Aged Maris Otter SMASH = Chamomile

**JonM** · 10-18-2011, 12:42 AM

Last May I made a Maris Otter/Centennial SMASH and it was awesome. I mashed very low (150ish with some temp loss in the tun) and did one hop addition of Centennial at 60. Bottom line, I wound up with a beer that had an OG of about 1.050 and IBUs of 50ish. After a month in the bottle, this stuff was awesome. After tasting this one SWMBO said, for the first time, "you could sell this."

Anyway, I put a couple bottles in the basement. It's 6 mo. later and the main batch is long gone. I just popped one of the aged ones open and it has this very prominent, very distinct Chamomile tea flavor. I never expected that and it's a pretty remarkable change. It's good - it's just a really unexpected change from a somewhat long cellaring.

Anyway, had to share. Cheers, all!

tesilential · 10-18-2011, 04:56 AM

I made a smash with centennial for bittering and cascade for Aroma/Flavor and Thames valley yeast.

It was pretty good at first but with 3 months on it it was special. Several close friends requested I brew it again, it's finishing primary right now.

This time I did a bittering charge to 39 IBU and 3 ounces of cascade at flameout.

Will dry hop another 1-2 oz in the keg.

Excellent, really crisp brew, thumbs up man!