Ben Stange on April 28, 2015 21 Comments I recently wrote about how I, like many homebrewers, like to experiment and evaluate new ingredients that we come across. This is especially true when it comes to a new type of hop. In order to evaluate the new hop to get a better idea of the aromas and flavors I can expect, I like to make hop tea or brew a SMaSH beer with it. Below, is my favorite recipe—and one I’d strongly recommend you try—when I’m brewing a SMaSH beer. This recipe only uses only pale malt and cascade hops, but you can substitute in any hops you like. Cascade SMaSH! – All Grain Recipe Recipe Specs Batch Size: 5.0 gallons Original Gravity: 1.050 (75% Efficiency) Final Gravity: 1.011 SRM: 4.7L IBUs: 41 ABV: 5.1% Ingredients: 9 lbs Pale Ale Malt 1 ounce of Cascade Hops (6%AA) for 60 minutes (6AAU) 0.5 ounces of Cascade Hops (6%AA) for 30 minutes (3AAU) 0.5 ounces of Cascade Hops for 15 minutes 0.5 ounces of Cascade Hops for 1 minute (flameout) 0.5 ounces of Cascade Hops dry-hopped for 7-14 days 1 tsp Irish Moss or other fining agent Yeast Options: US-05 SafAle yeast by Fermentis, Wyeast 1056, or White Labs WLP001 Procedure: Mash for one hour at 152° F or until starch conversion is complete. Mash out at 170° F. Bring to a boil. Add first hop addition and start timer. After 30 minutes, add second addition. After 15 more minutes, add third hop addition and the Irish moss. As you turn off your heat, stir in your final hop addition. Whirlpool, chill to 68° F, and rack to your fermenter. Pitch yeast and ferment at 68° F for 7-10 days or until fermentation is complete. Rack to secondary fermenter with 0.5 ounces of dry-hops. Let rest for 7-14 days at 68° F and bottle or keg to 2.5 volumes of carbon dioxide. Cascade SMaSH! – Extract Recipe Recipe Specs Batch Size: 5.0 gallons Original Gravity: 1.050 (75% Efficiency) Final Gravity: 1.011 SRM: 4.7L IBUs: 41 ABV: 5.1% Ingredients: 5.4 lbs Pale Dry Malt Extract 1 ounce of Cascade Hops (6%AA) for 60 minutes (6AAU) 0.5 ounces of Cascade Hops (6%AA) for 30 minutes (3AAU) 0.5 ounces of Cascade Hops for 15 minutes 0.5 ounces of Cascade Hops for 1 minute (flameout) 0.5 ounces of Cascade Hops dry-hopped for 7-14 days 1 tsp Irish Moss or other fining agent US-05 SafAle yeast by Fermentis, Wyeast 1056, or White Labs WLP001 Procedure: Heat water to 170° and stir in malt extract until completely dissolved. Bring to a boil. Add first hop addition and start timer. After 30 minutes, add second addition. After 15 more minutes, add third hop addition and the Irish moss. As you turn off your heat, stir in your final hop addition. Whirlpool, chill to 68° F, and rack to your fermenter. Pitch yeast and ferment at 68° for 7-10 days or until fermentation is complete. Rack to secondary fermenter with .5 ounces of dry-hops. Let rest for 7-14 days at 68° F and bottle or keg to 2.5 volumes of carbon dioxide.
Bob Skinner says May 11, 2015 at 2:16 pm Ben do you have a news letter that you send out . I would like to be on your mail list . Or is it kegerator.com i should go to , or both lol Ty Reply
Ben Stange says June 4, 2015 at 12:39 pm Kegerator.com for all of my home brewing articles these days. We’ve been having a lot of fun writing these for you lately! Thanks! Ben Reply
Jordan says October 5, 2015 at 1:33 am Hi, does your SMaSH recipe use whole leaf hops or pellets? I recently picked several pounds of Cascade… want to use it in this recipe. Do you have to increase the amount by 10-20% if using whole leaf? Reply
Ken says June 21, 2016 at 3:47 pm I don’t think it matters. Pellets are just compressed hops. The weight should be the same but the leaf hops should at lest be dried or it will increase the water volume. Reply
Gary Nettenstrom says March 6, 2016 at 2:58 pm Cascade SMaSH! – Extract Recipe How many gallons of water are you starting with in the “wort” Reply
Gary Nettenstrom says March 7, 2016 at 8:53 am How much water are you heating to boil, all five gallons or 2.5 gallons. Reply
Rolf Gelert says September 13, 2016 at 5:22 pm just made a double batch of all grain for the house pale ale. Had marris otter to use up so subbed that, smells great. Reply
Jim Nickel says October 1, 2016 at 10:26 am Been extract brewing for 6 years. Last year I started All-Grain. This year, I grew my own hops. Today, I’m going to brew your Smash recipe above. Looking forward to it! Reply
Doktor Zaba says October 4, 2016 at 2:58 pm Excuse my bad English. In the brewing am a beginner and I tried brew this beer. I must say that I am the result of very pleasantly surprised. Beer is very good 🙂 Reply
Martha Lappin says April 23, 2017 at 8:42 am I’m going to try this recipe this fall with all wet hops, since we’ll have about 200 lbs of fresh Cascades and drying is a pain!!! We harvest at about 75% moisture content so conversion factor is about 4. Multiply dry hop weight by 4 to get wet hop bittering/aroma equivalent. Conversion tables are on the honeyhillhops.com website if anyone else is interested wet hop ales. Reply
Rob Zamora says November 28, 2017 at 3:43 pm Very simple recipe, I’m gonna try it but I just got access to leaf cascade hops, let’s see how it turns out. Thanks! Reply
mehmet says March 12, 2018 at 6:19 pm “Mash out at 170° F. Bring to a boil.” I understand from that, bring it 170F (76.6C) and after than boil it . Means heat to 100C degree. and this is wrong!? Reply
gerry c says August 11, 2018 at 9:13 pm Not sure what procedure Ben uses but my “mashout” would be raise the temperature to 76.6C for 10 minutes. The boil may need more than 100C you’re trying to get a “rolling boil” so quite a lot of movement in the wort. Reply
Paul-h says September 20, 2018 at 8:00 am Hello, Tested this recipe with all-grain. Went great. We had to wait a bit before the taste came a bit less bitter but overall super simple recipe and great result. Will do it again 🙂 Paul-H Reply
Matt says September 28, 2018 at 11:24 am Does the beer carbonate when bottled? Do you have to add any sugar? Reply
Andy says October 8, 2018 at 10:58 am Are the amounts for hops the weight for fresh hops or hop pellets or does it make no difference. Thanks, Reply
Fee says December 27, 2019 at 3:54 pm Makes an incredible difference- pellets are by weight more powerful than fresh hops… you most certainly need to scale up if using fresh hop vs pellet hops… Quick google of “difference between” the two will help steer you in the correct direction! Reply
Cedric says April 1, 2020 at 12:59 pm Hi, want to use quaker quick oats, hops, and yeast to make a smash. looking for recipes to follow and how to. anyone got anything? Reply
Chris says September 15, 2020 at 2:03 pm I tried this recipe and it turned out great! I’d like to increase the liquid I’m using to 30L (about 8 gallons). Should I just increase the proportions of the other ingredients accordingly? Reply
