Hi-Wire Brewing - Hi-Pitch Mosaic IPA

Presenting a vibrant golden orange color with a head of pale foam, this IPA offers a good look and an inviting array of aromas as it rests in the glass. Look for lots of citrus and tropical fruit notes to jump out in the aroma – quite resinous with a good swirl – including notes of grapefruit, mango, orange, and passion fruit, plus some more subtle tones of sliced melon, stone fruits, earthy spice, and citrus blossoms. On the palate, those resinous citrus notes meld with a good dose of hop bitterness, offering a nicely dry edge. All of those additional fruity elements appear here, too, as Mosaic’s characteristic multifaceted personality is very well realized. The malt center offers really nice support in the core of this brew, with some very tasty caramelization offering a kiss of residual sweetness in good balance with the bright hops. For pairing options, we’d steer toward dishes with some caramelization or breadiness in concert with some fruity elements, like spicy orange chicken, fish tacos with a mango salsa, lemon pepper chicken wings, or fish & chips with a lemon juice tartar sauce. Cheers!

Hi-Wire Brewing got its start in the summer of 2013, founded by Adam Charnack and Chris Frosaker, and it quickly became one of the fastest growing craft breweries in North Carolina. Their bread and butter has been in creating well-balanced core beers like the Hi-Wire Lager, Bed of Nails Brown, and Hi-Pitch IPA, and their main production facility—affectionately known as The Big Top—opened up in 2015. Based out of Asheville, the brewery currently has two locations there, including the production facility as well as the South Slope Specialty Brewery & Taproom, which focuses more on their wild and sour ale offerings. As of today, Hi-Wire also operates spots in Durham, Charlotte, Wilmington, Knoxville, Birmingham, and Louisville, with Cincinnati and Nashville coming soon.

The creation of the Big Top Production Brewery & Taproom has allowed their South Slope location to become more of an experimental hub for their barrel-aged beers and sour ales (we’ve been grateful to feature more than one in our Rare Beer Club, as exclusive club offerings available nowhere else). Hi-Wire’s ability to successfully brew both traditional styles as well as out-there new concoctions has kept us coming back for more. This circus-themed brewery does a lot of charitable outreach, hires local artists for their artwork, and sources as many local ingredients as possible for their operations. They’ve also picked up a number of key awards over the years, including being named the Best New North Carolina Brewery of 2013 by the folks at RateBeer, as well as winning gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2016 for a German-style märzen, in 2019 for a sour brown ale aged on Palo Santo wood, and in 2021 for a Japanese Dry Rice Lager with Ben’s American Sake Koji. For the latest info, head over to hiwirebrewing.com.