Good base for all-grain "mystery" SMaSH?

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whoaru99

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To make a long story short, last fall I picked hops at a local winery here in Minnesota but nobody seems to know the variety.

So, I have these 4oz (dried) hops that I have no idea what they are or the AA content or anything. They don't smell particularly strong/hoppy but seemed to have a fair amount of nice, yellowy lupulin glands present.

Thinking I'd like to make a SMaSH with them - Mystery SMaSH.

I have 10lbs of maris otter grain on hand. Would that be good, or maybe more basic plain old generic 2-row or 6-row since it's all a big guess with the hops anyway?
 
I would use any base malt. Maris Otter will give you a little more malt flavor. What I would suggest is the use of the hops. Since you know nothing about them I would bitter with a neutral hop like Magnum, use the winery hops in late additions for flavor and aroma. Taste before packaging and it there is not enough hop presence, dry hop with something that might add to the flavor and aroma profile.
 
I would use the Maris Otter as a lone base malt. Many successful SMASH beers do it.
1 oz at 60
1 oz at 15
1 oz at 5
1 0z at 2
I think that this would give you a good idea of the hop
 
I would use any base malt. Maris Otter will give you a little more malt flavor. What I would suggest is the use of the hops. Since you know nothing about them I would bitter with a neutral hop like Magnum, use the winery hops in late additions for flavor and aroma. Taste before packaging and it there is not enough hop presence, dry hop with something that might add to the flavor and aroma profile.

Is there a rule of thumb for how much IBU to come from bittering hops as a percent of total desired IBU?

Since I don't know the AA of the hops I have it's pretty much a crapshoot in that regard anyway, but I'm open to suggestions.
 
Is there a rule of thumb for how much IBU to come from bittering hops as a percent of total desired IBU?

Since I don't know the AA of the hops I have it's pretty much a crapshoot in that regard anyway, but I'm open to suggestions.


Since you don't know the AA, they could be 3% or 11%. So you don't know what bitterness you would get. That is why I suggested bittering with something else where you do know the AA.

It would not be a true SMaSH but you would not risk having a bitter bomb.
 
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