Changes to the Double-Smash Beer

Well I finally got around to actually brewing the Double-SMaSH, with Vienna/Munich, BUT – I forgot the cascade hops on brew day.  Since I have to drive a ways to get to where I brew, I wasn’t going back.  However, I had some hops there, so I just changed the hops schedule around completely.  So now it’s a double-TRIPLE-SMaSH.  Yes, I realize that’s one hell of a misnomer.  But hey, it’s my beer, and I can change it up if I want to!  Plus I was never that good at keeping to the strict interpretation of literary meanings or definitions of words.   I do what I want!!

Still 6 lbs each Vienna / Munich malts.

Here’s the new hops schedule:

0.25 each at 60 bravo/belma
0.25 each at 15 bravo/belma/centennial
0.25 each at 10 bravo/belma
0.5 centennial at 10
0.25 each at 5 bravo/belma
0.75 centennial at 5
1 oz each belma/bravo at FO
DH one ounce each belma/bravo

From past experience, it’ll at least make beer, and probably tasty beer.  Maybe it’ll be the new sensation, who knows?  But as long as it makes tasty beer, I’ll be happy.

Double SMaSH – Two Malts, Two Hops?

EDIT: This beer got changed, the hops schedule at least.  New version is here.

Got this idea from Beer Advocate Homebrew forum – making a SMaSH, but making it with TWO base balts and two types of hops.  Actually we were discussing smash beers, and I was noting some of my results. and the idea just kind of evolved, so I figured I’d try it.  Here’s the recipe I came up with:

Munich/Vienna+Belma/Cascade Double SMaSH

• 6 lbs Munich malt
• 6 lbs Vienna malt
• 0.5 oz Belma at 60
• 0.5 oz Cascade at 60
• 0.5 oz Belma at 10
• 0.5 oz Cascade at 10
• 0.5 oz Belma at 5
• 0.5 oz Cascade at 5
• 1.5 oz Belma at FO
• 1.5 oz Belma at FO
• 1 oz Belma dry hop
• 1 oz Cascade dry hop

Targets:

• OG 1.046
• IBU 48
• SRM 9
• ABV 6.2%

I’ve really liked making SMaSH beers.  Some have come out great, some have come out OK (but quite drinkable!), but they’re all interesting to make, and I learn a lot from each one about various types of malts and hops.  Between the results of my Munich/Bravo SMaSH and my Vienna/Cascade SMaSH, plus the results of the Belma IPA, I think this might make for a real tasty beer.  Only way to find out for sure is to brew it!

I also plan to try something with just Munich and Cara-Munich in the near future, just for the heck of  it!   I realized I haven’t been making anything with much (or any) crystal malt in it lately, and would like to try cara-munich, so perhaps I’ll give it a try.  I’ll search around a little for the appropriate amounts of cara-munich to use, then add that to some munich malt, add hops, yeast —-> Beer!

Citra / Munich SMaSH – Citra Bomb From Hell?

EDIT 2: After some discussion on beer advocate homebrew forum, I’m going to UP the citra to EVEN MOAR.  So this recipe will be different than when I first published it.  Slightly edited hops schedule again.  This is the final version that is actually in the fermenter right now.  Toned back just a touch on the extreme overkill so I could have reasonable quantities of my pound of citra leftover, and available for other beers.  I can probably get two more pretty citra beers from what’s left, or perhaps two pale-ale strength brews.    I’m not super crazed over citra, and this will probably be the largest citra addition I’ll use in a beer.  Beyond this one, I’ll probably choose a more balanced hop approach.  This one is intended to be off-balance tho, heavy on the hops, and heavy on the citra.  I just want to see what a super citra-bomb tastes like!   Anyway, enough of the edit, here’s the original post, modified to fit the actual recipe…

Gonna make a SMaSH with Munich malt again, this time with citra hops.  And yes, I’m going to hop the living hell out of it, knowing that I’ll probably create a citra bomb from hell!  Everybody has to over-do it at least once in their lifetime with citra hops, right?  So let’s just do it and see what happens!  I know I will drink every last one, no matter how citra it comes out.  It will technically not be a perfect smash beer, because I’ll use a tiny bit of Belma as the 60 minute bittering charge.  Also, I don’t really think this is over-doing it on the citra, but we shall find out just how wrong I am in a month or so.

