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Author Topic: an American SMaSH Series of Pale Ales  (Read 3216 times)

Offline Jeff M

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an American SMaSH Series of Pale Ales
« on: February 27, 2014, 06:40:29 pm »
Hi All

Looking for some Input.  ID like to make a series of Smash Pale ales.  The first series im thinking of doing is all american based hop varietals.  Obviously i can figure out which hops id like to highlight a beer at a time but my question is Malt.  Has anyone done something like this before and prefer a particular malt over another?  Since its smash there will obviously be no additional grains, just the DME/LME used as a base that will be the same for ever beer.

Heres what im thinking

1.050 Worth of sparkling amber
40 Ibus worth of hop additions
Bittering Charge at 60
Irish moss at 15
Flavor Charge at 10
Dry hop for a week
Yeast US05/WLP001/Wyeast1056
2 Volumes of Co2 in Dextrose
Should finish around 1.012 so it will be a ~5% Beer.
Granite Coast Brewing Company.
Building a clone of The Electric Brewery to use as a pilot system for new recipes!

Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: an American SMaSH Series of Pale Ales
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2014, 06:51:55 pm »
This not a SMaSH, but it is hop Russian River evaluates new hops. The 90 min. Addition is adjusted to give the same IBU. Tom Schmidlin brewed the 4 beers for the Stan Hieronymus talk on hops in Seattle. Those were tasty and educational.
 http://www.ahaconference.org/wp-content/uploads/presentations/2012/1616-16%20New%20Hop%20Varieties%20-Stan%20Hieronymus.pdf
Jeff Rankert
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Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: an American SMaSH Series of Pale Ales
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2014, 07:05:36 pm »
I brewed a ton of SMaSH beers with Rahr 2-row to eval different hops. It's a nice 2row and a good base to try hops on.
Jon H.

Offline Jeff M

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Re: an American SMaSH Series of Pale Ales
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2014, 07:08:37 pm »
I brewed a ton of SMaSH beers with Rahr 2-row to eval different hops. It's a nice 2row and a good base to try hops on.

Jon, These unfortunately need to be extract or it would be based around 2 row.  I work for a HBS and its something im gonna talk the owner in to.  Just looking for a little feedback first:)
Granite Coast Brewing Company.
Building a clone of The Electric Brewery to use as a pilot system for new recipes!

Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: an American SMaSH Series of Pale Ales
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2014, 07:18:17 pm »
OK, if you are tied to a LME or a DME that is fine. Most are thought to have a blend of a base malt and carapils or something like that. That will not really be a SMaSH, but would hold the fermentable so constant. Just being exacting as it would not be a "single malt".
Jeff Rankert
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Home-brewing, not just a hobby, it is a lifestyle!

Offline Jeff M

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Re: an American SMaSH Series of Pale Ales
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2014, 07:33:22 pm »
OK, if you are tied to a LME or a DME that is fine. Most are thought to have a blend of a base malt and carapils or something like that. That will not really be a SMaSH, but would hold the fermentable so constant. Just being exacting as it would not be a "single malt".
Agreed Jeff, its wont be a true Smash as briess puts Carapils in their Golden light(which is what we decided to go with)

I think im set at the following, pending any thoughts you guys may have
1.048 OG 1.011 Es FG 4.8% ABV
IBUs 33-35
SRM 6.6
60 Min Bittering Charge of aprox 1/2 IBU's
15 min Irish moss
10 Min Flavor charge of Aprox 1/2 IBU's
Ferment at 64-68 with US-05
Secondary with 2oz of SMaSH Dry Hop
Bottle with 4OZ Corn Sugar(aprox 2.3 Volumes)
Granite Coast Brewing Company.
Building a clone of The Electric Brewery to use as a pilot system for new recipes!

Offline erockrph

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Re: an American SMaSH Series of Pale Ales
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2014, 07:38:34 pm »
I do a big batch of these once or twice a year to try out different hop varieties. Here are some threads where I go through my process/results:

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=13485.msg171180#msg171180
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=16663.msg209729#msg209729

I also posted a bit more detail on my procedure on my blog:
http://hopwhisperer.blogspot.com/2013/12/single-hop-beers-part-1.html
http://hopwhisperer.blogspot.com/2013/12/single-hop-beers-part-2.html

Basically, I use a mix of light DME and Munich LME. The Munich is to give at least a little bit more malt backbone, since there's not much in the Light DME. My process lets me crank out 6-8 one-gallon batches in the time it would take for a typical all-grain brew day. If you're looking specifically to taste test hops, then I highly recommend you give the single-hopped pale ale thing a try.
Eric B.

Finally got around to starting a homebrewing blog: The Hop Whisperer

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: an American SMaSH Series of Pale Ales
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2014, 05:49:37 am »
I brewed a ton of SMaSH beers with Rahr 2-row to eval different hops. It's a nice 2row and a good base to try hops on.

Jon, These unfortunately need to be extract or it would be based around 2 row.  I work for a HBS and its something im gonna talk the owner in to.  Just looking for a little feedback first:)


Sorry, man.
I brewed a ton of SMaSH beers with Rahr 2-row to eval different hops. It's a nice 2row and a good base to try hops on.

Jon, These unfortunately need to be extract or it would be based around 2 row.  I work for a HBS and its something im gonna talk the owner in to.  Just looking for a little feedback first:)


I brewed a ton of SMaSH beers with Rahr 2-row to eval different hops. It's a nice 2row and a good base to try hops on.

Jon, These unfortunately need to be extract or it would be based around 2 row.  I work for a HBS and its something im gonna talk the owner in to.  Just looking for a little feedback first:)


Sorry,man. It was right there in front of me. Back when I was brewing a lot of test batches to eval hops I used a ton of the Briess Light or Pils too (whichever is what they call their palest), often in one gallon batches to try more hops. I used the Briess because, at least at the time, it was said to have the most fermentability. Your recipe is very similar to what I did. Obviously as said, maybe not total SMaSH knowing that extracts often contain crystal or dextrin. But it's a good base to experiment with.
Jon H.