Creating a SMaSH recipe

I'm kind of intrigued by the idea of single malt, single hops recipes, and thought I would try one:

Here's my preliminary attempt at a recipe, based solely on the facts that I like 2-row and I love Centennial:

11.5 lbs American 2-row
0.38 oz Centennial, 9.9%, 60 min, 13.2 IBU
0.38 oz Centennial, 9.9%, 30 min, 6.8 IBU
0.75 oz Centennial, 9.9%, 0 min

Should fall within the Cream Ale category, I guess, at 1.054 OG, 20 IBUs, 5.2% abv, at 65% efficiency (probably will get eff. a little better than that, hopefully).

Any thoughts on tweaks to this recipe (while keeping it a SMaSH)?

Maybe the #'s fall into the cream ale category, but the taste probably wont.

I could be wrong on this but, i have a friend that did a SMaSH with Canadian 2-row and he said it was definately lacking. MO would be a much better choice. I never tried it myself, so go ahead and try and let us know if it turns out good. North American two-row is definately cheaper!!!!

LOL

It's not hard to come up with a SMaSH recipe.

Pick a malt and a hop you like.
Make sure it's balanced.
Dial in you mash temp for the body you want.

Off you go.....

Well I guess I'm most of the way there then.

it won't have much malt flavor with the 2-row, but it could be a nice light cream ale. go with the cream ale yeast (WLP080) or use nottingham and ferment at a low temperature (58-62°F if possible)

the hop flavor is what is really going to come through with that recipe. you may wish to go with later additions (15 or 20 min instead of 30) to get more flavor and less bitterness from the hops, but i'm sure it's fine anyway.

i love SMaSH brews. i have yet to make or taste one i didn't like. simplicity makes for wonderfully flavorful brews!

I tried a SMaSH with Canadian 2 row and I was quite disappointed. There is definitely a reason why people tend to put some crystal in their recipes when using this type of base malt. If you don't mind not having much of a malt flavour give it a try, but I don't think that I would recommend just American base malt. This is just my 2 cents, it seems that most people have had positive SMaSH results.

a lot of the good SMaSH recipes have indeed been with maltier base malts.

i use Vienna as my base in a LOT of recipes. my Vienna SMaSH APA is probably my best beer ever.

i would highly recommend Vienna, and i think it would give it a nice balance, but i suppose it just depends how much you like the hops.

with your current recipe, the hops will definitely be dominant.

You could take 1.5 lbs of the base malt and toast it in the oven at 275 for 30 - 45 minutes on a cookie sheet to get some color to the beer. That will also bring a few toasty notes that would be lacking with just straight 2-row.

My Maris Otter / Vanguard SMaSH is in the blond ale range, but the Vanguard hops have a very... interesting.. aroma. Good bittering and flavor, however.

I did a SMaSH this weekend with Maris Otter. I used 9lbs of MO, went with 1 oz Yakima Goldings for the full 60min boil, and did another 1 oz addition for 5 min. I mashed it on the hot end, to try to draw a little more body out of it.

I did notice that the MO absorbed more water than I was anticipating... ended up with less volume than I was expecting. End result, though, was a higher gravity than Beersmith was calling for (recipe on the computer said 1.042, I ended up with 1.050).

I'll let you know how it ended up in four weeks!

Thanks for the ideas, guys. I'm thinking about going with Vienna.

I did Golden Promise + Amarillo and it was very, very tasty. I also did 2-Row and Hersbrucker and it made for a very nice, light drinkin' beer.

I do SMaSHes primarily to get to know the hop I'm using, not the malt. So in that instance, 2-Row is actually a GREAT tool for seeing the hop's "true colors".

11.5lb is more than I've done in either of my SMaSH though - the Hersbrucker was 9lbs, I think, and the Amarillo batch was 10.5 lbs. I designed both of them to be lower-alc drinkin' beers though. (Is it sad when my 4.9%ABV batch is my "lower-alc"?)

I'm planning a Centennial brew too, and I think my hop schedule was .5 oz @ 60, .5 oz @ 20, .5 oz @ 10, .5 oz dry hop. But I was shooting for an APA not a Cream ale. Me likey hoppy in reasonable quantities.

Did a similar SMaSH last week. Bumped everything up and called it an IPA:

15lbs Maris Otter
1oz Centennial 75 minutes (FWH)
.5oz Centennial 60 minutes
.5oz Centennial 30 minutes
.5oz Centennial 15 minutes
.5oz Centennial 5 minutes
1oz Centennial Dry Hop

(Thanks to Bobby_M's Group Grain Buy!)

