2 row ONLY recipe.

[rottenpotato]

Ok, so I am all about craft brewing, I have a honey oat imperial stout, a cherry amber ale and a sweet potato porter sitting under my counter waiting to be kegged. On the other hand, I am curious about trying a very stripped down recipe consisting merely of 2 row, cascade hops, and notty yeast. Essentially what I want to do is to see if I can brew a basic, everyday beer for less than $10 a batch (Im used to paying 7 bucks per three gallon batch of applewein for everyday drinking). I am new to AG (all the above are partial mashes) and I figure this will be the best way for me to learn without wasting a bunch of cash on specialty malts.

Anyone ever try this? I am thinking about cheating with a little corn sugar to get a higher abv while keeping it a very light, dry beer.

 

[Berock]

SMaSH?

 

[IrregularPulse]

Like Berock said, that is a SMaSH beer. Single Malt and Single Hop. Lots of people do them to learn individual grain and hop and even yeast profiles. Some turn out very good beers. Some have said they use one as their house. Check out the Groups section. There is a SMaSH group.

 

[Brek81]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/summit-smash-beer-72206/

he uses summit, i subbed for simcoe. its a smash, but roasting half a lb in the oven for a little more flavor

 

[BrewNow]

I like the idea of using an English strain for this strip down version of a. . . pale ale??? If you go the cheap Chico strain route (ie. US-05) the batch may turn out one dimensional and not interesting. I did something similar but mashed too low (missed my strike temp due to inexperience) and used US-05 so the batch came out too thin.

Thinking something like:
Assuming 70% mash efficiency, 5 gallon batch - your SG will be ~ 1.050
8lbs 2-row Rahr
1 lb Corn Sugar (not more than 10/11 % overall grist)
Single Infusion Mash 155-157F for 60 minutes
With ~ 70% attenuation, you will hit high 4% by volume. Nice for a session pale.

 

[chiefbrewer]

Check out the Groups section. There is a SMaSH group.

Awesome idea...just joined the group. I figure with my current Partial Grain setup, I can do 2 gallon SMaSH batches easily and on the cheap to teach myself about different malt and hop styles...all i need is a 3 gallon carboy.

I'm all in with this concept!

 

[rottenpotato]

thanks to all, thats very helpful. I just threw some specs into brewsmith, which of course can't tell me how it will taste, but at least I will have an idea that things should work out in general. I will look at the Smash threads. Learning all the abbreviations on this site is sometimes more complicated than learning to brew! I just learned what SWMBO means, my girlfriend got a kick out of that...

 

[mightynintendo]

SMaSH brews are awesome! Maris Otter makes for a fantastic base malt as does just about every other 2-row pale ale malt.

Crystal hops are a true delight in SMaSH brews.

 

[HI_SALENITY]

I may try this with Citra Hops to see if I like them.

 

[dgez]

100% quality pilsner malt, only saaz hops, pilzen yeast. 50 degrees for a month, 38 degrees for two months...pure heaven in a glass.

 

[HellBentBrewCo]

Ok, so I am all about craft brewing, I have a honey oat imperial stout, a cherry amber ale and a sweet potato porter sitting under my counter waiting to be kegged. On the other hand, I am curious about trying a very stripped down recipe consisting merely of 2 row, cascade hops, and notty yeast. Essentially what I want to do is to see if I can brew a basic, everyday beer for less than $10 a batch (Im used to paying 7 bucks per three gallon batch of applewein for everyday drinking). I am new to AG (all the above are partial mashes) and I figure this will be the best way for me to learn without wasting a bunch of cash on specialty malts.

Anyone ever try this? I am thinking about cheating with a little corn sugar to get a higher abv while keeping it a very light, dry beer.

not to derail... but I've been thinking of a sweet potato beer. Care to share your recipe or how it turned out?

 

[HI_SALENITY]

100% quality pilsner malt, only saaz hops, pilzen yeast. 50 degrees for a month, 38 degrees for two months...pure heaven in a glass.[/QUOTE

I am drinking a noble pills now with 100% pilsner malt and all of the Noble hops !

What Yeast do you use ? I mine was South/southern ? German by WL.

 

[fcwegnm0b]

I did this as my intro to all grain:

10 lbs. pale 2-row
1.5 oz. whole leaf Cascade 6.8% - 60 mins
.5 oz. whole leaf Cascade 6.8% - Flameout
.5 tsp. Irish moss
Safale S-04 English Ale yeast

Mash at 156F at 1qt/lb for 90 minutes. Double batch sparge to get 6 gal wort. Boil down to 5 gal.
OG 1.046
FG 1.010

Gravities would have been higher (around 1.060 and 1.015) had I not spilled almost all my first running on the kitchen floor.... so the hops were a little strong. Would have been a bit more balanced if things had gone better... hey, at least I made drinkable beer my first time.

Beer was very good, despite my numerous mistakes. Tasted like drinking a very fresh loaf of spicy bread... in a really, really good way.

Anyway, SMaSH brews are definetly something to check out. You get a good feel for the impact of your ingredients. Good luck, let us know what you end up doing and how it turns out.

