Are SMaSH recipes worth it?

[kh54s10]

I did a Maris Otter with Nugget hops. Called it Otter's Nuggets. Innuendo intended. It was interesting. I think some hops make better SMaSH beers than others. I would put Nugget in the lesser category, but it was good.

My latest is Rahr pale 2 row and Centennial with yeast I captured off a Hibiscus bloom. It is one of my better beers out of my 100 batches.

 

[Redtab78]

How did u capture the yeast?

 

[kh54s10]

How did u capture the yeast?

I made a weak starter wort (about .25L) using extract, cooled it, put it in a mason jar, dropped in a Hibiscus bloom. In a couple days I could see some evidence of fermentation. I pulled out the bloom, made another weak starter step (.5L) and put it in my flask on my stirplate. Did two more steps one stronger, (.5L) then the last was 1.5 liters at 1.040 which when finished I pitched into my SMaSH.

Each step except the first was cold crashed and decanted.

I intend on sending a sample off to get it analyzed, singled out and identified.

 

[Redtab78]

From a local hibiscus plant?

Would this be considered a truly wild smash? Sounds quite fun!

 

[kh54s10]

The Hibiscus plant that I bought at HD and planted in my front yard. I made the starter where I make all my starters so I could have captured a yeast from the commercial ones I use???

It tastes different than similar recipes with commercial yeasts I have used so I might have something different. It is good so I intend on keeping this strain going in my brewery.

 

[YeastHerder]

SMASH is a great way to learn all kinds of stuff. A variation I did was to do only a mild bittering hop addition (~20 IBU), then split the bittered wort to 1 gal jugs to ferment with different yeasts -- same basic ale background to let the yeast differences shine through.

I also did a split like that to compare different dry hop additions on a constant background -- technically that one wasn't a SMASH, but taught me a lot about which hops I really like.

 

[rossscottnz]

Ok you guys have got me interested in this SMaSH beer, I have some flyer hops that are suited for a dark beer so looking at doing one with 3.5KG of either dark or amber LME and use the flyer hops (19 grams@60 min, 12 grams @15 min and 10 grams @5 min) IBU 20-27 range and ABV of 5.3% which should give something along the lines of an irish red ale going by my calculations on brewers friend. Also this would be fermented with no other sugars added as I would like to try making a beer that only has malt, hops and yeast added to make the wort only time I want to add sugar with this is to carbonate it.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

How did u capture the yeast?

There is some interesting reading about collecting and cultivating yeast from the wild on bootlegbiology.com.

Now more about SMaSH... I just got 6oz of Calypso to make a smash maybe with white wheat.

 

[kh54s10]

Ok you guys have got me interested in this SMaSH beer, I have some flyer hops that are suited for a dark beer so looking at doing one with 3.5KG of either dark or amber LME and use the flyer hops (19 grams@60 min, 12 grams @15 min and 10 grams @5 min) IBU 20-27 range and ABV of 5.3% which should give something along the lines of an irish red ale going by my calculations on brewers friend. Also this would be fermented with no other sugars added as I would like to try making a beer that only has malt, hops and yeast added to make the wort only time I want to add sugar with this is to carbonate it.

Technically this would not be a SMaSH recipe since the extracts will have been made with several malts.
SMaSH is Single Malt and Single Hop. You would really have to search to see what malts were used in creating an extract. All the dark or amber ones will have used a base malt and a crystal or roasted malt for color and flavor.

But it is still a good way to learn the characteristics of a single hop.

 

[Griffin495]

It wouldn't be a SMaSH beer, it would be a SHaME beer (single hops and malt extract). Nothing wrong with that. I just brewed my 3 batch of SHaME beer. 1 gallon versions and only 15 minute boils. Takes about an hour twenty minutes for me from measuring out water to being done and all cleaned up. This last one was pale malt extract and Motueka hops.

 

[rossscottnz]

It wouldn't be a SMaSH beer, it would be a SHaME beer (single hops and malt extract). Nothing wrong with that. I just brewed my 3 batch of SHaME beer. 1 gallon versions and only 15 minute boils. Takes about an hour twenty minutes for me from measuring out water to being done and all cleaned up. This last one was pale malt extract and Motueka hops.

Funny how you can call it that just because it is not done from the grain stage.

 

[kh54s10]

Funny how you can call it that just because it is not done from the grain stage.

Read my reply one before Griffin495's. SMaSH is single malt single hop. The extracts you mentioned would contain several malts.

So he is correct in calling what you describe as a SHaME - Single Hop with Malt Extract.
I believe you can get Maris Otter extract that would be single malt.
There are probably others, but a dark malt or amber malt extract will more than likely be several different malts and would also be different depending on who made it.

 

[jturman35]

For those that use BeerSmith what style do you use when building a SMaSH recipe? I’m getting suggestions all over the place on hops bitterness for a recipe I’m trying to build. I suppose it’s really just preference.

