FWH Marris Otter/Amarillo SMaSH

I've been doing lots of reading on first wort hopping and I'm still completely lost (and it seems everyone else is too). Some replace the 20 min with FWH, some replace bittering, some don't use FWH as a replacement of anything. My thought behind replacing the 60 min hop addition in this brew is that it will mellow out my high AA% Amarillo hops. What do yall think of this recipe?

Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 4.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 54.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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10 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 100.0 %
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] - First Wort 60. Hop 37.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 10.4 IBUs
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 6.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] - Aroma Steep 0. Hop 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Da Hop 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 Yeast

I just did something similar two weeks back.

I used an ounce Amarillo FWH and then, gasp, added another 1.5 at 20 minutes, with more at 5 and FO.

Looking good.

I also think I'll make this my first true BIAB. Normally I sparge, but what the heck. A simple recipe should mean a simple process, right? Mashing in with 7.75 gallons sounds exciting!

I think that sounds great grumpy.. I just did a first wort biab a few weeks ago on my house ipa and I threw .5 ounce in when I pulled the bag so it was prob in for 15 min while it drained.

Added it to beersmith as an 80 minute fwh addition which I guess is right although 15 mins of draining plus the time it took to get to a boil was a bit longer.

Guess we'll know in a few weeks!

I just dry hopped my 6 gallon batch of all Amarillo with an ounce at FWH.

It is delicious. Not overly bitter in the least. YUM YUM.

JimTheHick said:

I just did something similar two weeks back.

I used an ounce Amarillo FWH and then, gasp, added another 1.5 at 20 minutes, with more at 5 and FO.

Looking good.

Click to expand...

Let me know how it turns out! I'll be brewing this next weekend

My understanding is the general rule is to take 1/3 of the last bitter addition and make it the FWH. This retains the bitter addition but mellows it out quite a bit. I have almost completely moved to FWh of my beers and am really enjoying the balanced flavor. I have essentially made any addition 30-60 minutes my FWH and then concentrated the rest of the additions for aroma. The last APA I did this way took a bronze in a local competition if that means anything.

duboman said:

My understanding is the general rule is to take 1/3 of the last bitter addition and make it the FWH. This retains the bitter addition but mellows it out quite a bit. I have almost completely moved to FWh of my beers and am really enjoying the balanced flavor. I have essentially made any addition 30-60 minutes my FWH and then concentrated the rest of the additions for aroma. The last APA I did this way took a bronze in a local competition if that means anything.

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Me too. Well except for the bronze.

I've done Styrian Goldings, chinook, glacier, Amarillo with good result. Apparently some hops are not good for FWH but I haven't pinpointed any in my experience.

Bringing it to a boil now! Got a great efficiency of 82%. I'll never sparge again... BIAB FTW!

I've got the SMaSH bug.

I'm going to do another marris otter one with a hop that is very different from amarillo. Right now, chinook and citra are in the running. Votes for either of these or something different would be appreciated!

I would do another run with the Marris Otter and Amarillo, try adding a few specialty grains though, Caramel Vienna is a really good addition, I did a brew just like that a couple months ago with 10Lbs M.O. and 2Lbs of C.V. and it was one of my best so far

Grumpybumpy said:

I've got the SMaSH bug.

I'm going to do another marris otter one with a hop that is very different from amarillo. Right now, chinook and citra are in the running. Votes for either of these or something different would be appreciated!

Click to expand...

CHINOOK! OMG, I love Chinook.

hope2perc said:

CHINOOK! OMG, I love Chinook.

Click to expand...

Well, I just picked up 4oz!

duboman said:

My understanding is the general rule is to take 1/3 of the last bitter addition and make it the FWH. This retains the bitter addition but mellows it out quite a bit. I have almost completely moved to FWh of my beers and am really enjoying the balanced flavor. I have essentially made any addition 30-60 minutes my FWH and then concentrated the rest of the additions for aroma. The last APA I did this way took a bronze in a local competition if that means anything.

Click to expand...

can you expand a little please? If you have no 60 minute additions, can you cut your boil down to 30 min or so, and just do the late hop additions and flameout? How about for DME batches? Sorry if this is a noob Q.

No, you still need the full boil to get the bitterness you need. Fwh is meant to mellow it out some, as far as I can tell. I'll let you know how these two pan out

The FWH mellows out the bite of the early hop additions a bit. My favorite IPA recipe calls for a FWH, 90 minute boil, and hop additions at 60 minutes. And, yes, it includes Chinook hops! It actually has many hop additions throughout the boil. I think that's what makes it such a good IPA. The hop flavors and aromas are spread out through the whole tasting experience and makes it a really good beer.

But generally, the FWH addition kinda mellows out the harsh bitterness of an early addition.

My oh my is the Amarillo SMaSH good! I decided to up the dry hop to 2 oz. Citrusy, a little floral, and the bitterness is spot on without totally wrecking your tongue. It finished at 1.012, and I think I may be doing it again when I run out. This is the first beer I've had that was ready in 5 weeks (from kettle to glass). Bottle carbing took only 2 weeks! (vs Yoopers Ruiniation clone which took 2 months!)

The Chinook will be ready next week. Can't wait to try them side by side.

If you enjoy a good SMaSH, I highly recommend a Vienna/Nothern Brewer. I recently made one and it is one of my all time favorites. It is unreal how complex something so simple can taste and even at an IBU calculated over 60, it is very balanced and not near as bitter as you would expect.

Recipe? For the Vienna NB I mean...!

Vienna/NB SMaSH

10lbs Vienna

1oz NB @ 60 min
1oz NB @ 20 min
.5oz NB @ 15 min
.5oz NB @ 10 min
1oz NB @ 5 min

I get 70 % efficiency and had an OG of 1.046 and an FG of 1.012. Fermented at 62F with US-05

Thanks!

Grumpy, you're killin' me! I have been dying to make my Amarillo Ale for a while now (been busy with some others first), and your success is driving me crazy! Go ahead, torture me a little more in a week or so by telling me the Chinook SMaSH is awesome too!!