bigolbigbelly
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2009
- Messages
- 102
- Reaction score
- 0
Searched a lot of threads and did not find what I was looking for.
I want to start doing one to two SMaSH brews a month so I can get a better concept of how to formulate my own recipes. I've been brewing all-grain recipe kits and recipes I've found on the web since August of this year . Recently put together my first two recipes using BMW's Brew Builder. They came out OK but, I realized making your own recipe is like making dinner without knowing what any of the spices in the spice rack taste like.
Have a few questions for anyone who has done extensive SMaSH brewing:
1.- I am going to order everything through BMW and they have 11 base malts. http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/ingredients/base-malts
after these eleven do you repeat the same base malts with a different hops?
2.- I've heard some specialty malts have enough enzymes to use as a base (I.E - Munich Malt). Is there a list online that might have which specialty malts can be used in SMaSH? or could you post what your have used?
3.- Do you only use hops that are dual purpose for bittering and flavor? If so how do you find out how the flavor and aroma hops taste? If so is there such a thing as a neutral hop that could be used for bittering?
4.- Do you still shoot for a recipe with a particular IBU or just add the same hop at 60min-30min-15mins-5mins-0mins and see how it comes out.
5.- Do you have to heavy hop? By this I mean, do you have to use a ton of hops each recipe to get the flavor? Could I get away with say 2oz for a five gallon recipe?
6.- After going through all of the base malts you can, did you next move to adding a single specialty malt with the base malt (I.E Carmel 10, next batch Carmel 20...etc.)?
7.- While brewing SMaSH recipes I wanted to start to understand how to get a really good hop/malt balance to my future recipes. Any tips or recomended reading on this subject?
8.- Am I understanding the idea of SMaSH ? To learn how each malt/hop tastes so you can formulate better/more complex recipes?
I know this is a lot of information I am looking for but I have learned so much from this site. It has become the first place I look for answers.
Thanks, Joe
I want to start doing one to two SMaSH brews a month so I can get a better concept of how to formulate my own recipes. I've been brewing all-grain recipe kits and recipes I've found on the web since August of this year . Recently put together my first two recipes using BMW's Brew Builder. They came out OK but, I realized making your own recipe is like making dinner without knowing what any of the spices in the spice rack taste like.
Have a few questions for anyone who has done extensive SMaSH brewing:
1.- I am going to order everything through BMW and they have 11 base malts. http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/ingredients/base-malts
after these eleven do you repeat the same base malts with a different hops?
2.- I've heard some specialty malts have enough enzymes to use as a base (I.E - Munich Malt). Is there a list online that might have which specialty malts can be used in SMaSH? or could you post what your have used?
3.- Do you only use hops that are dual purpose for bittering and flavor? If so how do you find out how the flavor and aroma hops taste? If so is there such a thing as a neutral hop that could be used for bittering?
4.- Do you still shoot for a recipe with a particular IBU or just add the same hop at 60min-30min-15mins-5mins-0mins and see how it comes out.
5.- Do you have to heavy hop? By this I mean, do you have to use a ton of hops each recipe to get the flavor? Could I get away with say 2oz for a five gallon recipe?
6.- After going through all of the base malts you can, did you next move to adding a single specialty malt with the base malt (I.E Carmel 10, next batch Carmel 20...etc.)?
7.- While brewing SMaSH recipes I wanted to start to understand how to get a really good hop/malt balance to my future recipes. Any tips or recomended reading on this subject?
8.- Am I understanding the idea of SMaSH ? To learn how each malt/hop tastes so you can formulate better/more complex recipes?
I know this is a lot of information I am looking for but I have learned so much from this site. It has become the first place I look for answers.
Thanks, Joe