First SMaSH... Thoughts?

Hey All,

Doing my first SMaSH tomorrow with Vienna and Nugget (13.5%). What do you think of the below recipe?

10lb Vienna
.75 oz @ 60 min (35 IBU)
.5 oz @ 30 min (18 IBU)
.5 oz @ 10 min (8 IBU)
.25 oz @ 5 min (2 IBU)
.5 oz @ flameout
.5 oz dry hop for 5 days

I'm mostly wondering if I need to tweak my flamoeout and dry hop additions. My boiling additions I think are good, ad I don't really want to go too much higher on the IBUs (already at 61 at my above rates).

Thoughts?

 

There really is no right or wrong IMO with a SMASH unless you do something dumb like 10lbs of specialty grain with a bittering hop lol

But, the only thing I would change is the size. I take it you're doing it to test the grain and hops. I have done a lot of SMASH recipes in the 1.5 gallon size and I'm very glad I did. I get to really taste what I'm testing and if I don't like it, I haven't made a ton of beer.

You will definitely get a lot of naysayers on a small batch of beer telling you it's a lot of time invested for a small amount of beer but IMO, SMASH brews are a perfect fit for testing with a small batch.

Have fun RDWHAHB

 

That 5 min addition IBU calculation seems a little off.

 

Has anyone ever done a 3 gallon batch using a single malt and bittering hop (60) /flavor hop (10) & then split them up & then dry hop with 3 differing hops?

You would have to use a good all around hop for the boil additions obviously.

Would warrior or magnum late be neutral enough to highlight the flavor & aroma contribution of the dry hop? Maybe willamette?

 

What is your batch size and OG? Something is off here...


10# Vienna at 70% efficiency only yields a starting gravity of 1.049.

0.75 oz. of leaf Nugget 13.5% at 60 minutes yields 39 IBUs. Your 5 minute addition is likely 2 IBUs, not 27. Even so, 63 total IBUs for a 1.049 Ale is probably not the wisest decision.

 

MY mistake, that addition contributes 2 IBUs. I'll edit that.

It's mostly an experiment. Wanted to use one of the varieties I have growing in my back yard and the only one that my LHBS had was nugget. My original choice was Mt. Hood.

The boil additions were tricky as they added a LOT of IBUs. I wanted to FWH but it would have pushed close to 80 had I done so. In my OP I was wondering if the flaemout and 5 min additions were close enough that they wouldn't make much difference (i.e. would the hops be better used somewhere else, such as more dry hops)

 

Thanks for the feedback. I wanted something drinkable since I'll be going through 5 gallons of it. Hence the low OG (although I think I can get close to 75% efficiency). It falls within BJCP guidelines for IPA bitterness, but are you saying that it's too much for that OG?

 

With your ingredients and expected OG, I would shoot for an APA instead.

Do something more like this for 5 gallons of Vienna based APA at 1.053 OG (adjusted for 75% efficiency):

0.33 oz. Nugget Leaf 13.5% @ 60 Min
0.33 oz. Nugget Leaf 13.5% @ 15 Min
0.33 oz. Nugget Leaf 13.5% @ 7 Min
1 oz. Nugget Leaf 13.5% @ Flameout
2 oz. Nugget Leaf 13.5% @ 5 Day Dryhop

That's about 29 IBUs. You will have an easy drinking beer with forward hop flavor/aroma and no "harsh" bitterness. Even if you slightly undershoot your 75% efficiency target, your IBUs will still be in the low 30s.

 

So you're saying for a SMaSH (and I'm under the impression that the whole idea is to get an idea of the flavors of the malts and hops), in general I should be less concerned about hitting the accepted IBU range (29 seems low, even for an APA) and more about the finishing hops and dry hops?

I appreciate the time you took to edit my recipe. Thanks!

 

The flameout addition will add a few more IBUs as well.

Sierra Nevada APA is on the upper side at 37 IBUs. You can bump the 7 minute addition up to 10 minutes if you want to extract 5 more IBUs. Be my guest. It won't really matter as much as you think though.

The hopping structure I go with for APAs and IPAs always relies on heavier dryhop and late additions. In this particular case, you would be using 4 oz. total recipe hops and have roughly 30-34 final IBUs. The malt character will certainly not be muted.