(Thanks to Bobby_M's Group Grain Buy!)

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Keep yer dirty mitts off my malt!

Recipe looks good- I'll have to rock a SMASH soon. :rockin: I'm thinking MO/Cascade or MO/Amarillo.

I wouldn't call it a cream ale without corn (which you obviously aren't adding to a SMaSH beer ). American Pale Ale, plain and simple.

flyangler18 said:

Keep yer dirty mitts off my malt!

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Think he'll notice that I added bird seed to get it back to 55lbs

flyangler18 said:

I'll have to rock a SMASH soon. I'm thinking MO/Cascade or MO/Amarillo.

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Both sound nice. I went with the Centennial because I picked up a pound from Hops Direct and thought this may come close to a Stone IPA.

Maltiness can be impacted by the temperature (as others have noted) and type of mash. You could always decoct! That would bring up the malt flavor and body quite well, even with plain ol' US 2-row.

Bob

AnOldUR said:

Did a similar SMASH last week. Bumped everything up and called it an IPA:

15lbs Maris Otter
1oz Centennial 75 minutes (FWH)
.5oz Centennial 60 minutes
.5oz Centennial 30 minutes
.5oz Centennial 15 minutes
.5oz Centennial 5 minutes
1oz Centennial Dry Hop

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Sounds good. I plan something similar when I get my hands on some fresh 2008 hops. I'm hoping for some Summit, though I'll settle for Amarillo. I'll toast some of the MO for color, and I plan to do increasingly larger late hop additions. It'll be one hoppy ***** but the MO malt gives a nice strong malt backbone which can stand up to a hoppy beer. In fact my pale ale (see dropdown) with MO and 1# of Victory was almost TOO malty at 40 IBUs!

Toast 1 pound for 50 minutes.
Toast 2 pounds for 30 minutes.
Give your first 1.5-2.0 gallons of runoff a hard 15 minute boil to caramelize.
Mash hotter for 40 minutes instead of 60.

Nobody will guess it's a SMaSH beer.

That's an interesting idea, BierMuncher. How do you think that would turn out with something like Vienna?

(And yeah, the recipe in my original post is not a cream ale; I was just looking for a category that the numbers fell into. )

You could call it a Light-on-the-hops American Pale, or you could call it a Blonde Ale, or you could just call it "beer"!

Also, please let us know what hop schedule you wind up with, and how it comes out. I have a SMaSH Enthusiasts group link in my signature, I'm trying to track as many SMaSH combinations there as possible. Join up!

Chriso said:

I have a SMaSH Enthusiasts group link in my signature, I'm trying to track as many SMaSH combinations there as possible. Join up!

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Great idea! Just joined. Look forward to hearing the results of different combinations and will post mine when it's done.

I just joined up myself!

Did a similar SMaSH last week. Bumped everything up and called it an IPA:

15lbs Maris Otter
1oz Centennial 75 minutes (FWH)
.5oz Centennial 60 minutes
.5oz Centennial 30 minutes
.5oz Centennial 15 minutes
.5oz Centennial 5 minutes
1oz Centennial Dry Hop

Click to expand...

I have a lb of Centennial on the way, so I'm going to make your recipe with a tweak- probably try toasting some of the MO as BM recommends....

flyangler18 said:

I have a lb of Centennial on the way, so I'm going to make your recipe with a tweak- probably try toasting some of the MO as BM recommends....

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I didn't think about toasting, but it sounds good. Chriso mentions a SMaSH swap on his group link. It would be interesting to compare this recipe with and without the toasting.

Orfy said:

LOL

It's not hard to come up with a SMaSH recipe.

Pick a malt and a hop you like.
Make sure it's balanced.
Dial in you mash temp for the body you want.

Off you go.....

Click to expand...

Noob question: What do you mean by balanced?

Jacktar said:

Noob question: What do you mean by balanced?

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I think that can be pretty subjective, but it's really just making sure that the Malt or Hops aren't dominant in the beer, they should compliment each other and not be overpowering on either side. Some people use BU:GU ratio to measure the balance of a beer. For me a balanced beer would be somewhere in the .6-.7 range, or 1.055 with 35-40 IBU's. It's different for everyone though.

