planning for my first SMASH recipe

bagpiperjosh · 02-06-2012, 01:13 AM

Id like to get opinions on my plans for my first all grain and SMASH recipe.

I just pretty much tried to pick a darker grain from my beer smith program and went with it..

11 lb of amber malt
1oz cascade hops 60 min
1 oz cascade hops 5 mins
american ale yeast

i clicked single infusion with no mash out... i'm not sure if i fully understand all of that... please feel free to explain..

i plan to also do a fly sparge, because that seems pretty straigtforward.

beer smith says it should be at 5.2 abv
and 25 IBUs

sound like it will be ok?

tektonjp · 02-06-2012, 01:29 AM

Nope. You will not get a beer out this. Sorry. Amber has no diastic ability. And if you don't know what that means, it's beer homework time. Not trying to be a butthead but Everyone needs a little research skill with brewing.
Look up base malts, diastic, and amber malt. You'll see why your smash will crash.

afr0byte · 02-06-2012, 02:11 AM

Actually I believe amber malt does have some diastatic power, but you'll likely need some 2-row to help fully convert. A quick Google showed one site saying it can be up to 80% of the grist. That 80% is probably with pale malt/pilsner/6-row as the other 20%.

spenghali · 02-06-2012, 02:11 AM

You might want to consider batch sparging if you want to keep it simple. Also, read this first:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/index.html

kh54s10 · 02-06-2012, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by afr0byte

Actually I believe amber malt does have some diastatic power, but you'll likely need some 2-row to help fully convert. A quick Google showed one site saying it can be up to 80% of the grist. That 80% is probably with pale malt/pilsner/6-row as the other 20%.

If you use amber malt and 2 row it is no longer a smash. It might still make a great beer though.

afr0byte · 02-06-2012, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kh54s10

If you use amber malt and 2 row it is no longer a smash. It might still make a great beer though.

I don't deny that, but it's certainly as close as one could get with amber malt.

bagpiperjosh · 02-06-2012, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tektonjp

Nope. You will not get a beer out this. Sorry. Amber has no diastic ability. And if you don't know what that means, it's beer homework time. Not trying to be a butthead but Everyone needs a little research skill with brewing.
Look up base malts, diastic, and amber malt. You'll see why your smash will crash.

i didn't think it did based on memory from what i read, but beersmith said it would be 5.2 % so i don't know wtf that program was thinking. I just figured my memory was wrong.

afr0byte · 02-06-2012, 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bagpiperjosh

i didn't think it did based on memory from what i read, but beersmith said it would be 5.2 % so i don't know wtf that program was thinking. I just figured my memory was wrong.

Beersmith isn't going to/doesn't take in to account the unconverted starch you'll have when it makes the abv estimate. It does a simple calculation of the max theoretical pppg * #lbs * efficiency.

**FarmerTed** · 02-06-2012, 02:36 AM

Can't you buy Amylase? Just throw that in for the conversion.

KuntzBrewing · 02-06-2012, 02:44 AM

Research is the best option here, you need to know what everything means. When I started formulating my own recipes I started off using a brew software and just reading all I could about the different malts and where they are from and how they are used and what percentage of the grist they should make up