• 12 lbs Munich
• S-04/US-05 yeast (50/50 mix)
• 0.5 oz Belma at 60
• 1 oz citra at 15
• 1 oz citra at 10
• 1 oz citra at 5
• 1.5 oz citra at FO, then cool to 170F and let stand 15 minutes
• 1.5 oz citra after 15 minute hop stand, while wort is still hot,  let stand another 15 minutes
• 2 oz citra DH

• 1.061 OG
• 47  IBU
• 12 SRM
• 6.4% ABV

Bleach Blonde Ale IV

Well it’s almost time for another edition of Bleach Blonde Ale.  This time I’ll be using the exact same grain bill as last time, but changing a couple of other parameters.  I like this grain bill, the last edition came out very well.

Wyeast 1332, Northwest ale yeast will be used for NEXT batch.   Wound up using Nottingham yeast.

Honestly I was thinking of trying Serebrianka hops with this one and I might still change the recipe accordingly.  EDIT: decided to go with serebrianka and try them out!  Will use cascade/willamette (belma for tiny bittering charge) next time.

• 8 lbs pale malt 2-row
• 8 oz Vienna malt
• 6 oz caraamber
• 6 oz carafoam
• 1 lb flaked corn
• 0.5 oz serebrianka hops at 60
• 1 oz serebrianka hops at 15
• 2 oz serebrianka hops at 5

Mash at 151F

Targets

• OG 1.050
• FG 1.010
• IBU 21
• SRM 5.2
• ABV 5.3%

Bleach Blonde Ale III

Well due to a rather weird set of circumstances, I wound up postponing again my planned production of Elderberry Wheat II, and wound up making Bleach Blonde Ale, part III.

An oddball on this one… the LHBS was out of US-05.  Some people from Mexico had bought out ALL the US-05 (and a lot of other stuff too, lol) because they can’t get it in Mexico.  Thus I was forced to us S-04 yeast on this one.  We shall see what happens!

• 8 lbs pale malt 2-row
• 8 oz Vienna malt
• 6 oz caraamber
• 6 oz carafoam
• 1 lb flaked corn
• 0.25 oz belma hops at 60
• 1 oz cluster hops at 10
• 1 oz cascade hops at 3

Mash at 151F

Targets

• OG 1.053
• FG 1.010
• IBU 22.7
• SRM 4.6
• ABV 5.6%

1. prepare checklist
2. lay out ingredients and equipment
3. reconstitute dry yeast using 95F boiled spring water and allow to cool to room temperature
4. Add grains to mash tun
5. bring 4 gallon spring water to 167 F
6. Add 3 3/4 gallons of 167F spring water to mash tun on top of grains, then stir well
7. add more water to boil pot, bring to near 172F and hold for sparging
8. measure temperature after temperature equalizes in mash.
9. adjust mash temperature using either heated mash water or cool spring water as needed to reach 152F
10. mash for 75 minutes at 151F
11. during mash, stir about every 15 minutes or so, checking temperature and adjusting if needed
12. at end of mash, begin draining wort into pitcher
13. allow first runnings to drain into a pitcher until clear
14. pour first runnings back on top of mash
15. slowly drain remaining wort into boil pot until mash tun is near empty
16. add 2.0 gallons 170F water (adjusted as needed)
17. stir well, let sit at least 5 minutes
18. drain first runnings of first batch sparge into pitcher until clear (or close to it)
19. pour first runnings of first batch sparge back on top of mash
20. drain wort into main boil pot until near empty
21. add another 2.0 gallons 170F water to mash tun (adjusted as needed)
22. stir well, let sit at least 5 minutes
23. drain first runnings of second batch sparge to pitcher until clear (or close to it)
24. add first runnings back into mash tun
25. drain wort into main boil pot
26. add wort chiller to boil pot
27. bring main boil pot to a boil
28. when boil is reached, boil 60 minutes total
29. at 60 minutes, add 0.25 oz Belma hops
30. at 15 minutes, add 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
31. at 12 minutes, add 1/4 tsp Irish moss
32. during boiling, skim off hot break as needed
33. add 1 oz cluster hops at 10 minutes
34. add 1 oz cascade hops at 3 minutes
35. at flameout, turn on water for wort chiller
36. begin sanitation procedures on spoon, thermometer, bucket, wine thief
37. stir occasionally with sanitized stainless spoon during cooling
38. ensure bucket, wine thief, thermometer, strainer, spoon are sanitized
39. when wort gets to about 68F, add to fermentation bucket, pouring through sanitized strainer to catch any extra solids and to help aerate.  If necessary, clean strainer during process and re-sanitize to remove most of the trub before fermentation
    
