Brewing SMASH Beers will make you a better brewer [+Recipe]

smash it's not just an anopia it actually stands for single malt and single hop and if you've never brewed a smash be before you need to give it a try because I think brewing with a single malt choice and a single hot variety will make you a better Brewer let me explain when starting out Brewing you're likely to look at recipes and see all kinds of malts and hops being used maybe even with some experience you can get over ambitious and start adding in a bunch of malts thinking that they'll just add more flavor and make your beer more complex but you'll quickly find out that that beer is just a modeled mess with no Focus or Nuance the same goes for hops these days IPA lovers are often looking for the fruit basket of hop combos adding several varieties at various points in the boil but are then just left with a hodge podge of flavors descriptive words on hot packages can be useful to give you an idea of what it might taste like when you use them but taste is very much subjective so to one person Mosaic might taste like blueberries but to the next person it might taste like catpa there's really no way of knowing whether or not you like the taste of a certain hop without isolating it and trying it in a recipe malts on the other hand have a bit more of a subtle impact unless of course we're comparing light malts to dark roasten ones base malts like two row six row pilzner Maris are all said to add a different character but what really is the difference is it subtle or is it significant and more importantly which do you prefer it's hard to know without isolating them and then brewing a beer with them so in order to fully understand these ingredients and their impact a smash beer is a great Tech technique to use you simplify the recipe and you can highlight what you like or not like about a certain ingredient this is a particularly good idea for brand new ingredients that come out or something that you've never tasted before it'll help you build that mental database of flavors and Aromas so that when it comes time to build a more complex recipe you can pull from that to create the perfect beer but smash beers are not only good at helping you understand flavors they're also a test of your skills if your Brewing practices are not honed the flaws will easily be shown in the final beer wonky mashing schedule improper fermentation temperature bad yeast Health oxidation due to bad packaging all these faults and any resulting off flavors will shine because there's nothing to hide behind so it can also be helpful to brew the same smash beard multiple times that will give you a chance to compare the results and see whether you can improve skill-wise especially if you're noticing something wrong with a few recent beers try Brewing up a smash and maybe you can isolate the problem the next logical step up from a smash beer would be to change one variable or one ingredient in the beer if you want to see how a certain specialty malt changes the beer you can add a little bit to the next batch and compare the results or you could try to use different yeasts but keep the single malt and single hop the same this can make a surprising difference as yeast greatly impacts the way the beer tastes but it's hard to know what yeast is right for you unless you figure it out for yourself or you can always try different Mash temps different fermentation temperature dry hop versus non- dry hop the options to experiments are endless also I think you'll be surprised at how good a smash beer can taste the right malt and hop Choice can really make for an amazing beer sometimes Simplicity is the key for certain beers and in my opinion there's no smash beer that tastes as good as a Czech Piller and while you can get more complex with this beer a Czech pills is truly defined by its two main ingredients Bohemian pills all and sze hops let's Brew it up so I can show you how easy it can be to make an amazing smash beer I'm going to zoom through this recipe but if you want the full list of ingredients and steps check out the description as you can probably predict the m bill is super simple 100% Bohemian pser I'll Mash this at 149 f for 60 minutes to me Bohemian pser malt only slightly differentiates from other pser malts giving a slightly more cracker flavor compared to regular piler but it is what's considered to be necessary for a proper checked pilsener after the mash I pulled the grains and brought it to a boil for 70 minutes at the top of the boil I added our first bit of saws 2 oz SS to me has a mild earthy herbal flavor With A Touch of Spice it's usually pretty low in Alpha acids hence why I need to add a little bit more at the top of the boil and boil for a little bit longer to get the right bitterness level to me sauce is pretty distinctive if you've had a check Piller then you know the taste and you know what to expect the other sa editions come at the 30-minute Mark 1.5 Oz and then with 10 minutes left. 5 O all together giving us a grand total of about 32 ibas and that's it for the Brew Day chill down and then pitch the East which I'll be using wlp802 check budya vit ye I tried my best with that one this is a l yeast that I believe derived from budvar a brewery in the Czech Republic that makes Czech Budweiser the original Budweiser I got to try some while I was there and it was actually really good so it should work perfectly for this but there are a few other log trins out there that would work just fine for this and today I'll be fermenting in the Delta 8 gallon firm tank which Delta is the sponsor for this part of the video they provided this firm tank for me to use and I got to say it's quickly becoming one of my favorite fermentors and a nice upgrade to stainless steel if you're looking to make the jump what I really enjoy about this is all the tri clamp ports that are on this thing you got several on the lid a few down below and with the right accessories you can really customize this to your preference my favorite part is probably this giant Tri clamp on the lid which allows for a massive cooling coil this greatly speeds up cooling times it keeps the fermentation in check and it's definitely needed for a logger like this one big thanks to Brewing systems for partnering with me and if you're in the market for a quality conle at a reasonable price then check out the link in the description so with the yeast in I fermented this at 56° F for about 2 weeks slowly ramping the temp up until it was done fermenting then transfer the beer in a keg and let it logger for about a month until it was ready to drink a thing of beauty extremely crushable and refreshing if you've never made a check pills you got to give it a try and let me know if you've ever made a smash beer and if so which combo is your favorite maybe there's something else out there that's as good as this and if you enjoyed this video I got a bunch of other ones about techniques and skills to help you become a better Brewer here's one about my top advice for beginner Brewers cheers and happy br

Channel: TheBruSho

Views: 13,418

Keywords: thebrusho, the bru sho, the brew show, brew show, bru sho, czech pilsner, czech pils, czech premium pale lager, czech beer, pilsner, pilsner recipe, smash beer, smash beer recipe, check beer, check pilsner, how to brew czech beer, how to brew, home brewing, home brewing recipes

Id: OkZic1tPPhY

Length: 6min 18sec (378 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 23 2023