 

[ILuvIPA]

r.potato, you can definitely pull this off. 2-row + cascade will put you close to Goose Island IPA. Their recipe is a single malt w/4 hops (2-row, Styrian, Fuggle, Cascade, Centenial.) http://http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/india_pale_ale/18.php

FWIW, I would mash low (148-149) to get a high attenuation, bitter @ 60 min and add the rest of the Cascade around 2-5 minutes. The 2 row will give you a light color (5-6 SRM.) The low mash temp will let the ferment finish dry without needing corn sugar. Piling the hops on late will give it a citrus burst to balance against the low FG. Just my 2c!

Ok, so I am all about craft brewing, I have a honey oat imperial stout, a cherry amber ale and a sweet potato porter sitting under my counter waiting to be kegged. On the other hand, I am curious about trying a very stripped down recipe consisting merely of 2 row, cascade hops, and notty yeast. Essentially what I want to do is to see if I can brew a basic, everyday beer for less than $10 a batch (Im used to paying 7 bucks per three gallon batch of applewein for everyday drinking). I am new to AG (all the above are partial mashes) and I figure this will be the best way for me to learn without wasting a bunch of cash on specialty malts.

Anyone ever try this? I am thinking about cheating with a little corn sugar to get a higher abv while keeping it a very light, dry beer.

 

[Bombo80]

I have a Smash planned. 10# 2 row malt, 1 oz. Nugget (60 min), 1 oz. Nugget (1 min), Safeale SO4 yeast. I grow Nugget hops and have a bunch of them. I hope this turns out.

 

[OLDBREW]

2 row comes in different variates such as; klaggs, harrington, maris otter, golden promise, halcyon, optic, pearl and so on. each has its own flavor. on top of that, each maltsters has it's own flavor profile from their malting process, so by using different malting companies, and different variates, you can come up with a lot of different beers.

traditionally, pilsner, and helles are one malt beers, very delicate and light styles, makes it very hard to get right, because any errors in the brewing process/water chemistry shows right up in the flavor/appearance.

 

[ILuvIPA]

Great points OLDBREW! I have nothing constructive to add, just wanted to prost your contribution. This is very relevant to anyone wanting to try a single malt/pale 2-row brew.

2 row comes in different variates such as; klaggs, harrington, maris otter, golden promise, halcyon, optic, pearl and so on. each has its own flavor. on top of that, each maltsters has it's own flavor profile from their malting process, so by using different malting companies, and different variates, you can come up with a lot of different beers.

traditionally, pilsner, and helles are one malt beers, very delicate and light styles, makes it very hard to get right, because any errors in the brewing process/water chemistry shows right up in the flavor/appearance.

 

[Shinglejohn]

If your objective is to be as cheap as possible, you could take some of that 2 row and roast it for 10 to 15 minutes to add some depth of flavor.

 

[chiefbrewer]

Well, I joined the SHaSH group...but I have a feeling not a lot of people go over there...so I will post my question here...


Based on what I know about SMaSH brewing and diastatic power, it seems like SMaSH ing is limited to Malts with enough diastatic power for their own conversion..true?
For example, you couldn't do a SMaSH with just Chocolate Malt...unless you added a little two row to help in the mash. Would that still be a "SMaSH"??

 

[mightynintendo]

Well, I joined the SHaSH group...but I have a feeling not a lot of people go over there...so I will post my question here...


Based on what I know about SMaSH brewing and diastatic power, it seems like SMaSH ing is limited to Malts with enough diastatic power for their own conversion..true?
For example, you couldn't do a SMaSH with just Chocolate Malt...unless you added a little two row to help in the mash. Would that still be a "SMaSH"??

No, that wouldn't be a SMaSH. The purpose of brewing a SMaSH is to get a feel for how different varieties of base malts and hops taste. They are also very quaffalbe beers.

 

[chiefbrewer]

No, that wouldn't be a SMaSH. The purpose of brewing a SMaSH is to get a feel for how different varieties of base malts and hops taste. They are also very quaffalbe beers.

Understood.:rockin:

 

[rottenpotato]

"not to derail... but I've been thinking of a sweet potato beer. Care to share your recipe or how it turned out?"

sorry, I got distracted and never returned to this thread. I have to say the sweet potato porter was a bit of a flop, mostly due to inexperience. I was still learning how to mash at that point, and I ended up with really crappy efficiency, resulting in a really starchy, thick beer. Also, I didn't end up with much sweet potato flavor. I basically cooked the sweet potatoes in the boil as I recall, next time I would would probably roast them ahead of time and include them in the mash. Plus I think the addition of spices would have helped me out considerably, a little allspice, cinnamon and clove would have really brought out the flavours I was looking for. At the time I was really trying to go for ambitious brews, an expensive endeavor for a relatively new brewer. I have since learned that sometimes less is more.

At the moment I am brewing an all organic SmaSh ale with fresh local hops that I picked from some guys back yard last weekend, this is the second brew I am making with said hops and some organic 2 row I recently recieved in the mail. Should be good autumn drinking!

 

[Northcalais40]

Unless you are looking for a Zima-like lightness, I would scrap the idea of adding corn sugar. You can get Pilsner malt at like 1.5 srm.

 

[shutupjojo]

100% quality pilsner malt, only saaz hops, pilzen yeast. 50 degrees for a month, 38 degrees for two months...pure heaven in a glass.

Yep. A fine example of a perfect recipe. My house Pils is this with decoction.