Planing a SMaSH, advice?

[surly]

Hey all,

I am looking at brewing a series of almost identical SMaSH's in order to improve my techniques and learn a bit more in controlled circumstances.
I would also like this process to aide in my development of a simple, tasty "house" beer. With this in mind I want to use fairly affordable and readily available ingredients (ideally Australian), to make a pale ale style beer. A little less hop driven than an APA so malt character can be more easily discerned.

With this in mind, I am leaning towards using malt from JW, as well as a hop such as galaxy.
As I am very new to brewing, I am pretty unsure of which malt would be the best to use, but based on EBC and price, I have been considering Vienna, Trad Ale and Light Munich.

I would love to hear any opinions or thoughts.

Thanks in advance,

Tim.

 

[warra48]

Any of the three base malts you nominate will potentially make a good beer.

It depends on just how much you want to emphasize the malt character as to which you choose.

In order of lighter to heavier, Trad Ale, Vienna, and Munich.

I've brewed a number of beers where I've used about 98 to 99% Munich, with 1 to 2%of Caraaroma, and a single bittering addition at 60 minutes to about 50 IBU. They turned out to be great beers. In fact, I've just downed a pint of one!




Edit: Just how new to brewing are you, seeing as you joined the forum on 13/12/07 ???

 

[surly]

Cheers warra,

I tend to like my beers malty, so maybe Munich is the way to go, but as we are coming into summer soon, I want to be brewing a pretty sessionable beer as this stuff will need to be drunk fairly quickly in order to make way for my next experiment
Was considering a single hop addition at around 30-20 mins to approx 30-35 IBU (no chill). That way there will be some flavour, but the hops won't be heavily dominant..

This is all largely guesswork on my part.

 

[Yob]

TBH, and strangely, I found SMASH beers rather too 1 dimensional, a house grist is something like this…

JW traditional 60%
Wheat 23%
Munich I 15%
Acidulated 2%

With variations as I go along, Vienna, rye, crystal (sometimes), got quite a number of bags of different grains to experiment with now.. Not even sure how many atm..

While SMASH beers have their place, fecked if I'd make one a house beer, house beers (imo) should be a little exciting.

 

[surly]

I understand your point Yob, I was intending the SMaSH to be the starting point at which I built from for a house beer.

So, I would have a well sorted simple base, I can then experiment with the addition of other grains and hops to get something I really like. I have no intention of spending most of my time drinking boring beer.
To clarify, I will probably brew one of these SMASH's as every second brew. The brews in between will be beers I have gotten from the recipe DB or elsewhere. these will be my interesting ones while I experiment and learn. they will also hopefully help me narrow down what I want to achieve.

 

[Sunshine_Brewer]

Have a go with any aussie pils malt and chuck in some NZ Hallertau aroma (keep it kinda local). The hops will give you something different to noble varieties with a distinct character and they will still enable you to develop your skills rather than covering everything up with ounces of citrus hops.

I've bombed a no-chill smash beer(no boil hops) cube with over 150g NZ Hallertau Aroma flowers, turned out a treat! Plenty of room to experiment with SMASH beers.

 

[jimmysuperlative]

Marris otter makes a nice SMaSH.

I just today brewed a Citra/Bohemian Pilsner "American" IPA. Never smashed with Bo-Pils before, but this beer will be all about the hops anyway.

It should be a nice beer.

You've probably googled SMaSH recipes? There's a bazillion of them out there!!!

 

[431neb]

Not reading thread as I'm busy ( watching Rockwiz) but when I saw your title I immediately thought of my JW Trad' ale / Galaxy SMaSH. Dry hop that bad-boy with some citra (**** smash). Yummy. Aussie. Cheap. Easy.

Julia Z. SMaSH. Yum.

 

[jaypes]

Marris otter makes a nice SMaSH.

It certainly does. Mixed with Motueka is one of my personal favs

 

[fletcher]

+1 on the maris otter smash but in all honesty, consider something like:

95% ale malt
5% crystal 60

whatever hop you like; cascade, galaxy, amarillo, citra etc to about 35-40 IBUs and whatever yeast you like. us-05 is an easy one.

it'll be amazing.

 

[syl]

People all recommend Marris Otter. Right balance of lightness and flavour.

