A good SMaSH-ish type malt base

[Tinga]

I'm normally an AG brewer but with time constraints of final year of college along with cold winters and not wanting to be outside washing out a mash tun I have decided to start using extracts. I figure since I'll be putting a little less effort into brewing I would like to get as much education out of it that I can. So I'm thinking about doing a bunch of SmaSH-ish batches to learn about a bunch of types of hops.

So what I'm looking for is a good cheap and easy way to get a malt bill for a 5.5 gallon batch. Should I just use a 6 lb bottle of LME or 6 lbs of DME and of what type? Should I still be steeping grains or would that just make things that much more complicated?

 

[BillyBroas]

Well if you want to do a true SMaSH then you'll leave out the steeping grains, and to really do it right you want to use a malt extract that is only made of one malt. Finding one isn't as easy as it sounds, but Munton's Light DME will do the trick. It's all pale malt.

This post may help you out: SMaSH Extract Homebrewing

 

[Dr. Francois]

I would imagine nothing but pale DME would taste pretty flat. I could be wrong. Any reason in particular you want to do a SMaSH right now? Why not wait until outdoor brew season and mash it?

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Home Brew Talk

 

[mobilecabinworks]

A local brew pub here in Portland just did a similar thing. They brewed 8 different hops. The base malt recipe from what I recall is 2 row and small amount of a single specialty malt, can't remember how much or what.