40. take OG reading with sanitized wine thief
41. thoroughly aerate wort with sanitized stainless steel spoon
42. ensure wort is 68F or a little less before pitching yeast
43. ensure yeast is a little cooler than wort before pitching
44. pitch yeast
45. gently stir using sanitized stainless steel spoon
46. install sanitized bucket lid and airlock
47. ferment in temperature controlled freezer chest for 14+ days at 66F
48. take FG sample and bottle
49. use 5 oz corn sugar at bottling

Actual OG: 1.046

Actual FG: 1.010

Notes: Trying to develop a house beer on this one.  This recipe will be refined and tried again and again over time until it’s perfected.  I don’t think this particular batch will be perfect, but it should be quite drinkable!

ESB All Grain

Well silly me, I brewed a batch and forgot to blog it!  Last week we brewed an all grain ESB (extra special bitter).

Ingredients:

• 8 lbs maris otter
• 1 lb biscuit malt
• 6 oz caramel 60
• 4 oz caramel 130
• 4 oz caraaroma 120
• 2 oz special B
• 0.5 oz Belma hops 60 minutes
• 1 oz Fuggles hops 15 minutes
• 2 oz Fuggles hops 5 minutes
• 1 oz Fuggles hops dry hop
• Windsor Yeast

Targets:

• OG 1.054
• IBU 36.6
• SRM 16
• ABV 5.3%

I know I usually post the entire procedure, but I’m going to skip it on this one because it’s so long gone!  It’s the same basic procedure I always use, adjusted for each new recipe.

Juniper Pale Ale II Project

Well my original Juniper Pale Ale was a big success, so I’ve decided to brew it again, this time all-grain.  Gee, this is starting to sound familiar!  This time however, I’m not only revisiting an old recipe, I’m co-brewing it with another brewer, MrOH as he is known on beeradvocate.com.  You can read the entire thread here.

Here is the most important part of the original post:

My original Juniper Pale Ale was an extract/partial mash ale. MrOH got his hands on some, and apparently he liked it enough to want to try a version of it himself! Admittedly, it was pretty good, one of my better extract beers. I liked it, other people liked it, and I thought it was worthy of trying again, this time all-grain.

The premise of our project is that we’re both going to brew the same basic spiced beer / APA using these parameters…

9 lbs base malt, any combination
1 lb crystal malt, any combination
1 oz juniper berries

Essentially, that’s the beer (5 gallons). The addition of juniper isn’t specified exactly as to how, but from our conversations we both intended to crush the berries and add late in the boil.

Hops wise we hadn’t come up with an exact criteria, but MrOH suggested:

1.5 oz hops @ 10
2.5 oz hops @ FO
1 oz DH
bittering addition to bring it up to 40 IBUs (max)

I will probably change the hops parameters a little, but essentially it won’t make much difference.

We are looking for a beer that’s a good APA/spiced beer, has a light to moderate juniper taste (I don’t want “gin beer”), is neither too bitter nor dominated by hops (i.e. let the juniper have a little sunlight), and is refreshing and tasty. Mostly the last one though, tasty is what matters. But I guess there’s no point in making a “juniper” beer if you don’t show off the juniper a little.

