Brewing an all grain SMaSH with 5.5% AA Cascade. I’m looking for moderate bitterness, but don’t want it to taste like my lawn. I’m thinking the following -
10# 2-Row @ 152 degrees for 60 min
1oz @ 60
0.5oz @ 30
1oz @ 15
0.5oz @ FO
1oz Dry Hop
Thoughts / advice?
I brewed a similar beer, though not a SMaSH, 8 months ago. A 6 gallon attempt at an APA I named “Ardvaark Piss” (APAs need a funky name
).
10# GW 2-row
1# Cara Munich
Cascade cone:
2.0 oz. @ 60
1.5 oz. @ 15
US - 05
2.5 oz. dry hop in keg
BeerSmith calculated 42 IBUs but it didn’t taste that hoppy. But sledgehammer grapefruit aroma.
It took a while to mature but it turned out very tasty.
I’m personally not a fan of 30 minute additions. I don’t think it adds anything special to the beer. I’d rather break it up between the 60 and 15 (or FO) additions to hit your bitterness target and send the rest later in the boil.
Others will disagree. There are plenty of brewers who like those mid-boil additions.
+1
For my hoppy beers, I like to make additions at small intervals (5 mins or less) starting at 20 and going through flameout. I trust my software and calculate the bitterness of those additions, and then add just enough at 60 to hit my target IBU level. (plus dry hops)
I based it loosely on DFH’s continuous hopping schedule, but made it a series of additions instead of trying to replicate the “vibrating football field” effect.
Like ReverseApacheMaster, I don’t get the attraction of the mid boil additions, so I just skip them.
I’m very happy with the results I get using this procedure.
I’d bump the flameout addition to 1-2 oz, personally.
What’s your reasoning for alternating between 1 oz and 1/2oz additions? Is that based on the desired IBU calculations or are you just throwing something on the wall? (Totally fine, that’s how all recipes start with a “what if I do this”). I would agree with the other posters and drop the 1/2 oz at 30 minutes. At 5.5% that’s going to gain you about 7-10IBU, so not a lot in the long run.
I would bump to:
1oz 60
1oz 15
1oz flameout
You’ll still get most of your IBUs since 90% of it will come from the 60 minute addition.
When I started out I would do 1oz 60, 1oz 45, 1oz 30, 1oz 15 etc… for some reason that just seemed to make logical sense. It’s also the only way to get 100IBU from a low alpha aroma hop. I’ve since discovered clean high alpha like Magnum and I can do a 1 oz or 2 ounce 60 minute charge and then not add anything else until 10 minutes and flameout. For me it was part of the learning process, but some people may still like to do it that way.
Thanks, good feedback. Brewed this the other day and I ended up doing 1.5@60, 1@15 and 0.5@FO. I’m planning on another 1oz dry hop when ready. My reasoning for alternating 1oz and 1/2oz additions? I had no reasoning really. Just looked good I guess. As you stated Ethinson, it was kind of a “what if I do this” type of thing. I bought a bunch of equipment for dirt cheap from a friend who no longer brews and included was 1# of Cascade. It was my first all grain batch so figured what the hell, experimentation is one of the joys of homebrewing, right? We’ll see what happens…