Comments on Vienna/Centennial SMaSH

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Now that I'm finally getting my processes down, I thought it'd be a good time to get to know a little about all the different grains and hop options I have.

This is my first attempt at this, so be gentle! :)

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - BeerSmith Brewing Software, Recipes, Blog, Wiki and Discussion Forum
Recipe: Vienna SMaSH
Brewer: Chad
Asst Brewer:
Style: Altbier
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.39 gal
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 5.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 100.00 %
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (60 min) Hops 33.3 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (10 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (0 min) Hops -


Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
----------------------------
Single infusion at 154F. (would you go higher/lower?)
 
depends on what youre looking for. if you want malty, go with 154-158. if you want light and alcoholic, go 146-152. id probably do about 150-152 as a nice compromise. as far as hops, you might be a bit on the hoppy side for this brew. if your og is 049 assuming efficiency at 75, and you attenuate to .012 or so, 40 ibu is pretty rough for a beer thats sub-5% abv. unless you like em hoppy, i would cut your 60 min add to .75 oz, and then add .25 oz at 30 min. then dryhop with 1 oz. that should get you around 20-25 ibu and get a nice rounded flavor. other than that, sounds good. your hop selection and malt selection work well together. and it should be easy and refreshing to drink. cheers!
 
you might be a bit on the hoppy side for this brew.

Yeah I just checked the magical balance chart and you're right. I'm not sure if that would necessarily be a bad thing though...but I'm still gonna cut back a few. :)

What about this:

.5 oz 60 min
.5 oz 30 min
.5 oz 10 min
.5 oz flameout or maybe save for dryhopping.

Good to hear the two should work well together. I've never done anything with a lot of vienna so this should be educational at the very least!

Edit: Just realized that hop schedule gives me about the same IBUs. Would it be a smoother bitterness though given that I moved half of the bittering additions to 30 min? Could I just mash a little higher to leave a little more residual sweetness?
 
i think i would go with a large initial addition (.75oz) small late addition (.25oz) and then large dry hop. this will give you the bitterness, the aroma, and the flavor. you utilize more of the hop that way. gives a nice balance. the only time you add additions throughout the boil is when you are going for very hoppy and bitter like with an ipa. you have a lightly alcoholic, moderately malty, light colored beer. it shouldnt have an overpowering hop flavor, nor bitterness. with a large early addition, you get a nice moderate bitterness, small late addition, you get a nice lightly hoppy flavor, and large dry hop, a fragrant aroma. very nicely balanced for what youre doing. but its up to you. if you want a hoppy bitter brew, go for it. nothing wrong with that.
 
Thanks I really appreciate the help. I might give that a try.

The other option I was considering is doing like:

.75 oz 30 min
.5 oz 10 min
.75 oz dry hop

Beersmith brings that out to ~25 IBUs which looks pretty balanced according to the hop balance chart. I'd been reading some stuff on only using late additions and thought I might give it a try.
 
Not sure if anybody cares, but I finally tapped this bad boy today. It's only been dry-hopping for a few days, so the aroma isn't quite there yet...but it's still pretty damn tasty!

I ended up doing 12 lbs which came out to 1.058 and finished at ~1.008 (gotta love US-05) which was maybe a little on the dry side IMO. I ended up changing my mash temp to 152 and might bump it back to 154 next time to accentuate the Vienna malt.

I also am not totally pleased w/ my hop schedule. I wanted to do a bunch of late additions but ended up doing 60/10/0 for simplicity. Beersmith has me at 32 IBU's and I'd prefer a little more TBH. It's almost TOO balanced for an APA IMO. I think the chicks are going to like it, but being a hop-head I might bump it to 40-45 if I do this again.

Overall though, I'm pretty pleased with it. It's simplicity has made it one of the better, more quaffable beers I've made and I'm sure it won't last long on the tapper w/ the 100F Texas heat we've been having. It's amazing how such a simple recipe can turn into some pretty damn tasty beer! :)

Thanks for all the advice guys!
 
I was reading through here and getting ready to post my thoughts about what you should do, then I got the last post and realized you already done 'er.....we'll since you were less than happy you can have my thoughts anyway.

I would definitely not skimp on the late hop additions. In fact, If you want a smooth bitterness and lots of hop flavor, you could FWH a chunk of those Centennials., something like:

.5oz FWH - (First Wort Hopping gives you a really smooth bitterness)
.25oz 60min - (When I FWH I usually do this just to retain a little of the edge of full 60min boil bittering addition, but plenty of people just skip the 60min altogether...see blacklab's popular cascade/orange pale recipe in the database )
.5oz at 10min
.75oz at flameout

....that's you're same 2oz and will give you great hop character, but if it were me, I'd get another ounce and use some or all of it for dry-hopping. I always miss the aroma of dry-hopping when I skip it in these kind of beers. just some food for thought. have fun.
 
I really want to try FWH in one of my SMaSHs, but I'm still not 100% certain on how to account for the IBU's. Is there any rule of thumb you guys use?

I did end up getting another full ounce for dry-hopping, and it's only been in the keg for a few days but it's definitely starting to come through. I love me some Centennial aroma. :)
 
Basically, the rule of thumb is that FWH will come through similar to a 20 minute addition....with that said, there's much more to it and you can totally use FWH in place of the 60 minute addition. You'll end up with all the IBU's but without much of the back-bite...someone else may be able to explain it better...I dunno. You really should just try it once to get a feel for it. I don't think it will let you down.
 
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