planning for my first SMASH recipe

[bagpiperjosh]

Id like to get opinions on my plans for my first all grain and SMASH recipe.

I just pretty much tried to pick a darker grain from my beer smith program and went with it..

11 lb of amber malt
1oz cascade hops 60 min
1 oz cascade hops 5 mins
american ale yeast

i clicked single infusion with no mash out... i'm not sure if i fully understand all of that... please feel free to explain..

i plan to also do a fly sparge, because that seems pretty straigtforward.

beer smith says it should be at 5.2 abv
and 25 IBUs

sound like it will be ok?

 

[tektonjp]

Nope. You will not get a beer out this. Sorry. Amber has no diastic ability. And if you don't know what that means, it's beer homework time. Not trying to be a butthead but Everyone needs a little research skill with brewing.
Look up base malts, diastic, and amber malt. You'll see why your smash will crash.

 

[afr0byte]

Actually I believe amber malt does have some diastatic power, but you'll likely need some 2-row to help fully convert. A quick Google showed one site saying it can be up to 80% of the grist. That 80% is probably with pale malt/pilsner/6-row as the other 20%.

 

[spenghali]

You might want to consider batch sparging if you want to keep it simple. Also, read this first:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/index.html

 

[kh54s10]

Actually I believe amber malt does have some diastatic power, but you'll likely need some 2-row to help fully convert. A quick Google showed one site saying it can be up to 80% of the grist. That 80% is probably with pale malt/pilsner/6-row as the other 20%.

If you use amber malt and 2 row it is no longer a smash. It might still make a great beer though.

 

[afr0byte]

If you use amber malt and 2 row it is no longer a smash. It might still make a great beer though.

I don't deny that, but it's certainly as close as one could get with amber malt.

 

[bagpiperjosh]

Nope. You will not get a beer out this. Sorry. Amber has no diastic ability. And if you don't know what that means, it's beer homework time. Not trying to be a butthead but Everyone needs a little research skill with brewing.
Look up base malts, diastic, and amber malt. You'll see why your smash will crash.

i didn't think it did based on memory from what i read, but beersmith said it would be 5.2 % so i don't know wtf that program was thinking. I just figured my memory was wrong.

 

[afr0byte]

i didn't think it did based on memory from what i read, but beersmith said it would be 5.2 % so i don't know wtf that program was thinking. I just figured my memory was wrong.

Beersmith isn't going to/doesn't take in to account the unconverted starch you'll have when it makes the abv estimate. It does a simple calculation of the max theoretical pppg * #lbs * efficiency.

 

[FarmerTed]

Can't you buy Amylase? Just throw that in for the conversion.

 

[KuntzBrewing]

Research is the best option here, you need to know what everything means. When I started formulating my own recipes I started off using a brew software and just reading all I could about the different malts and where they are from and how they are used and what percentage of the grist they should make up

 

[bagpiperjosh]

Research is the best option here, you need to know what everything means. When I started formulating my own recipes I started off using a brew software and just reading all I could about the different malts and where they are from and how they are used and what percentage of the grist they should make up

i've been reading a lot already.. its tough because i learn best by doing. i have a hard time retaining stuff i just read as opposed to reading it then doing it. i haven't read a whole lot on different malts and % of grist they should make up and etc... do you recommend a good source for that info?

 

[KuntzBrewing]

I started using beertools.com and depending on the style I'm making u can click on a style and it will tell you what malts are typically in the style then you can search those malts on the same web site and it'll tell you the typical amount to use of each, download their free 30 day trial of beer tools pro and its a little easier. I started making my own recipes after my second batch and its great. Just a lot of reading and unless your into it it can be boring

 

[KuntzBrewing]

http://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.php this is good for style guidelines

 

[spenghali]

If you double click on the malts in beersmith it will give you a bunch of info, including amber malt's diastatic power (20%). You would probably need a long mash for full conversion if using only amber, though I am not sure how to calculate exactly how long.

 

[BrewMU]

I'm going to do a 'semi-SMASH' with victory malt (similar to amber), Maris Otter and Columbus hops, but I was thinking more like 12 #s MO and maybe 8 oz Victory. If you do something similar, you'll get to see what amber malt is all about, in an appropriate context. Like everyone is telling you, you need base malt with that. You could try 10#s 2-row, 1# amber, cascade hopped. That would make beer, and I'll bet it will be tasty.

