhouse style beer” and opt for high quality, local, and seasonal ingredients while making a wide range of styles – from funky wild ales to modern IPAs.
Today I have a more classic IPA though. I have their Isolation – Mosaic, a West Coast IPA brewed with Mosaic Cryo, Mosaic Dynaboost, and the classic T-90 Mosaic pellets to really showcase the single hop variety. It is the first in their series of single-hop IPAs and has a 7% ABV. The single can cost me $7.50 but at the brewery and in Phoenix it will be cheaper.
The beer poured incredibly translucent with a golden straw hue and about two fingers of eggshell white head topping it off. The foam fizzles away slowly, down to a thin layer that covers the entire surface of the beer, but leaves very little lacing on the glass as it does so.
On the nose it is pure hop bliss. It’s very herbaceous and dank at first whiff but, upon further inspection, all those variations of Mosaic hops offer up a combination of fruits and earthy notes. Papaya, guava, orange/tangerine, and pithy grapefruit can all be detected up front with that resiny pine characteristic lingering underneath the fruity aspects.
Each sip begins slowly. There is a second or two delay from the moment it hits the tongue until the flavors really begin to explode. It lulls the taste buds into a false sense of security and then BAM! Mosaic.
Initially the hops bring the resinous grapefruit and dankness, with a moderate bitter twinge for good measure. Then the more tropical fruits begin to appear. Papaya and tangerine qualities offer up some sweetness and are joined by a light berry flavor, adding just a hint of blueberries.
At the midway point, there is a big swelling of hoppy bitterness that shifts the flavors from those tropical ones into the more earthy and dank flavors. It’s here where there is a resinous burst of grapefruit rind and dankness and pine that begin to overpower the papaya and tangerine.
The pithy grapefruit and resiny dank qualities outlast the remainder of the flavors and the beer finishes with a dry, slightly sticky feeling. But it’s nothing another sip won’t fix.
Overall, this was a delicious West Coast IPA that really promotes everything that Mosaic hops have to offer. It was clean and crisp and really rather light, making it very easy to go back for more…if you like hoppier brews. Any fan of West Coast IPAs will love this beer.
