Wet Hot American Pale Ale

This is a beer that got me really in love with SMaSH brewing. And I have yet to do a smash that I like as much as this one.

10lbs. Vienna Malt

Mash at 152F for 60 minutes with about 15 quarts of water. Sparge with about 21 quarts at 170F.

Boil for 90 minutes to get it down to 5 gallons.

1 oz. Cascade 60 min
1.75oz Cascade 20 min
1 oz. Cascade dry hop in secondary 6- 7 days

Pitch with Notty, no starter.

The nottingham yeast dries it out pretty quick. In fact it didn't even need the full 6 days I let it go in the secondary, but left it there for dry hopping. Cold crashed 2 days before bottling.

This beer is great in the summer, and very refreshing. On top of all that, it's cheap to make. This beer costs lest than $20.

I've played around with it some, adding additional grains (tried one with honey malt that was pretty darn good) but the SMaSH is still my favorite.

Thanks for sharing! May give it a run in a few weeks.

this is a beer to learn from. I brewed this with some variation and can say that I like it, but it needs improvement. I did a 5 gallon batch using Safale-05 American Ale yeast. I love dry yeast over liquid yeast. I also decided against dry hopping. I can either dry hop next time to get that additional aroma, but i also thought the color was a little low on the scale. It's malty, and IMHO, malty beers should be darker.

So next time around, I might get daring. Perhaps I will bring down the IBU to a lower amount, and definately add some crystal 20 or 40L. More importantly, I will mash at a whopping 158 or 160 even, going for a malty, robust, sweeter versus drier ale. It will no longer be a SMaSH, but it will be finger lickin good.

This will be something i probably play around with for a while, until i get some good recipe down from it.

cheers

Glad you took the time to make it, sorry you didn't like it as much as I did. Personally I think that the dry hopping adds quite a bit.

The great thing about a SMaSH is you really get to know your grains and your hops. I really dig the malt profile of Vienna against the Cascade.

I've tried it with other yeasts aside from the Notty. I really like it with the Wyeast3638 with it.

no no, dont get me wrong, I like it and it'll go fast. I just want to build off it. I agree with the SMaSH concept, that you can understand a certain characteristics of a malt and a hop. Your recipe is a good one and i thank you for sharing, but it's a great base recipe (cheap one at that too) and I can build from it.

cheers!

Okay, I can totally dig what you're saying now.

It's definitely a recipe on which to build. I've played around with this recipe a few times. Once I replaced 3lbs. of the vienna with malted wheat, mashed higher and added grains of paradise. Turned into a very nice brew.

I am trying to design my own special pale ale and I need the base to go off of! I am going to try brewing this this weekend! Ill keep you guys updated!

I did change this up a bit but it is 4 hours in the primary and starting to push my air lock! I only did 10 lb vienna 1.5 caramel 40L and american pale malt. Also my hops choice was 60 min and 30 min Saaz and 2 min Fuggles all one ounce. Im gonna dry hop one more ounce fuggle. I did though use Notty for a drier ale! It is my first A.G. and I am not happy with my Mash Tun at all! I want to fab up a false bottom to but on top of my braided hose and I think it will be fine.

Sorry guys I do not believe in Hydrometers so I cant tell you what O.G. and all that is but It looked great and my temps were dead on for my goals! Ill let you know what everything does in two weeks when I put it all to the keg!

Okay so that airlock pushing after 4 hours is about all its doing! It has been 11 - 12 hours after pitching and should be going wild by now but its not! I didnt hydrate or do a yeast starter. I just pitched dry yeast like I always do. But it is moving SSSSLLLLLOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!

Okay I guess the yeast needed to hydrate and activate a little bit becasue its starting pick up a little bit. I am excited to try this beer! After this is an IPA!!!!!

Don't worry about it too much. Your beer can take up to 72 hours before you see really active fermentation.