I find 2row smashes are too 1 dimensional, that being said I have 3 batches of them on the go with different yeasts for much the same reason as you!

 

[jakester1]

Great timing, just jumped on here for some ideas for pretty much the same thing. I have some Golden Promise and Marris Otter that i want to pretty much do a SMASH with so i can get the taste of them and make a pretty easy beer to drink for the visitors in the meantime. When you say go to about 40 IBUs for a smash, do you still mix the hopping schedule around, such as 60,20 and 10 minute additions or just do like one 10 minute addition? i was thinking either Galaxy or Cascade as my hop.

 

[syl]

Great timing, just jumped on here for some ideas for pretty much the same thing. I have some Golden Promise and Marris Otter that i want to pretty much do a SMASH with so i can get the taste of them and make a pretty easy beer to drink for the visitors in the meantime. When you say go to about 40 IBUs for a smash, do you still mix the hopping schedule around, such as 60,20 and 10 minute additions or just do like one 10 minute addition? i was thinking either Galaxy or Cascade as my hop.

60 and 5 for me. I go 35 IBU's

 

[Diesel80]

Tiger,
would not recommend using 100 percent golden promise. There is just something not right with it on its own. Couldn't describe it but I just couldn't dig it.
50/50 with Marris Otter much nicer beer and still allows hop appreciation! (which seems the premise of doing SMaSH brews).

Hopefully some others may be able to more scientifically advise on golden promise and its use.

Cheers
D80

 

[jakester1]

Thanks Syl, sounds good to me.
D80, cheers as i was going to use that for my next brew. Maris Otter is already cracked for todays brew, with some Galaxy and liquid 1056.
Most SMASH recipes are either Maris Otter or some other base malt, can't recall ever reading a Golden Promise smash so there could be a good reason? Sounds like its a good malt though for an IPA.
Anyway, about to mash so gotta run. Cheers!

 

[surly]

Thanks for all the replies guys.
Seems to be a lot of love for Maris Otter, so might go that route. My intention is part about better apreciation of the effect of hop schedules, quantity et, but it will also allow me to better appreciate the differences associated with mash temp etc. I might even attempt stepped mash's, though this would be pretty tricky to get right on my system - maybe add more hot water to the tun then mix? Anyway, food for thought.

 

[jakester1]

Im the same way Surly, I've done countless BIAB brews over the years but never really used different base malts until now. Thought id give a smash a go for a few beers, next one i will do is a Vienna, just to get the taste of a different malt, not mixing it and seeing what it can do on its own, then future brews can add to it and see what the changes make, instead of just following recipes all the time. Looking forward to the results, its in my pool cooling to pitch temps right now.

 

[DeGarre]

I've done a smash or two and found both of them nice but one-dimensional. So I don't mind brewing single hops to find out about the hop but prefer my house grist blend or close to it.

8% munich
8% vienna (or replace with more munich)
4% crystal 150
some wheat for head retention
some black to adjust colour
rest pale ale

Together with a single hop to 35-40 ibus (my sweet spot).

FWH/
60m fiftyfifty

20m
10m
0m for 15min soak

(it is early here and I am getting thirsty)

 

[contrarian]

My first 2 all grains were SMaSHs that I am drinking at the moment. One Maris Otter and Amarillo and one JW ale and cascade. Both are very drinkable beers that are light and refreshing.

My reasoning was to get a feel for the process without too many factors involved and also to understand a bit about what different malt and hops bring to the finished product.

I'd highly recommend it as an experiment but my next brew will definitely have a few more ingredients!

 

[fletcher]

Im the same way Surly, I've done countless BIAB brews over the years but never really used different base malts until now. Thought id give a smash a go for a few beers, next one i will do is a Vienna, just to get the taste of a different malt, not mixing it and seeing what it can do on its own, then future brews can add to it and see what the changes make, instead of just following recipes all the time. Looking forward to the results, its in my pool cooling to pitch temps right now.

tiger this is the best way mate. nice one.

once you understand the basics of base malts and then specialty malts and what they add to the brew, it basically opens it all up so you can make/experiment your own. do you use brewmate or a brewing software application? i'd HIGHLY suggest it as this is what helped me understand it a lot easier. a bunch of sites online should help with understanding guide lines for %s of grain types too - here's a quick one i googled - http://hbd.org/brewery/library/Malt101.html