The following homebrew recipe was contributed by Peter Wolfe, brewing scientist at Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis where he works to make the brewery run better and to continue basic research into hop chemistry and all other aspects of brewing science. Peter is also an avid homebrewer and lover of all things beer.
Brewing a single malt and single hop (SMaSH) beer is great for both fine-tuning your homebrewing skills and getting to know your ingredients. I’ve found that there’s no better way to intimately understand a particular hop cultivar than by making a beer that exclusively features that specific hop.
The recipe below will give you a relatively clean ale – one light in color but full of flavor. The target bitterness is 25 IBUs (International Bittering Units), though anywhere between 25-30 IBUs will make for a sessionable ale that’s still hoppy enough to allow for an understanding of what the hop contributes to the beer.
This recipe was written using Cascade hops because they’re ubiquitous in American brewing and a good aroma variety to know — but any hop can be used for the basic recipe. Of course, if you experiment with a different variety you’ll want to recalculate the kettle additions based on alpha acid percentage to maintain that 25-30 IBU level (dry hopping dosage can remain relatively high, since it doesn’t contribute to bitterness to the degree it does during the boil).
Likewise, you could also experiment with different ingredients while honoring the SMaSH theme: for a maltier beer, try substituting 100% English Maris Otter malt for the clean American 2-row. Or, keep all of the brewing ingredients the same and use a Belgian ale yeast or lager yeast strain to determine how much the yeast affects flavor. The SMaSH framework provides a template to experiment with single variables of the brewing process and produces some extremely tasty — and educational — results.
Also worth noting is that when brewed to 30 IBUs, this basic recipe falls squarely within the profile for a BJCP American Pale Ale, and can be entered into brewing competitions as such.
Beer Targets
Original Gravity: 12.5 P (1.0505 SG)
Final Gravity (AE): 2.5 P (1.0098 SG)
RDF: 63% ADF: 80%
IBU: 25-26
Color: 4-4.5 SRM
ABV: 5.4-5.5%
Ingredients
Pale Ale malt (2-row, ~3.0-3.5 SRM): 10.70 lbs.
Cascade hops (5.2-5.8% Alpha Acids): 10 ounces
Brewing Salts (gypsum – CaSO4): 4 grams (approx. one level teaspoon)
Yeast: White Labs WPL001 California Ale or Wyeast 1056 American Ale
Process Instructions
Mashing: Heat up 3.2 gallons of strike water to 168-170F (resulting in a water-to-grain ratio of 2.5). Assuming minimal thermal conductance by the mash vessel, this will provide a single infusion mash temperature of 154F. Add the brewing salts before stirring the mash (note: skip this step if you have hard water). Hold at conversion for 60 minutes. While waiting for conversion, begin heating 3 gallons of brewing water to 175F. Sparge at 175F to a kettle wort volume of 5.8 gallons (typically about 3 gallons of sparge water – this amount of grain will hold back just shy of ½ a gallon).
Now is a good time to grab your yeast out of the fridge and let it gently warm up!
Kettle: Bring wort to a vigorous boil. As soon as rolling boil is achieved, add ½ oz. of Cascade hops. Start a timer from 55 minutes. Grab a beer – it’s bad luck to homebrew without drinking at least one! When the timer goes off, you’ll have 5 minutes of boil left, which means it’s time to add the late kettle hops addition. Add 5.5 oz. of Cascade, and set the timer for 5 minutes. When the timer goes off, kill the flame (or stove burner) and begin cooling the wort.
Fermentation: Cool the wort to 65-66F and add to a sanitized fermentor. Make sure your yeast is warmed up to room temperature! Pitch the yeast and hold at 66F for the entire fermentation. After 7 days, add the remaining 4 oz. of Cascade hops to a sanitized secondary fermentor. Transfer the beer from your primary to your dry-hopped secondary fermentor, leaving the yeast sediment behind as much as possible. After 7 more days, your beer should be ready for kegging or bottling (this brewer heartily recommends kegging because he hates washing hundreds of bottles). Before kegging/bottling, chill the beer down as much as possible (29-32F if you have the capability – otherwise, normal refrigerator temps of 40F will suffice). This will help clarify and settle the beer, so take care not to disturb it or shake it when transferring for your packaging process. Follow your normal priming process if bottling, or force carbonate in a Cornelius keg at 12-13 PSI for 3 days.
Drinking: I’ll leave the drinking technique up to the reader; however, make sure you save at least one beer to drink during your next homebrew day! It’s also a good practice to take some notes (both on process and tasting) whenever you make a SMaSH beer so that you can reference what you’ve learned down the road when creating the world’s next great IPA.
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