Single Grain / Single Hop Recipe

VApatriot · 10-20-2009, 03:13 PM

I was wondering if anyone has ever made a single grain and single hop beer? What would an ale taste like if you only used like, say, 12 lbs of Two Row and 1-2 oz Willamette for a 5 gallon batch, with a mash temp of 150-154 for an hour? Any ideas?

**humann_brewing** · 10-20-2009, 03:21 PM

If you used a lager yeast you would almost have a high gravity, high hop BMC beer. Well maybe not but I know AB uses a lot of willamette, well I don't mean a lot in one batch but in general.

Anyways, even within a SMASH (single hop and single malt) you usually try to shoot for a style of beer as far as gravity and hop level and even finishing gravity. Depending on your efficiency, you could be at pale ale to IPA levels but 1-2oz of willamette is not going to hop the beer too much but if you are looking for a 20-30 ibu pale beer, this will work.

Buffman · 10-20-2009, 03:22 PM

What you're describing is a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beer. Check out the links at the bottom and Google it. There's alot of discussion about it; even a HBT group dedicated:
http://groups.homebrewtalk.com/SMaSH_Enthusiasts

**Brew-boy** · 10-20-2009, 03:26 PM

Our brew club is doing exactly that. Each of us are brewing with 10lb 2-row and 1lb crystal 40 and a single hop. We are brewing now so we can taste these at our Nov. meeting. Should be a fun experiment to taste.

VApatriot · 10-20-2009, 03:45 PM

Cool - thanks guys. The reason I am thinking about this might sound a little "out there", but if the SHTF and the economy collapses, it might be good to have some very basic beer around to use for bartering. I know, it probably sounds kinda nutty, but with all of the recent talk about the world not using the US Dollar as the global reserve currency anymore, it just might happen sooner than I would like to admit. Anyway, thanks for the replies. I'll do some more research. Have a good one.