How to make a beer "smooth"?

[thisispants]

So I want to brew a beer that the average punter would enjoy... However I'd still like it to be good and not the swill popular with a lot of our country folk.

Is there any particular grain or combination of grains that give a particularly smooth taste?

Will mashing at a specific temperature give this effect?

The APAs I've brewed thus far have been too hoppy I've been told (not hoppy enough for me)... So I guess I'll tone the hops down a bit.

Any suggestions would be very helpful... Sorry for the vague and subjective question.

 

[indica86]

Bittering + one hop addition only can be very smooth.
Aussie style Pale I made was.


BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Aussie Pale Ale I
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: Australian Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 30.00 l
Post Boil Volume: 26.69 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Bottling Volume: 21.60 l
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 8.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 39.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 79.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.00 kg Pale Malt (Barrett Burston) (3.9 EBC) Grain 1 90.9 %
0.30 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (3.5 Grain 2 6.8 %
0.10 kg Crystal (Joe White) (141.8 EBC) Grain 3 2.3 %
20.00 g Millenium [13.90 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 30.3 IBUs
25.00 g Cascade [6.70 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 9.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg Australian Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP009 Yeast 6 -

 

[Blind Dog]

Kolsch or American wheat.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

yep Kolsch

 

[Jkpentreath]

What about a brown ale? What recipe did u use for your apa?

 

[manticle]

Really vague. Noble and noble type hops will give smooth bitterness, mid-high mash temp will give creamy body and texture.
Depends what you want. Everything needs to be balanced, everything is subjective

 

[Fat Bastard]

Yep... Subjective. Most home brewers , including myself, struggle to balance bitterness/hop aroma with the processes we use. The software that calculates flameout additions as contributing zero IBU and additions after flameout steeped for 20 minutes adding X IBU do not help.
If you use the free or paid brewing software, aiming for the bottom end of the style nazi bitterness scale helps, and allows you to add more aroma hops with some leeway on the bitterness they inevitably add. As
always, allow your taste buds to be the judge of your beer, not the software.

 

[Dan Pratt]

I have found that my hoppy blonde ales are really flavorsome, refreshing and SMOOTH.

Using a 60/40 or 70/30 split on Ale Malt and Wheat Malt. OG 1.040

60min boil doing one late addition to 18-20ibu @ 5mins then dry hop with the same combo 2g/L for 5days at ferment temp.

Hop options:

cascade
Simcoe
Galaxy
Citra, Simcoe & Galaxy
Citra, Cascade
Amarillo, Centennial

I mash these at 65 for 60mins using 7g of gypsum to highlight the hops.

Fermented at 19c but will try a lower end of 16c all with US05.

Another ale to try for smoothness is the Electric Pale Ale http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24947

with all late hops and no bittering charge its a great beer.

 

[Adr_0]

Ross's (Bacchus) barleywine is smooth...

 

[Jkpentreath]

Really vague. Noble and noble type hops will give smooth bitterness, mid-high mash temp will give creamy body and texture.
Depends what you want. Everything needs to be balanced, everything is subjective

Dunkel, low hops, heaps of flavour .

 

[Adr_0]

I think a few things :
-keep pH in the right range through the mash and sparge
-some good (British, German) medium crystal or carawheat
-a rest around 70-72°C for 15-20min is good for some nice smooth mouthfeel
-avoid harsh it woody hops in big bittering quantities, eg Pacific Gem, Northdown, Chinook, Northern Brewer
-instead use Simcoe, Goldings, Willamette
-cooler ferment temperatures, and a decent yeast count to start with

 

[Midnight Brew]

Blonde Ale, as Pratty mentioned, is a great style to introduce swillers to flavour without biting their heads off. Keep it to around 20ibus and mash around 68 or even step mash if you like. Pale, wheat and some light crystal or even biscuit. Use a FWH addition for 1/3rd of your bitterness and rest into the cube. Dry hop is optionable depending on your preference and then a clean yeast. I would be leaning more towards showcasing the malt.

Also in my opinion it is worth having a look at what you carbonate your beer to. My personal perseverance is to have the style on the lower end of the recommended carbonation range.

 

[thisispants]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. A blonde ale seems like a perfect idea. Also, I've never brewed one so that makes it even better.

Quick question: What's a FWH addition?

Any yeast suggestions, I'm only making 12L batches at the moment due to my current set up being limited..... I'd like to try a liquid yeast, are these smack packs any good?

 

[wereprawn]

FWH = First Wort Hop(ing). Just means chuck your bittering addition in the kettle as soon as you start your ramp up for the boil instead of after starting the boil.

 

[thisispants]

FWH = First Wort Hop(ing). Just means chuck your bittering addition in the kettle as soon as you start your ramp up for the boil instead of after starting the boil.

Interesting, what's the advantage or effect this has? More bittering?

 

[wereprawn]

More bittering but a smother bittering effect. And it is claimed to lock in some of the hop flavour.

 

[storeboughtcheeseburgers]

the LCBA clone is pretty smooth - you could prob drop the hop schedule a bit but. I made a double batch of it a while back, and its got some good hop punch for me, but the beer is rather malty and shines through on its own. Not too much cascade I guess as its pretty aromatic. maybe 20/20 of saaz and cascade for 45 minutes and 10/10 of each again at flameout would prob make milder, light beer.

Better red than dead irish red ale is good for those who like Guinness/kilkenny and somewhat creamy . Very malty, not very hoppy.. and english hops so its not real aromatic. Prob getting a bit hot for that one now but :\. Then again, it is pretty tasty.

 

[pat86]

Yeah I find English bitters might meet your 'smooth' criteria. They usually are a bit more malt forward than overly hoppy, they tend to be mashed med-high and also have some nice caramel flavour and lower carbonation on top of that. Very easy drinkers and you can play around with hops to suit yourself.

 

[pat86]

I think a few things :
-keep pH in the right range through the mash and sparge
-some good (British, German) medium crystal or carawheat
-a rest around 70-72°C for 15-20min is good for some nice smooth mouthfeel
-avoid harsh it woody hops in big bittering quantities, eg Pacific Gem, Northdown, Chinook, Northern Brewer
-instead use Simcoe, Goldings, Willamette
-cooler ferment temperatures, and a decent yeast count to start with

Hey ADR, are you able to elaborate a bit on the 70-72C rest? Might have to try this one. Would you only do it on thinner beers e.g. 65C mash or would it still have an impact on a 68C beer?

I take it you then ramp up to mash out at 75-78C following.

 

[manticle]

72 is a high end alpha amylase rest which favours dextrinous sugar chain formation. It also favours glycoproteins which contribute to mouthfeel and head formation and retention. I do it for all beers - the head is visibly different.

Dunno about Adr0 but I always mash out at 78 (75 is too low).