SMaSH BIAB - low gravity batch? or smaller batch?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

signpost

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
1,351
Reaction score
168
Location
Berkley
So, with my current set up, I can handle a mash of about 7 or 7.5 lbs. of grain. If I'm going to do a SMaSH with that amount of grain, should I just make it a low gravity 5 gallon batch? Or should I do a smaller batch and something closer to a typical Pale Ale gravity?

Or rather, not which should I do, but which would you do?

I've got the ingredients for one other batch that I need to brew before I have a chance to do a SMaSH, but I was just batting around the idea in my mind. I do have a dark mild that needs to be bottled soon, and the other batch I have ingredients for is a rye bitter that I'm calling Quite Rye-ght! So, that might be enough low gravity brews to last me a while. However, if it turns out tasty with a 1.038 to 1.040 OG, then I'd have more tasty beer that wouldn't get me wasted very quickly. #beerworldproblems :mug:
 
Personally, I do smaller SMASH recipes in the middle of the APA style range. I buy one malt in bulk and several different varieties of hops. This allows me to taste/drink different SMASH combos quicker and then the ones that really stand out go to 5 gallon recipe.

I just finished a round of 5 different hops with MO. The MO/Simcoe won hands down.
 
the general wisdom with SMaSH is to go for small batches and do more than 1 type so you can really compare between the different grains/hops. this way you're not stuck with 5 gallons of a (let's face it) boring beer. I also tend to find 1040 beers to be pretty watery, especially if there's no cara/crystal malt in there to increase body. if you do go that route, make sure you mash high.
 
Make that 3. As was suggested though, SMaSH does tend to be a bit thin so mash high (or toss some crystal or cara in to "cheat" a bit and get some body).
 
I usually go 153-155F with a SMaSH. Play around a bit and see what you like, that's the beauty of doing small batches.....you can make a lot of them rather quickly.
 
If you go light, also consider a less attenuative yeast. If you're doing a smash to get a feel for the malt, leave out the crystal, but if you're trying to get a feel for hops, just use the same grain bill (with crystal, etc.) and isolate only one variable. I'd consider doing as large a batch as you can to get the gravity you want, mixing all the runnings, then splitting them and doing two boils from one mash as long as you have smaller fermenters. This would be like a partigyle, but with the same gravities, and you'll have a few 6ers of each hop variety.
 
I put together a recipe in Brewpal and came out with a 3.75 gallon batch at 1.057 for an OG. I'll wait and see which hops the LHBS has, but I'm hoping to do Simcoe. Aiming for mid-30s ibis, and 2 ounces for dry hopping
 
I went small. In fact, I didn't even use my 5-gallon setup -- I did 4 stove top BIAB batches at the same time instead. Now if you make a SMaSH that you really like, then make a full 5 gallon batch. I consider SMaSH as an educational tool so I only wanted a dozen bottles or so per batch. It really depends on what you are tying to accomplish with your SMaSH brews.

I also brewed them in the 6%-7% range and they came out great.
 
Well, I have a couple different motivations for doing a SMaSH.

1) Most of my batches have been relatively complicated in terms of using several different grains/extracts, multiple hops and/or yeasts with relatively strong flavor profiles. So, I'd like to see what can be accomplished with a simpler approach.

2) My palette has developed beyond what I thought it could in my approx. 10 months of brewing so far, so I'm curious how much more there is to detect when I isolate ingredients.

3) I am also interested in trying out ingredients that I'm not as familiar with, especially hops. A lot of my brews have been english and belgian styles that use a lot of the same hops. I've used tons of Kent Goldings, some Styrian Goldings, fuggles and other related hops, but I haven't done much of anything with the more citrus focused American hops.

I know I've consumed those American hops in craft beers that I've purchased. I just haven't brewed with them. I've shied away from them because I haven't been confident that I could brew, ferment, dry-hop and bottle condition a batch in the time necessary to retain the aromas that make those hops so popular.

I currently only have 3 fermenters (2-6.5 gal. and 1-5 gal.). However, seeing recently how cheap 1-gallon fermenters are (through Northern Brewer anyway), I might snag a few of those when the budget allows. Even if I do a single boil to get a consistent bitterness level, I can split a batch to test out a range of dry-hopping.

Just rambling at this point, so I think I'll hit the "submit reply" button.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top