SMaSH out a brilliant brew

With so many malts, hops, and yeasts available, it can be hard to decide which to choose! Most recipes blend more than one hop, or more than one malt, sometimes even more than one yeast, and trying to unpick which fruity note comes from which hop, and which malt is giving it that biscuity sweetness can be really tough.

If only there was a simple way to find out what those ingredients really taste like…

Single Malt and Single Hop recipes – or SMaSH for short – are a brilliant way to learn about ingredients, plus you get some really tasty beer for your trouble!

These recipes focus in on just a handful of ingredients so it’s much easier to taste each of their signature flavours and how they work together. You can then keep tweaking variables to really dig into the flavour differences, or build on top of your favourite SMaSH recipe to make something more complex.

For the malt, you’ll be choosing from our wide range of base malts. Base malts are the building blocks of a beer and have enough of the enzymes a mash needs to make sugars that the yeast can ferment.

Some of our favourite malts for SMaSH brews are:

• Crisp Hana Heritage Malt
• Dingemans Pale Ale Malt
• Simpsons Finest Pale Ale Golden Promise
• Warminster Floor Malted Maris Otter Pale Ale
• Weyermann Barke Pilsner Malt

Virtually any hop will work in a SMaSH, depending on what you want to achieve – from a bright blast of modern hop flavour to subtle noble hop spicing. Here are some of our favourites:

• Citra – classic US “dank” with lifted tropical and citrus notes
• East Kent Goldings – a British national treasure, honey-like and spicy
• Galaxy – an Aussie superstar with intense passionfruit and citrus flavours
• Harlequin – a new British hop with big peach and pineapple notes
• Saaz – the quintessential noble hop, herbal, floral, and spicy

When it comes to yeasts, again you have a wide choice. If you’ve gone for a big flavoured hop, try a cleaner yeast to let the hops shine; or vice versa, a subtle hop gives more room for a bold yeast. Why not try one of these?

• NBS West Coast – the classic West Coast USA flavour, clean and dry
• Lallemand Verdant IPA – a hop loving strain that brings out fruity flavours
• Saflager W-34/70 – the most popular lager strain in the world, super crispy!
• Lallemand Voss – bright orange flavours from this kveik isolate. Ferment warm!
• Mangrove Jacks French Saison M29 – spicy, peppery, all sorts of Belgian goodness

Our own Jo Neale tried out SMaSH brewing – and we’ve made a kit of her recipe so you can try it too. With Warminster Maris Otter Malt, Citra hops, and Lallemand London Ale yeast, this is a dry, crisp ale with nutty malt and citrus from the hops. It’s a great example of how SMaSH recipes can make seriously tasty beer!

Check out our video following Jo’s SMaSH brew, and remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for all the latest brews and reviews from The Malt Miller.