First smash

I just finished my first smash. 11 lbs maris otter and cascade, looks good so far. 6 gallon batch, sg is 1056. Does that seem a little high? I was expecting around during 1050. I guess we will see where it ends up in a couple of weeks.

Sounds good! I love Marris Otter for base malt and Cascades are my go to for aroma hops in IPA's. What IBU's were you going for? Pale Ale or AIPA?

I was going for a pale ale. I will be dry hopping with one ounce of cascade also. I will do another batch in a couple of days with pearl and cascade. Just trying to figure out what I like and what the differences are between ingredients.

Your'e well within range for an APA. Sounds good too!

Once I determine which malt I prefer, I will start to experiment with different hops. I think smash recipes are the way to go for newbs like me. Helps to figure out how each ingredient tastes and how it works with others

Just did a Halcyon / Motueka SMaSH and it was seriously out of this world! Highly recommended! Pale, nutty, a little biscuit or toast... up front citrus aroma but also a unique stone fruit and tropical fruit note to it. Super tasty summer APA.

Oh oh, almost 24 hours and no sign of fermentation yet. I usually ferment in glass but I decided to put it in pail this time. No sign in airlock.

What yeast are you using and did you hydrate or prepare a starter? Did you aerate the wort? I have had batches take 48 hours or more before the airlock is actively bubbling. RDWHAHB

Us 05. No starter or hydrating of yeast. I am still very new to this, only my fifth batch (first all grain) and all have started fairly quickly.

Could be the seal on the lid giving the carbon dioxide any easier path to escape than through the airlock. My bucket almost never bubbles but I still get great beer out of it!


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Your right about the seal, I didn't like it from the beginning. The airlock is finally showing some action. I guess I'm just a little bit nervous, because it's my first all grain.

I don't know what's going on with this. First it took over 24 hrs to see any action in the airlock and now it's done in less than 3 days WTF.

My guess is it is the seal again...bubbles during most vigorous period of fermentation, and then when things quiet down again it is easier for the CO2 to push through the bad seal than go through the airlock.

Should have a nice bed of CO2 on top of the beer...remove the lid for a moment and brave a peek?

Thick coat of white foam on top and green krausen sides of bucket. It looks okay but, I'm still worried. This might be the last time I use the bucket as a fermenter.

It sounds fine. There are folks out there that do an open bucket fermentation just allowing the CO2 to blanket the beer and it works so don't worry, relax, have a home brew!

bramptonbrewer said:

now it's done in less than 3 days WTF.

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what temperature did you ferment your 05 at? 05 can chew thru lots sugar pretty quick

have you checked your gravity ? it could be done I use 05 a lot it is a nice clean ale yeast

must of my ales are in the kegs after 10 to 14 days, when it hits a stable FG it is done

all the best

S_M

Just realized I made yet another mistake. I forgot to strain out the hot break and hops before adding the the yeast and fermenting. I guess I will have to move to secondary sooner than I wanted to. I was going to leave in primary for a couple of weeks, but i think I will move into secondary after about 1 week. Then I will dry hop 1 oz of cascade and let sit in secondary for as long as it takes to clear. Hope that works.

It is fermenting at 66 degrees in basement. No reading yet, but i will take one tomorrow (5th day) and see where it is. I'm hoping it will get down to about 1010-1012. I did use 05 on a muntons cerveza kit and it stuck at 1020 for about 3 weeks. Only now is it slowly coming down. It is down to 1016 after 4 weeks.

Took my reading today. It's at 1014 on day five. This thing went pretty quick. I racked it off the trub full of hops and into a glass carboy. When should I add hops? I plan on leaving it in secondary for atleast 3 weeks in order for it to clear. Should I put them in for the last week or just the last few days.

I'm sure there are a lot of opinions on this but my 2 cents worth would say throw them in 3 days before you bottle/keg. That should give you the aroma without it getting grassy on you.

Exactly two weeks from brew date, fg is 1012 and tasting a little bitter. Looks a little cloudy too. What do you guys think of racking to a third carboy? I did this with a recent batch of muntons cerveza and it finished crystal clear. I was worried about it not having enough yeast in suspension to carbonate at first but it looks to be carbing up just fine. Also being new to this, I'm not sure how dry hopping an oz of cascade will affect the flavor.

