Golden Nugget SMaSH

Well... this was my first year growing hops and I ended up with 5 ounces of dried Nuggets. Pretty happy with that and couldn't wait to use some. Also, I'm planning a big RIS soon that'll need a healthy starter so I decided to put together a 3 gallon SMaSH with Golden Promise (because I liked the way Golden Nugget sounds ) and will wash and harvest the cake... dunno how the beer'll turn out being that these are first year hops but... only one way to find out..!!

3 gallon batch
10 lbs Golden Promise (yeah... that's heavy)

Mashed in 13 qts water at 154F for 60 min then fly sparged with 9 qts at 170F

0.5 oz Nugget - 60 min
0.5 oz Nugget - 30 min
0.5 oz Nugget - 10 min

1 tsp Irish moss - 10 min
1 tsp nutrient - 10 min

Cooled, aerated like mad then pitched 1 pack of Wyeast 1728 (Scottish Ale)

Going strictly by the theoretical numbers, this'll be a bitter beer but, the last addition of hops was a spur of the moment thing because the wort had very little hoppy scent (noticeably less than what I usually make) after 50 minutes. The OG was a little lower than calculated too at 1.068 (vs. 1.073) but I'm not worried about it.

It's been chugging away in the basement for two days now around 68-70F and smells pretty good so far... will update as things progress...

sub'ed. please let us know how this turns out! i'm curious because i grew a nugget this year and didn't get much from it, but expect a lot more next year.

if you're going to make a smash, late additions (15 mins and less) are pretty much required. your 60 & 30 minute additions provide next to nothing in the way of flavor or aroma - so no way of judging the hop. good thing you went with that 10 min addition, should provide plenty of flavor. you should consider dry-hopping with nugget to get some more aroma in there.

ps. what's with the foil on the pot? heat protection?

Good idea about dry hopping... might throw in some when I transfer off the cake.

The foil... when I brew in the kitchen, I have to open the windows so I don't steam up the house. It was pretty windy that day and the flame on the burner was flickering and I couldn't get a decent boil. I 'tented' some foil around the pot and loosly down to the bottom like a skirt. It acted like a shield against the breeze and insulation along the sides of the pot... got a rolling boil going in no time...!

Tasted a specific gravity sample yesterday and could really taste the hops along with the malt. There was a slight green, fresh-cut grass scent and taste in the background. Maybe that'll fade... we'll see

Since I'm not much of a hop-head, I decided not to dry hop. I need to get the yeast cleaned up so I transfered to a smaller secondary (had it in a 5 gallon) and added some gelatin. The suspended solids dropped out overnight leaving it crystal clear. It'll sit there for another week or two before I bottle ... I have a bunch of bottles I need to de-label but have been putting that little chore off.

Interesting combo and an approach with nugget & golden promise I sure do appreciate. Why Scottish Ale yeast though? I love that yeast, love scottish ales, and am aware that one can get a fairly clean ferment with that yeast if you overpitch with it, same holds true for every yeast that I'm aware of. Would love a sample of it, seems so interesting, though I probably would have hopped to get a :60 GU:BU ratio.

Oh I thought the foil was to protect your beer from sweetcell! In all seriousness I didn't think it made a difference if they were first year hops or not, I thought the only thing affected was the yield.

BrewChem said:

I have a bunch of bottles I need to de-label but have been putting that little chore off.

Click to expand...

on the slight chance you didn't already know this: soak the bottles overnight in a water & oxyclean (or PWB) and the labels fall right off.

The Scottish Ale strain is my goto yeast unless I'm shooting for something in particular. It's the whole two-birds-one-stone thing in that I wanted to see how my first-ever hop harvest went and... I need a fat, healthy yeast population for a big RIS I'm making soon..! Figured why not make a 3 gallon starter that I can carb-up and enjoy..!

Yeast is cleaning up nicely...

Its been in the bottle for two weeks now so I cracked one open just now... not much carbonation so I'll have to move them to a warmer part of the house.

As far as taste, could have definitely used more hops... its not cloying but is on the sweet, malty side... not bad though. We'll see how things go after another week or two..

Came out on the sweet side but has a nice, maltyness with a some bitter on the aftertaste. Has an aroma I can't quite place but not unpleasant. Has a nice reddish-gold color... All-in-all not my favorite but not bad either.

I love the color

I'n with bumonos that color is almost radiant. could just be the pic though lol