 

[Griffin495]

I have nothing against extract. That's not what I am implying at all. I stumbled across that acronym online and even found some old threads here about it. That's where I got the idea. Like I said, I've done three batches that way this year. 2 came out really good, surprisingly good, and the third one I brewed Sunday and its fermenting away. I wanted to use up some old hops and I wanted to try out some new ones. I took a 3 lb bag of malt extract and divided it into 3 portions, one for each one gallon batch. The first got Willamette at about 10 IBUs, the second got Mandarina Bavaria at 35 IBUs, and the last one got Montueka at around 34 IBUs. All 15 minute boils. The last two had an ounce total of hops each. Really excited to see how the third one came out. The great part is a brew day is under an hour and half and on the last one I was done brewing, and the wort was chilling before my 3.5 year old son got out of bed so it didn't interfere with our morning or Memorial Day plans.

I love all grain, but I have no problems with brewing up a quick extract batch every now and then especially when there are time constraints. I had just finished bottling a lager Sunday and I hate when my fermenting fridge is empty and I'm out of town all next, so this was a quick way to get something in there to keep the pipeline going. Oh, and this way batch #50 for me.

 

[EDF713]

For those that use BeerSmith what style do you use when building a SMaSH recipe? I’m getting suggestions all over the place on hops bitterness for a recipe I’m trying to build. I suppose it’s really just preference.

I build the recipe without looking at the style much, then see what style it fits out of curiosity. When I’ve done them I’m more concerned with OG, IBU, and color.

 

[rossscottnz]

Read my reply one before Griffin495's. SMaSH is single malt single hop. The extracts you mentioned would contain several malts.

So he is correct in calling what you describe as a SHaME - Single Hop with Malt Extract.
I believe you can get Maris Otter extract that would be single malt.
There are probably others, but a dark malt or amber malt extract will more than likely be several different malts and would also be different depending on who made it.

How many kilos or pounds of malted grain would i need for a 20 to 23 liter batch as this may be a good starting point for me in trying to make an all grain beer using the BIAB method.

 

[kh54s10]

It depends on the recipe. A pale low alcohol beer might have as little as 7 or 8 pounds. A high alcohol beer dark beer might have over 22 pounds. My average is about 11 pounds.

It also depends on the efficiency you get from your system. I get about 70%, others get less and some get over 90% efficiency.

 

[Brewers Hardware]

For those that use BeerSmith what style do you use when building a SMaSH recipe? I’m getting suggestions all over the place on hops bitterness for a recipe I’m trying to build. I suppose it’s really just preference.

For the SMaSH recipes I've brewed, they usually end up being something around a Pale Ale, but I'm not too concerned with hitting any specific style but rather just want to be able to showcase the malt and hop I'm using.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Ok you guys have got me interested in this SMaSH beer, I have some flyer hops that are suited for a dark beer so looking at doing one with 3.5KG of either dark or amber LME and use the flyer hops (19 grams@60 min, 12 grams @15 min and 10 grams @5 min) IBU 20-27 range and ABV of 5.3% which should give something along the lines of an irish red ale going by my calculations on brewers friend. Also this would be fermented with no other sugars added as I would like to try making a beer that only has malt, hops and yeast added to make the wort only time I want to add sugar with this is to carbonate it.

There are many good ways to learn about hops. Some are more popular than others. Nothing wrong with single hop / malt recipes - it's one of a number of interesting forms of ingredient constrained brewing (brewing on the ones; 3-2-1: 3 malts, 2 hops, 1 yeast, ...).

While your recipe isn't a SMaSH (all-grain) recipe, it would appear to accomplish what you want (learn about hops within the context that they could be used) with a minimum amount of effort. Go for it!!

If you need supporting evidence for slightly more complex recipes to explore hops, there are numerous resources (books, blog posts, forum posts, ...) that use a grain bill that's 80-90% two row / pale ale and 10-20% munich or vienna. You should find that some of those recipes come from places lie Sierria Nevada Boot Camp.

 

[ong]

What did you use for the malt? Sounds like i and my wife might like.

I believe it was 100% golden promise. One of my favorite malts.

 

[secondbase]

SMaSH beers are a really great way to learn your ingredients! As long as the base malt has character (not US 2-row), the beer should come out pretty well! Once you get a feel for different base malts, you can add in a little character malt along with the single hops. This will give you a good idea of what those character malts bring to the table. My house IPA recipe is 90% 2-row, 10% munich. This is a great blank slate for single hops.

 

[MX1]

SMaSH beers are a really great way to learn your ingredients! As long as the base malt has character (not US 2-row), the beer should come out pretty well! Once you get a feel for different base malts, you can add in a little character malt along with the single hops. This will give you a good idea of what those character malts bring to the table. My house IPA recipe is 90% 2-row, 10% munich. This is a great blank slate for single hops.

Try Aromatic in place of the Munich…..just sayin

 

[z-bob]

Try Aromatic in place of the Munich…..just sayin

10%? I have a pound of aromatic that I haven't tried yet; I thought it was generally used at about 2% or 3%.

I have done quite a few beers using 85% Pils and 15% Munich, with floral or spicy hops. I am about to bottle one that's 85/15 Pils and Vienna.

 

[MX1]

Run it through your program, use the numbers that work