SMaSH schedule help needed

[JohnnySardonic]

Hello all,

I searched a lot if SMaSH threads, but they ended up being mostly recipe advice. Here's my situation:

I've decided to use my first carboy (5 gallons) to do 3.5 gallon SMaSH batches while I use my 6.5 for full recipes. My goal being to learn what the different base grains bring to the table. That being said, i'm not sure how to go about it.

Should I stick with the same hops throughout, so that the only variable that is being changed is the base grain? That makes sense to me, but it also will inhibit me from learning different hop characteristics. Should I keep the hop schedules basic (60m addition and one late addition) to minimize the chances of their flavor and aroma contributions getting in the way of my grain-learning goal?

So far i've only decided that I'll start at the beginning with US 2 row, and i'm almost certain i'm going to go with NB hops (I get enough C hops in the commercial beers I drink).

Thanks for any advice.

 

[optaka]

Do it however you want to do it. It all depends on what you want to learn about. If you want to get to know hops, then just change the hops. If you want to know malts, then change the grains. Really you could probably change both and tease apart what is different because of hops vs what is different because of malt.

My plan once I get around to it is to do several small batches (1 gallonish) with 2 malts and 3 hops to mix.

 

[TopherM]

I did a Vienna/NB SMASH that was a really good beer. I did a straight 1/1/1 oz at 60/15/5.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I did a Vienna/NB SMASH that was a really good beer. I did a straight 1/1/1 oz at 60/15/5.

+1, my Vienna/NB SMaSH turned out really good and I had even more hop additions: 1/1/.5/.5/1 oz at 60/20/15/10/5. If you only want to learn about the grains, then don't do many late additions. If you want to truly understand what flavors the hops can offer, you will need some late additions.

 

[cmybeer]

If it were one gallons I'd say do the same hops for consistency but 3.5 is still a lot of beer and I personally would start to get sick of a beer with the same hops and yeast in that quantity. But then again I don't know your turnover rate.

 

[JohnnySardonic]

The only reason I went with 3.5g is because I didn't know if too much head space would cause an issue. If I can do 2.5g in a 5g carboy with no problems, I'd much rather do it that way.

 

[cmybeer]

I do 2-3 gallon recipes in a five gallon carboy figuring that all the oxygen is pushed out by CO2 during fermentation. If I absolutely need to secondary (for a lager or dryhop) I bough a three gallon Better Bottle for like $20 otherwise I just bottle straight out of the primary and let them age in bottles.