Moral quandry

[SouthBay]

Im going to be brewing up a SMaSH beer soon, using golden promise and amarillo. I'm worried it's going to be too bland (read: one dimensional) for my tastes. I still want to try a smash beer, though. I was thinking of taking the first gallon of wort and boiling it down about 75%, to get some additional complexity to a smash beer.

I know the base argument is that if youre making a smash beer, the point is to really highlight the character of the malt and hops. So, is the camelization technique getting too far away from the intent?

 

[Yooper]

I think it would be fine. I will say that I have had a SMaSH with maris otter and amarillo and it was anything but bland!

 

[broadbill]

its your beer, do whatever the hell you want to it!

Who cares what the "intent" is, the SMaSH police aren't going to come to your door...

Will it change the character of the beer...maybe. Will it change your perception?...maybe. Worth worrying that you aren't sticking with some internet acronym? Definitely not!

 

[hamiltont]

You could also try a decoction mash to add some depth & complexity to the malt??? Cheers!!!

 

[Zamial]

Instead of carmalizing some wort why not step mash it to get the maximum malt charecteristics from it? I love me some GP, that is the standard base malt for scotch so it may have some scotch like flavors! It sounds good to me!

 

[Airborneguy]

Is this a serious question? Life is great when this is something worth worrying about...

 

[Teromous]

Just to touch on your first sentence, you are using one of the most tastiest grains, and a hop variety that is both delicious and smells amazing. I don't think you would have a problem with a SMaSH from those two alone, despite what else you do.

 

[Homercidal]

I don't know. A friend and I brewed a Chinook SMaSH IPA late last year with American 2-Row and I just had some 2 nights ago. I wasn't sure early on, but now that it's had a few more weeks to mellow it's very tasty IMO.

The point of brewing a SMaSH is not to create a complex beer, but to allow the flavors of the 3 ingredients to show through. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

I'd even suggest splitting the wort and pitching two different yeasts. That way you can see how the different yeasts behave and taste for comparison.

 

[mikeysab]

This is your idea of a moral quandary? If, while brewing this SMaSH, you were snorting cocaine off a pair of 16 year old malaysian prostitutes hineys, i'd say you had a moral quandary. But caramelizing the first runnings of a beer? SMaSH means single malt and single hop. As long as you stick to that, you can do whatever you want. Get crazy, do a protein rest, a triple decoction, no sparge, biab, no chill, triple hopped lager. Just do it with one malt and one hop.

 

[SouthBay]

Thanks for the replies! The title was a bit facetious.

at any rate, I like the idea of doing a step mash, AND doing the camelization. I haven't quite figured out the hop schedule, but I tend to like addtitions at 60, 20, and 5, so ill prolly stick with that. Thanks again folks

 

[Airborneguy]

When I am doing a SMaSH and/or trying out a new hop, I like to do a massive hop burst in the last few minutes to get a huge aroma.

 

[Tyrone]

Is this a serious question? Life is great when this is something worth worrying about...

First world problems...