My actual recipe’s  grain bill:

• 7 lbs pale ale malt
• 2 lbs maris otter
• 12 oz caramel malt 20L
• 4 oz caramel malt 60L
• 2 oz carafoam

Hops wise, I bounced around a lot, but finally decided on the following schedule:

• 14 g columbus 60 minutes
• 35g chinook 10 minutes
• 14g willamette at 10 minutes
• 21 g Northern brewer flameout
• 14g  columbus flameout

Yeast: US-05

Targets:

• IBUs 39.5
• OG 1.053
• FG 1.012
• SRM 6.6
• ABV 5.4%

Procedure:

1. prepare checklist
2. lay out ingredients and equipment
3. reconstitute dry yeast using 95F boiled spring water and allow to cool to room temperature
4. Add grains to mash tun
5. bring 3 gallon spring water to 166 F
6. Add 3.5 gallons of 166F spring water to mash tun on top of grains, then stir well
7. add more water to boil pot, bring to near 172F and hold for sparging
8. measure temperature after temperature equalizes in mash.  Once again, this has been pretty spot-on the last few batches, so I don’t anticipate having to boil extra water, but I will be ready just in case
9. adjust mash temperature using either heated mash water or cool spring water as needed to reach 152F, if necessary
10. mash for 75 minutes at 151F
11. during mash, stir about every 15 minutes or so, checking temperature and adjusting if needed
12. at end of mash, begin draining wort into pitcher
13. allow first runnings to drain into a pitcher until clear
14. pour first runnings back on top of mash
15. drain remaining wort into boil pot until mash tun is near empty
16. add 2.4 gallons 172F water (adjusted as needed)
17. stir well
18. drain first runnings of first batch sparge into pitcher until clear (or close to it)
19. pour first runnings of first batch sparge back on top of mash
20. drain wort into main boil pot until near empty
21. add another 2.4 gallons 172F water to mash tun (adjusted as needed)
22. stir well
23. drain first runnings of second batch sparge to pitcher until clear (or close to it)
24. add first runnings back into mash tun
25. drain wort into main boil pot
26. add wort chiller to boil pot, filled with hot water
27. bring main boil pot to a boil
28. when boil is reached, boil 60 minutes total
29. at 60 minutes, add 14g Columbus Hops
30. at 25 minutes, add about 1/4 tsp Wyeast nutrient blend to a small amount of spring water and dissolve
31. add nutrient blend at 20 minute mark
32. add 1/8 tsp Irish moss powder at 20 minute mark
33. add 1.25 oz chinook at 10 minutes
34. add 0.5 oz willamette at 10 minutes
35. add .75 oz chinook at flameout
36. add 0.5 oz columbus at flameout
37. at flameout, turn on water for wort chiller and chill to 170 F
38. let stand about 15 minutes hop rest, then turn wort chiller back on
39. begin sanitation procedures on spoon, thermometer, bucket, wine thief
40. stir occasionally with sanitized stainless spoon during cooling
41. ensure bucket, wine thief, thermometer, strainer, spoon are sanitized
42. when wort gets to about 70F, add to fermentation bucket, pouring through sanitized strainer to catch any extra solids and to help aerate.  If necessary, clean strainer during process and re-sanitize to remove most of the hop trub before fermentation
    
43. take OG reading with sanitized wine thief
44. thoroughly aerate wort with sanitized stainless steel spoon again
45. ensure wort is 68F or a little less before pitching yeast
46. ensure yeast is a little cooler than wort before pitching
47. pitch yeast
48. gently stir using sanitized stainless steel spoon
49. install sanitized bucket lid and airlock
50. ferment in freezer chest w/Johnson controller for 14+ days at 66F
51. after 14+ days, add dry hops, 1 oz chinook, 0.5 oz willamette
52. ferment a total of 21+ days
53. take FG sample and bottle
54. use 5 oz corn sugar at bottling

Actual OG:1.052

Actual FG: 1.010

Notes:

Belma IPA – Hop-Bursting with Belma Hops!

Well I found a new variety of hops available… Belma hops.  Hops Direct had them on sale for $5.25 a pound!   At that price, I couldn’t resist picking some up, a couple pounds in fact.  And with that many hops, I might as well try something I’ve been wanting to try (again) … hop bursting.  What the hey… I’m going to try a hop bursted, single-hopped IPA with the new Belma Hops!  Nothing but Belma here!  Nottingham yeast used.

