South Dublin Brewers - Next Meet - Thursday, 21st April

[Bubbles]

All,

Next meet is on the 28th, hope you can make it.

See further details here. Please sign up below if attending.

Cheers,
Bubbles.

[Bubbles]

1. Bubbles - American Pale Ale

[molc]

Oh, this is the smash meetup isn't it?

1. Bubbles - American Pale Ale
2. Molc - Smash (Vienna Lager)

[Bubbles]

Yes, I forgot! Hope mine's okay.. I haven't even tasted it yet..

1. Bubbles - SMaSH Amarillo Pale Ale
2. Molc - Smash (Vienna Lager)

[molc]

Yes, I forgot! Hope mine's okay.. I haven't even tasted it yet...

Ditto mine is a lager and it really tasted like it needed the lagering (big acetyclhyde hit up front on the palate) when I bottled. Please be good!

[Shanna]

All,

Next meet is on the 28th, hope you can make it.

See further details here. Please sign up below if attending.

Cheers,
Bubbles.

Hi Conor,

Does us meeting on the 28th mean we won't get some beers judged before brewcon to decide who represents the club or are you organising a separate judging night before the 23rd to do that?

Shanna

[Bubbles]

Does us meeting on the 28th mean we won't get some beers judged before brewcon to decide who represents the club or are you organising a separate judging night before the 23rd to do that?

Well spotted! I forgot that we had planned on having the meet a week early to facilitate this.

Changed to 21st April. Hopefully everyone can make it.

[David]

No problem with the change

1. Bubbles - SMaSH Amarillo Pale Ale
2. Molc - Smash (Vienna Lager)
3. David - Smash Pils

[Shanna]

1. Bubbles - SMaSH Amarillo Pale Ale
2. Molc - Smash (Vienna Lager)
3. David - Smash Pils
4. Shanna - American Amber Ale

[Bubbles]

Just on the SMaSH thing..

I had my first taste of my Amarillo SMaSH ale last night. It's less than 3 weeks in the bottle and tastes really good. The whole SMaSH experiment has been really useful to me and certainly challenges some of the assumptions I'd built up over the last few years. I was just in the habit of including crystal malt in all of my American pale ales and IPAs, to build both body and malt flavours and provide some background sweetness. I also usually include wheat malt in just about everything I brew, to aid head retention. I now realise that I don't have to have both of these malts when doing a brew. There's adequate malt flavour in the beer, though it's a little dry. The high bitterness level doesn't help things either.

I was also surprised by how much colour I'm getting out of Crisp Maris Otter. Though the high hopping rate will contribute quite a bit of colour too.

The hop flavours are superb, and once again, has challenged my perceptions about the flavour contribution from one of my favourite hops. In addition to the tropical fruit flavours (big mango) provided by the Amarillo, there's also some big piney flavours in there that I was not expecting. If I was tasting this beer blind and asked to name the hop variety, I'd definitely have said "Simcoe", rather than "Amarillo". In fact, my first thoughts when smelling and tasting this beer were that it is very reminiscent of Brewdog beers. They have quite a distinctive hop character which I always assumed to be from Simcoe, because I know they use it in a lot of their beers, but it seems to come from Amarillo instead. Though this is all very subjective, I know.

I'm definitely going to do more single hop beers and adopt a more simplistic approach when it comes to certain beer styles in future. I still think using lots of malt varieties is good when doing darker or maltier beers (porters, quads). Thanks molc for suggesting we all do this!

[molc]

Yup, a smash is an eye opening experience and backs up just how important it is to have a quality base malt, since it contributes so much to the taste.
My vienna smash is very interesting as well. It's lacking the colour I'd associate with a true vienna lager, but there's a healthy toasty flavour, almost to the point where I could swear some roasted malts were in the beer. It's quite dry, but a nice sweet malt supporting note that is in balance. The only thing I'm finding is it's a bit bitter, even though I only had 50G of noble hops in there. Also, the lager yeast has left a prominent green apple flavour. From my experience of the beer before this one, that seems to disappear as you lager, but we will see, since there's nothing to hide behind with the grist.
If we ever do a smash again, I think we should pick a style and only vary the hops or the yeast, so we're seeing one variable at a time. Simcoe vs Amarillo vs Centennial vs Cascade would be fascinating, plus you could then blend them on the night and see the effects of combinations. Another one could be simple malt and a noble hop like saaz with different yeasts, like lager vs US-05 vs saison vs belgian.

[Bubbles]

If we ever do a smash again, I think we should pick a style and only vary the hops

I think that's a fine idea. I'm happy to do another one straight away! I'd be tempted to go for one of my favourite hop varieties, but I feel like I should be trying something new. Mandarina Bavaria or Jester or something.

I was going to suggest another type of taste-off. I'm about to do a few English bitters and was wondering whether anyone is interested in doing the same? Maybe have them ready for the June meet?

[molc]

I could have a low ABV beer ready for July.

I don't think the fermentation chamber will be free until end of May for me. I have a milk stout fermenting right now, then the NCB barrel RIS is in straight after that.

Outside of those, I have a single hop simcoe pale ale and a saison as my next planned beers, wither of which could be adapted slightly to fit into a smash.

[Shanna]

1. Bubbles - SMaSH Amarillo Pale Ale
2. Molc - Smash (Vienna Lager)
3. David - Smash Pils
4. Shanna - American Amber Ale & very young & yeasty orange peel & coriander flavored Belgian Wit Bier

[molc]

Guys, see the post http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/forum/index.php?topic=15466.msg147534.msg#147534

It's on the same night and sounds like a great chance to see how to make an extra stout...
I've been looking forward to going to this for months!