First SMaSH

[Snowden]

The wife was kind enough to get me a gift card to the LHBS for my birthday, so I thought I would try to brew something that would appeal to her taste buds (she hasn't helped much with the robust porter I recently made!). Haven't done a SMaSH before - what do you think?

6.6 lbs Maris Otter Pale LME (half late addition)
0.5 oz Mosaic (11.7 aa) @ 60
0.5 oz Mosaic @ flameout
US-05

3 gallon partial boil. Looks like I'm clocking in around 4.9% abv and 25 or so IBU.

Sort of a blonde ale?


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[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I am a big fan of both Maris Otter and Mosaic. If you are looking at doing a SMaSH as a way to get a feel for one grain and one type of hops, you might want to jack the IBUs up some more. At 25 IBU you won't get much of a feel for the Mosaic hops. If you're not into IPAs you could still up the IBUs to 40-ish for a sense of it without much bitterness. You may also want to check with the LME manufacturer to see if their MO extract is made only from MO grain. Some extracts are a mix of grains even though the name doesn't say it.

 

[McKnuckle]

Personally, I think 25 IBU is fine for a sub 5% SMaSH, since it's more about accentuating the hop aroma and flavor than it is to push the bittering. As for whether your wife will like this recipe, who knows?!

You might also choose a SMaSH with a more subtle hop such as one of the nobles. I have a Vienna + Northern Brewer SMaSH fermented with Kolsch yeast, and that came out really nice. My wife likes it and she is not at all an IPA/C-hop fan.