Made a SMaSH with just 12 lbs* 2-row and fuggles. Used Nottingham yeast. Boiled about a gallon of the first runnings for about an hour to increase malliard reactions, then boiled the whole thing longer than normal too (total boil was near three hours).
The funny thing was that I had “around” 5 oz or so of Fuggles (leaf), and wanted to use them up (to free up freezer space, I have two freezers that have a bunch of hops in both. LOL). So I decided I was going to use them all no matter what. Also, just to make it interesting, I decided NOT to use a scale. I put a good handful in at first wort hops, then started tossing in a handful here, a handful there, starting at 15 minutes. Most of it was added at around 8 minutes or less. The funny thing is…
It will come out tasty. 🙂
I know. I’m a rebel and I’ll never be any good.
I have various other SMaSH beers planned for the near future, including one I’ve already got the ingredients for, Maris Otter and Simcoe. And I’ll definitely be brewing that petite saison again (probably identical grains, but this time use cascade hops). And the Bravo/Munich smash was out of this world! Gotta try some Vienna, some golden promise, and who knows what else in the future!
*I am using 12 lbs of grain for all my smash beers, just to “standardize.” In my system this makes an approximately 6.0-6.2% ABV beer.
Beer and Stuff 
Comments
Just came across this post. How did this turn out? Any tasting notes? I’m trying to find a god 2-row SMaSH.
Well it’s been a while, but as I recall it was plenty tasty, but wasn’t exactly “outstanding.” I did boil longer (as in the blog) but I can’t say that I really noticed a significant difference in color or flavor from the extra boiling. The base of the beer had a light but ample malt backbone, and since I used fuggles, there wasn’t any “in your face” kind of hops flavor (despite the fact I didn’t really measure then very accurately, but they’re weak hops, so I know I can get away with that kind of thing). There was plenty of head / lace / body. I would even go so far as to say this had “medium” body, not light like I expected.
I think if I were to brew the same concept smash again, I would use more hops (probably 2 more ounces at flameout, but only if they were fuggles, willamette, or any low AA, relatively weak hop.
Now where I’ve had great success with a 2 row smash was making a petite saison smash. 2-row, a smidge of hops, WY3711 (the BEAST of a yeast), and fermented at 64F. Well, the 64F is just kinda my being lazy, in that 64F is what I keep my freezers/controller units set on all the time. But the beer came out great, more than just “good.” I just brewed basically this same beer again yesterday, but this time with pilsner malt instead of 2-row, and willamette (about 5 oz total, 3.5 of it at 5 minutes or less). Using low AA / subtly flavored hops like willamette, I think even with a saison yeast, the final flavor will be real nice. I would not be so quick to try this using high AA / strongly flavored hops like simcoe or citra (I would expect a clash if you over-hopped a saison smash). Oh, and this time I’m trying T-58 instead of 3711. I’ve used T-58 a couple times now and I like how the beers have come out. Mainly the reason I’m not using 3711 is because I had a pack of T-58 (dry) and didn’t feel like making a starter.
But of course some of what I’m saying here is speculation, and the only real way to find out is to brew it and see what happens. Even if it’s not spectacular, it’ll almost certainly still be tasty beer.