BU:GU doesn't really help. As you say, balance means different things to different people, and bitterness vs. sweetness is but one part of a vast spectrum.

For me, a BU:GU balance means nothing if the beer is late-hopped to a fare-thee-well. Late and dry-hopping can take a beer that isn't all that bitter completely out of balance.

When you say, " ust making sure that the Malt or Hops aren't dominant in the beer", you're right on the money.

Bob

I just made the following recipe. I really loved the Golden Promise backbone.

10 lbs Golden Promise mashed at 152

1 oz Citra (20)
1 oz Citra (10)
1 oz Citra (5)
2 oz Citra (1)
3 oz Citra (0)
2 oz Citra (DH)

Us-05

Hello, I am looking for advice on the best tasting recipe I can brew with the most limited # of inredients. I live in Vietnam and this is all I can source locally. the problem is I have to buy 25KG's of individual malts and 5 KG's of individual Hops at a time. Hoping to make something decent my first time and not too worried about the style although I like American Pale Ales.

Special Malt
Weyermann/Germany

(25kg/bags) Wort colour (EBC) Price
(VNĐ/kg)
1 CARAFA MALT 1 (for Black beer) 800-1000 46.000
2 CARAFA MALT 3 (for Black beer) 1300-1500 46.000
3 CARAMUNICH MALT 1 80-100 46.000
4 CARAMUNICH MALT 3 140-160 46.000
5 SPECIAL W MALT 280-320 48.000
6 CARAAROMA MALT 350-450 48.000
7 PALE WHEAT MALT 3.0-5.0 33.000
8 PALE ALE MALT 5.5-7.5 31.000
9 PILSNER MALT 2.5-4.0 29.000
10 PREMIUM PILSNER MALT 2.0-2.5 31.000
11 ACIDULATED MALT 3.0-6.0 57.000

Hops from Germany
(5kg/bags) Price
(VNĐ/kg)
1 Aroma Hops 10% anpha acid 480.000
2 Bitter Hops 15% anpha acid 360.000

Of those, I'd say you'd want the pale ale malt. You can do quite a bit with just that, and maybe roast a bit of it to give yourself more options.

Can you order a specific variety of hops? Just saying aroma or bittering doesn't really narrow it down much...


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Agreed.

Though world-class pilsners are brewed with only pilsner malt and noble hops, I suspect you are not equipped to brew lager beer.

If your supplier will not or cannot provide information on specific varieties of hops, opt for the "Aroma" hops. They'll be more versatile.

Cheers!

Bob

She doesn't know what. They are but that they are German.

I know this would deviate from a true smash, but if you elected to mix the hops, what ratio do your recommend? Also if you added a second malt from the list which one would you recommend for a more familiar Pale Ale taste? This is my first brew ever so I am taking a lot of info in and appreciate the guidance.

Any links on roasting pale ale malt that you recommend I review?

shoff said:

She doesn't know what. They are but that they are German.

I know this would deviate from a true smash, but if you elected to mix the hops, what ratio do your recommend? Also if you added a second malt from the list which one would you recommend for a more familiar Pale Ale taste? This is my first brew ever so I am taking a lot of info in and appreciate the guidance.

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Well, what you'd want to make a pale ale would be a little crystal malt, but you'd use half to a full lb per batch (a quarter to a half kilo), so I wouldn't recommend buying a full sack. You can do a very nice pale with just the pale malt. Crystal adds sweetness and body, but you could also just mash a little higher (e.g., 154 or 156 degrees Fahrenheit) to make up for not using any.

I agree on the aroma hops if you can't get specific varieties. Note that 5kg of hops is a LOT. Most pale ales will use 25-100g total, depending on the hop strain and the recipe. You'll want to keep them sealed away from oxygen and in the freezer. Ideally when you get the shipment you can break it up into smaller sealed packages right away, so you don't keep opening one big package.

http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/ has some good information about making specialty grains from pale malt, but I would try a couple simple batches before attempting any of this. A simple recipe to try would be something like 10 lbs of your pale malt, .5 oz of the 10% hops at 60 minutes, 1 oz at 15 minutes, and 1 oz at flameout.

I am following you advice and will buy the pale ale malt and the aroma hops. The link you sent me brings me great hope for the future as I was worried I about being able to diversify by recipes. Maybe being constricted as I am will force me down this interesting path of learning to roast malts. Thank you for sharing.

Any other advice? When I receive the package of hops I will post so you can take a look at the brand/details.