BlendieOfIndie
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,
I'm pretty new to brewing - 5th batch in the fermenter right now. I'm looking to learn how changing techniques and ingredients affects the product. Dave Miller recommends starting with a SMaSH recipe (one type of malt & one type of hop), and repeating it several time until you're making consistent batches. Then he says to move on to modifying ingredients one at a time. This is the process I intend to follow, but it looks like it'll take a while to really learn something, so I'm also looking for a fast track to get started quicker. Here's a few questions:
- Is there a large difference in the flavor of base malts?
- Would steeping a small amount of different specialty malts help me learn what each contributes to the final beer? If so, steep what poundage in what volume of H2O?
- Hops: I can smell a slight difference between hop varieties, but the difference is hard to distinguish. Would steeping hops help me better understand the distinction between hops?
- What are the top 5 hop varieties that I should know about?
Any other tips/suggestions/must knows?
Thx
I'm pretty new to brewing - 5th batch in the fermenter right now. I'm looking to learn how changing techniques and ingredients affects the product. Dave Miller recommends starting with a SMaSH recipe (one type of malt & one type of hop), and repeating it several time until you're making consistent batches. Then he says to move on to modifying ingredients one at a time. This is the process I intend to follow, but it looks like it'll take a while to really learn something, so I'm also looking for a fast track to get started quicker. Here's a few questions:
- Is there a large difference in the flavor of base malts?
- Would steeping a small amount of different specialty malts help me learn what each contributes to the final beer? If so, steep what poundage in what volume of H2O?
- Hops: I can smell a slight difference between hop varieties, but the difference is hard to distinguish. Would steeping hops help me better understand the distinction between hops?
- What are the top 5 hop varieties that I should know about?
Any other tips/suggestions/must knows?
Thx