The above is my first smash (maris otter and cascade). I also have a second smash (pearl and cascade) brewed three days later, and also has an fg of 1012. Both were racked to secondary after 5 days in primary. I didn't do a great job of straining the hops out of the wort before fermentation, so I thought it might be better to get it off the trub as soon as vigorous fermentation was done. Gravity was at 1014 when both were racked.

IMHO, just leave it in the primary. From my experience, two, three, even four weeks is fine. Even though the vigorous part of fermentation appears to be done, the yeast need time to clean up and the beer will end up better if it sits on the yeast cake longer. The fact that you saw a drop in the gravity after transferring says it wasn't ready.
I keg all of my beers and never transfer to a secondary vessel. Every time you rack to another carboy you risk oxidation.
For me, dry hops go right into the primary 3-5 days before cold crashing and racking to the keg.

I do like using a secondary, I rack right after vigorous fermentation so that I can still get a little co2 in secondary to protect the beer. I think I get a much clearer beer with secondary and I am very careful with sanitation, so oxidization is a minimal risk.

look at the surface - any white froth and brown scum ?

No. Why?

It is a sign that fermentation has started.

I dont rack to secondary either(unless racking onto vanilla beans or similar). I primary only for 2-3 weeks. Lately I have been allowing 2 weeks primary then cold crash for a couple days and keg. less risk of infection or oxidation and less work for me. I have 2 pails and a carboy and prefer the pails to ferment in. I usually do not see any bubbling in the airlock but every batch i have made so far (roughly 15-20) have turned out great. This last batch (haus ale) is the first time I have seen bubbling in the airlock. I used rehydrated notty but couldnt get temps down so yeast was pitched at 78F and stored in my basement in the coldest part at 70F. So i wouldnt worry about the airlock activity.

I've decided not to dry hop these two batches. I can still sense(smell and taste) a heavy hop presence. Very bitter taste and I'm hoping that will dull a bit in the bottles. Should have both bottled by next weekend.

So I decided to stick to the original plan and dry hopped both of these with an ounce of cascade pellets. It's my first time dry hopping. Is it supposed to be a green goo on the surface? How long before that settles. I thought it would be 3 days and I could bottle. I don't see this all settling out in 3 days. Can anybody possibly re assure me or let me know what I should be expecting.

skim off the surface layer with first of all a kitchen sieve and then lay sheets of kitchen paper on the surface for half a second and remove quickly, may need to do this 5 or 6 times

Your kidding. Right?

WRONG - the kitchen paper grabs the surface layer - on and off in a flash - works like magic. I NEVER JOKE ABOUT BEER MAKING. I am about to make a pseudo SMASH with maris otter pale malt and cascade hops and on day 3 of fermentation I shall add a mashed up and strained through very fine muslin TIN OF GOOSEBERRIES in natural syrup.

Isn't all the hop goo supposed to settle out after a while. I would be a little worried about contaminating the beer.

the hop debris in T90 pellets will not settle out completely

bobtheUKbrewer2 said:

WRONG - the kitchen paper grabs the surface layer - on and off in a flash - works like magic. I NEVER JOKE ABOUT BEER MAKING. I am about to make a pseudo SMASH with maris otter pale malt and cascade hops and on day 3 of fermentation I shall add a mashed up and strained through very fine muslin TIN OF GOOSEBERRIES in natural syrup.

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Well, this post made me laugh during my morning reading, so thank you!


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Gave it a little shake and most of it has settled out. Would cold crashing do the rest?

Just bottled the marris otter/cascade and the hop goo is 99 percent gone. Cold crashed for three days and a little swirl twice a day and it was perfect. I'll try my first bottle in a couple of weeks and let you guys know how it tastes. I will be bottling my pearl/cascade batch on Sundays and can't wait to compare the two.

Early taste of both tonight. Both pretty good. I prefer the marris, but they are both too hoppy for me. Next time I would eliminate the dry hop step.