 

[FarmerTed]

This guy mentions doing an all-Amber brew in his blog. You should look up the recipe and see how he did it.

 

[bagpiperjosh]

I'm going to do a 'semi-SMASH' with victory malt (similar to amber), Maris Otter and Columbus hops, but I was thinking more like 12 #s MO and maybe 8 oz Victory. If you do something similar, you'll get to see what amber malt is all about, in an appropriate context. Like everyone is telling you, you need base malt with that. You could try 10#s 2-row, 1# amber, cascade hopped. That would make beer, and I'll bet it will be tasty.

so for a SMASH i could just do 11 lbs of 2 row us or uk and cascade hops then and it would be fine?

 

[BrewMU]

so for a SMASH i could just do 11 lbs of 2 row us or uk and cascade hops then and it would be fine?

Sure you could, but the point of the SMASH concept is the educational value. If you make a beer with only a base malt and an appropriate amount of amber it won't be a SMASH, but it would be in the same spirit. For that matter, you can do both - make a 2-row/cascade SMASH, then make the same beer with a # of amber for comparison. My point is that you shouldn't let the fact that you can't do an amber malt SMASH stop you from finding out exactly what amber contributes to a beer. Good luck, whatever you brew.

 

[bagpiperjosh]

Sure you could, but the point of the SMASH concept is the educational value. If you make a beer with only a base malt and an appropriate amount of amber it won't be a SMASH, but it would be in the same spirit. For that matter, you can do both - make a 2-row/cascade SMASH, then make the same beer with a # of amber for comparison. My point is that you shouldn't let the fact that you can't do an amber malt SMASH stop you from finding out exactly what amber contributes to a beer. Good luck, whatever you brew.

yea, thats a good idea, just make a batch with 11lbs of uk 2 row and cascade. then make the next batch like 10 lbs of uk 2 row, 1 lb of amber, and cascade hops. i like that idea!

 

[barleypopmaker]

This guy mentions doing an all-Amber brew in his blog. You should look up the recipe and see how he did it.

While BrewMU is correct, that normally the purpose of a SMaSh beer is to learn the subtle differences between a specific malt vs various hops or various single malt with specific hops, my SMaSH beer was for a SMaSH beer competition. The rules were pretty straight forward, you just had to make a beer with any single malt and any single hop, American ale yeast, and the OG had to be under 1.060. So if you are wanting to make a SMaSH beer to teach yourself various hops in a static grain bill, this beer would not be a good idea. But if you are doing one for fun, this one took the silver, even if I was not ecstatic about it.

11lbs Home Roasted Amber Malt (11lbs of pale ale malt roasted at 350 degrees for 30 min)
1oz Glacier (Homegrown Leaf Hops AA Unknown est 5%) 60 Min
1oz Glacier (Homegrown Leaf Hops AA Unknown est 5%) 30 min
2oz Glacier (Homegrown Leaf Hops AA Unknown est 5%) 10 Min
2oz Glacier (Homegrown Leaf Hops AA Unknown est 5%) Flameout
1 PKG US-05

Mashed at 154 for 90 min.

Notes: I think I had some conversion issues because I should have been at 1.057 but I was right around 1.048. I have never done an all home roast without base grains not roasted I believe that may have caused some problems with enzyme conversion. I don't think roasting the whole batch was all that great. I had poor conversion even with extra mash time. I could also have used a bit more hops, but the came though just enough to be detectable in the nose, bitterness was good. If I were to do it again, I would have picked a different hop variety, personally I was not happy with the hop profile in the beer. But it did OK. But I'm sticking with roasting grains for special grains in the bill, not roasting the grain bill. It made a decent beer, but I don't trust the diastatic power of roasting the base malt. I may have got lucky because I did not choose a heavier roast. If you were to roast the base malt, I'd stick with one of the much lower roasts, maybe golden just to add some depth.

 

[Typhicane]

Complete newb but the difference for adding 1 more grain adds absolutely 0 to the process. Same thing, just 2 gains in the bag I had instead of 1.

 

[spenghali]

Complete newb but the difference for adding 1 more grain adds absolutely 0 to the process. Same thing, just 2 gains in the bag I had instead of 1.

I don't understand what you are trying to say

 

[OCBrewin]

typhicane -

If he added a second grain, then it wouldn't be a SMaSH (Single-Malt and Single-Hop)...