The Battle Shed is now equipped with a bottle shelf for aging

Earlier this year I took a swing at brewing a SMaSH Mosaic IPA as a small batch.  I was still learning the details of the stove-top setup so hitting the numbers was challenging.  I ended up a bit short on gravity, and found out that Safale S-04 is NOT a replacement for White Labs Dry English Ale (WLP007) in any way shape or form.

The result of the brew was a medium strength IPA with a great nose and solid taste, if a bit sweet in the finish.  It was received well enough that it’s been requested again, but in a much bigger batch.  I won’t tweak all that much, except the mash profile to ensure a really dry finish since the Pilsner malt lends a significant amount of sweetness, despite not having any Crystal in the grain bill.

8″ x 10″ Hop Spider from Utah Biodiesel

I’ll also get a chance to use a few of the newer stainless hop screens.  I picked up a hop basket to replace my DIY hop spider.  It’s been an excellent upgrade simplifying the setup and cleanup.  I’ll also use the dry-hop tubes  and finally a two-stage filter to enhance the hop nose all the while staying O2 free.

The Leaky Fermentor fermented its last beer. =(

Finally, my previous fermentation chamber The Smelly Beast,  A.K.A the Leaky Dripper , A.K.A The Garage Heater, A.K.A The Best Deal on Craigslist,  A.K.A 25 Dollars worth of Fridge has died.  Over the summer it increasingly would not keep anything under 50 degrees.  While that was fine for fermenting, it was NOT fine for hop storage in the freezer compartment.  Also, the constant drip of liquid was not much fun either.   Luckily Woxford has recently completed a 8′ x 10′ temperature controlled Battle Shed whose ambient temp is around 55F.  This Mosaic IPA will be the first clean beer to ferment in the shed with a heat belt to drive the temperature profile needed for a nice dry IPA.

Looking forward to getting another nice clean IPA through the system.  Hope you enjoy Mosaic IPA V2!