5 gallon batch.

Fermentables:

• 10.5 lbs 2-row
• 10 oz crystal 60
• 10 oz munich malt
• 2 oz crystal 120
• 2 oz carafoam
• 6 oz flaked corn

Hops (all Belma):

• 10 g at 30 minutes
• 1 oz 15 minutes
• 1 oz 10 minutes
• 1 oz 5 minutes
• 1 oz 1 minute
• 1 oz flameout
• 3 oz dry hop

Targets:

• IBUs 50.5
• OG 1.064
• FG 1.014
• SRM 9.9
• ABV 6.6%

Procedure:

1. prepare checklist
2. lay out ingredients and equipment
3. reconstitute dry yeast using 95F boiled spring water and allow to cool to room temperature
4. Add grains to mash tun
5. bring 3 gallon spring water to 169 F
6. Add 3.5 gallons of 167F spring water to mash tun on top of grains, then stir well
7. add more water to boil pot, bring to near 172F and hold for sparging
8. measure temperature after temperature equalizes in mash.  Once again, this has been prretty spot-on the last few batches, so I don’t anticipate having to boil extra water, but I will be ready just in case
9. adjust mash temperature using either heated mash water or cool spring water as needed to reach 152F
10. mash for 75 minutes at 152F
11. during mash, stir about every 15 minutes or so, checking temperature and adjusting if needed
12. at end of mash, begin draining wort into pitcher
13. allow first runnings to drain into a pitcher until clear
14. pour first runnings back on top of mash
15. drain remaining wort into boil pot until mash tun is near empty
16. add 2 gallons 172F water (adjusted as needed)
17. stir well
18. drain first runnings of first batch sparge into pitcher until clear (or close to it)
19. pour first runnings of first batch sparge back on top of mash
20. drain wort into main boil pot until near empty
21. add another 2 gallons 172F water to mash tun (adjusted as needed)
22. stir well
23. drain first runnings of second batch sparge to pitcher until clear (or close to it)
24. add first runnings back into mash tun
25. drain wort into main boil pot
26. add wort chiller to boil pot, filled with hot water
27. bring main boil pot to a boil
28. when boil is reached, boil 60 minutes total
29. at 30 minutes, add 10g Belma Hops
30. at 25 minutes, add about 1/4 tsp Wyeast nutrient blend to a small amount of spring water and dissolve
31. add nutrient blend at 20 minute mark
32. add 1/8 tsp Irish moss powder at 20 minute mark
33. add 1 oz Belma at 15 minutes
34. add 1 oz Belma at 10 minutes
35. add 1 oz Belma at 5 minutes
36. add 1 oz Belma at 1 minute
37. add 1 oz Belma at flameout
38. at flameout, turn on water for wort chiller and chill to 170 F
39. let stand about 15 minutes hop rest, then turn wort chiller back on
40. begin sanitation procedures on spoon, thermometer, bucket, wine thief
41. stir occasionally with sanitized stainless spoon during cooling
42. ensure bucket, wine thief, thermometer, strainer, spoon are sanitized
43. when wort gets to about 72F, add to fermentation bucket, pouring through sanitized strainer to catch any extra solids and to help aerate.  If necessary, clean strainer during process and re-sanitize to remove most of the hop trub before fermentation
    
44. take OG reading with sanitized wine thief
45. thoroughly aerate wort with sanitized stainless steel spoon again
46. ensure wort is 68F or a little less before pitching yeast
47. ensure yeast is a little cooler than wort before pitching
48. pitch yeast
49. gently stir using sanitized stainless steel spoon
50. install sanitized bucket lid and airlock
51. ferment in freezer chest w/Johnson controller for 14+ days at 66F
52. after 14+ days, add dry hops, 2 oz Belma
53. ferment a total of 21+ days
54. take FG sample and bottle
55. use 5 oz corn sugar at bottling

Actual OG: 1.056

Actual FG:

Notes: Undershot the OG a little, probably because I sparged a little bit more than I should have.  This likely increased the final volume a little and resulted in a low OG.  No biggie though.