25 replies to this topic

[Humperdink]

Hopefully this weekend:Great Western Pale ale malt to 1.052Liberty to 20 IBUS bitteringliberty to 5 IBUs at 10 minutes US05 and Wyeast 1272 split batch.

[Big Nake]

Nice. What do you call it... blonde ale? I think Earthtone got into SMaSH beers awhile back but I'm not sure what his results were. I'd like to see all Munich or Vienna along with all Tettnanger or Hallertau Mittelfrüh along with a good German Lager yeast. Vienna-Festbier type thing. Cheers.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Nice. What do you call it... blonde ale? I think Earthtone got into SMaSH beers awhile back but I'm not sure what his results were. I'd like to see all Munich or Vienna along with all Tettnanger or Hallertau Mittelfrüh along with a good German Lager yeast. Vienna-Festbier type thing. Cheers.

I'd have to do something to the wort to make it interesting if I was doing this...

[Big Nake]

I'd have to do something to the wort to make it interesting if I was doing this...

What do you have in mind?

[Humperdink]

I'd have to do something to the wort to make it interesting if I was doing this...

I don't know dude, can't you make a great vienna lager with 100% vienna and a single hop?

[Humperdink]

Nice. What do you call it... blonde ale? I think Earthtone got into SMaSH beers awhile back but I'm not sure what his results were. I'd like to see all Munich or Vienna along with all Tettnanger or Hallertau Mittelfrüh along with a good German Lager yeast. Vienna-Festbier type thing. Cheers.

hell, I don't know what to call it, but I have been wanting to do this for a while to really learn malts and hops. Yeast for that matter too. I suppose it would be considered a blonde. I'd call it easy drinking and probably one dimensional. I'm okay with that though.

[Big Nake]

I made a Vienna that I now have on tap. It was 80% Vienna, 20% Pils and all Hallertau Mittelfruh. I only used the Pils because it appeared that I was going to get less fermentables from the 100% Vienna (less convertible sugar?) so I added some Pils. But this was VERY close to a SMaSH and it's very nice. I used the VSS strain 2782 Staro-Prague lager yeast on it. It has a light-amber color and a very nice, traditional flavor to it. I think my next SMaSH beer will be all Black patent and Chinook for the hops fermented with a Belgian yeast and fermented around 85°.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

What do you have in mind?

high mash temp, boiling down wort (or decoction), that's about all I've got

[Humperdink]

I made a Vienna that I now have on tap. It was 80% Vienna, 20% Pils and all Hallertau Mittelfruh. I only used the Pils because it appeared that I was going to get less fermentables from the 100% Vienna (less convertible sugar?) so I added some Pils. But this was VERY close to a SMaSH and it's very nice. I used the VSS strain 2782 Staro-Prague lager yeast on it. It has a light-amber color and a very nice, traditional flavor to it. I think my next SMaSH beer will be all Black patent and Chinook for the hops fermented with a Belgian yeast and fermented around 85°.

make it 12% and it's likely to hit the top 100 on some of the "beer rating" sites

[drewseslu]

Steinbier?

[Humperdink]

Steinbier?

well, it is beer that will be going in my stein... so yeah that works!

[drewseslu]

I think an all vienna, all tett sticke strenght Altbier or bockbier brewed in the steinbier technique could be very interesting.

[Humperdink]

I think an all vienna, all tett sticke strenght Altbier or bockbier brewed in the steinbier technique could be very interesting.

elaborate on steinbier technique please.

[Big Nake]

IIRC, Steinbier technique is getting the wort to boiling by tossing red hot rocks into the boil kettle... or something along those lines. Way, way back when Geico cavemen walked among us (and we didn't have Banjo cookers), one way for them to heat the wort was with ultra-hot rocks. I'm sure someone will elaborate further.

I think another plus of the SMaSH idea, aside from really getting a feel for grain & hops, is using a yeast that will stand out. You could charge up the beer by using something off-the-map like White Labs 08 Patriot or 1332 Northwest, a Belgian strain, etc. and let the yeast take center stage. And because you're using a simple grain bill, you'd get a better taste of it. Also, you could be really heavy-handed with the hops and let them stand by themselves with a neutral yeast. I'd bet some of the boring, American-style swills are SMaSH... American Pilsner or pale malt, Hallertau or Tettnanger and American lager yeast. Cheers.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

IIRC, Steinbier technique is getting the wort to boiling by tossing red hot rocks into the boil kettle... or something along those lines. Way, way back when Geico cavemen walked among us (and we didn't have Banjo cookers), one way for them to heat the wort was with ultra-hot rocks. I'm sure someone will elaborate further.

that's the technique as I remember it - it would be interesting for sure. I think granite would make a nice rock choice.

[Big Nake]

One of the microbreweries on the west coast did one recently, IIRC. Maybe Basser could chime in. I guess I wonder why they had to use hot rocks... if you had a fire so you could heat the rocks, why not just move the brew kettle over the fire?? I would also think that as soon as the rocks hit the wort, they would drop in temp... then did they retrieve those rocks and reheat them or just keep adding more rocks? Sounds dreadful to carry out, if you ask me.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

One of the microbreweries on the west coast did one recently, IIRC. Maybe Basser could chime in. I guess I wonder why they had to use hot rocks... if you had a fire so you could heat the rocks, why not just move the brew kettle over the fire?? I would also think that as soon as the rocks hit the wort, they would drop in temp... then did they retrieve those rocks and reheat them or just keep adding more rocks? Sounds dreadful to carry out, if you ask me.

you need to have a lot of stones to use this method maybe the vessel was made of wood?

[Big Nake]

maybe the vessel was made of wood?

Good point.

Here's something from Homebrew Wiki... A steinbier is not defined by ingredients but by process. While many of the beers brewed to this style are matly, Märzen-style lagers, the term properly describes any beer where the wort is brought to a boil by heating stones and dropping them into the brew kettle, then adding the stones, now with a coating of caramelized sugar, to the wort in the fermenter. The result is a unique caramelized, smoky taste in the finished beer.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Good point.

Here's something from Homebrew Wiki... A steinbier is not defined by ingredients but by process. While many of the beers brewed to this style are matly, Märzen-style lagers, the term properly describes any beer where the wort is brought to a boil by heating stones and dropping them into the brew kettle, then adding the stones, now with a coating of caramelized sugar, to the wort in the fermenter. The result is a unique caramelized, smoky taste in the finished beer.

so they must have just dumped everything, stones and all, into the fermenter.

[Big Nake]

so they must have just dumped everything, stones and all, into the fermenter.

I've had a few commercial Steinbiers and I enjoy drinking them but I always thought the description of the process was nuttier than a Payday bar.