The S.M.A.S.H. Series

What is a S.M.A.S.H. beer? It stands for single malt all single hop.

Why is there a S.M.A.S.H. beer? It is a tool brewers use to get an idea of what a specific hop adds to a beer. One hop type is used for bittering, flavor, and aroma in a single grain type in a beer. Only one type of grain is used to keep the malt simple so it doesn’t distract from the true purpose, hop exploration.

This project will be educational in its nature, not just to the public, but to the homebrewer, and me as well. If it becomes popular, this project can go on for a very long time. There are so many great American varieties of hops, but there are also English, German, Australian, African, and New Zealand varieties to name a few. We’ll be starting with American varieties in alphabetical order. There will be some winners and some losers I’m sure. Some great for bittering, but not so much in flavor or aroma. Some might be the other way around. I’ll let you be the judge.

We’ll have a discussion area on the website where you can evaluate the hop yourself. After some time, I’ll take the top 3 and make an IPA with those. It should be pretty amazing.

The type of beer style we’re going to S.M.A.S.H. is an IPA. We’ll target 6% ABV and 57 IBU with heavy doses of flavor and aroma additions.

When is this S.M.A.S.H. beer? It’ll be under the seasonal beer category for now but if it takes off, we’ll dedicate a handle to it. The first one will be in April 2022, right after the Marzenbier is finished.

April 2022 Ahtanum

July 2022 Amarillo

September 2022 Apollo