slothorentropy
Well-Known Member
Evening, friends,
I'm scheming on a brew tomorrow that's going to involve some combination of ~12lbs Fawcett Optic from Northern Brewer and a bunch of Simcoe I snagged at Listermann Brew Supply in Cincy this evening (they have a couple of boxes right now, though there's a 5oz limit per customer, I think). I've been wanting to brew something with Simcoe since I learned its profile a few months ago. Unfortunately, that coincided with the shortage. I grabbed the Optic on a whim and have heard good things about it as a base malt, in terms of flavor and aroma.
The initial plan was for a SMaSH with Nottingham and a healthy amount of late-boil additions of the Simcoe, but after reading around a little about other SMaSH recipes on HBT, it seems like maybe going with the base malt alone would leave me with too much of a good thing on the hop side. I picked up a pound each of 60L and 80L crystal and am toying now with the notion of doing a more straight-ahead Simcoe IPA. Or maybe doing two smaller mashes and two separate boils, one SMaSH, one IPA.
ANYWAY. Just wondered what kind general reactions there were out there to an Optic/Simcoe SMaSH. Any and all comments from the peanut gallery appreciated!
I'm scheming on a brew tomorrow that's going to involve some combination of ~12lbs Fawcett Optic from Northern Brewer and a bunch of Simcoe I snagged at Listermann Brew Supply in Cincy this evening (they have a couple of boxes right now, though there's a 5oz limit per customer, I think). I've been wanting to brew something with Simcoe since I learned its profile a few months ago. Unfortunately, that coincided with the shortage. I grabbed the Optic on a whim and have heard good things about it as a base malt, in terms of flavor and aroma.
The initial plan was for a SMaSH with Nottingham and a healthy amount of late-boil additions of the Simcoe, but after reading around a little about other SMaSH recipes on HBT, it seems like maybe going with the base malt alone would leave me with too much of a good thing on the hop side. I picked up a pound each of 60L and 80L crystal and am toying now with the notion of doing a more straight-ahead Simcoe IPA. Or maybe doing two smaller mashes and two separate boils, one SMaSH, one IPA.
ANYWAY. Just wondered what kind general reactions there were out there to an Optic/Simcoe SMaSH. Any and all comments from the peanut gallery appreciated!