Ashburne/Cascade SMaSH

Single Malt and Single Hop = SMaSH. It's a fairly popular homebrewing technique. The idea is to pick one malt and one hop and really focus on highlighting the flavors of those two ingredients. It's a fun way to get familiar with brewing ingredients and can help with recipe creation down the road.

For the malt I decided to go with Ashburne Mild from Briess. It's a base malt kilned to 5.3 Lovibond, which puts it in the neighborhood of a Maris Otter, light Munich or Vienna malt. I thought it gave a nice bread crust flavor with a touch of sweetness. It defiantly had more flavor than the regular 2 row pale malt, I can see myself using it more in the future. The only real problem with it is it cost a little more than 2 row.

For the hops I went with the classic, Cascade. Originally developed by the U.S.D.A. and released as an aroma hop in 1972. It has become the standard for American hop aroma, and can be found in many IPAs and Pale Ales. Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is probably the most popular and one of the first to popularize its use. Another great example is Hopalicious from Ale Asylum in Madison. The beer I brewed reminds me of Hopalicious, lots of Cascade, a little malt. On a side note: If you ever visit Wisconsin, fly into Madison (a Frank Lloyd Wright designed airport) and head down the road to Ale Asylum for your first stop and repeat on your way home. It's a great way to start & end a vacation.

Recipe:

Expected OG: 1.046

Actual OG: 1.055

Expected FG: 1.015

Actual FG: 1.010

IBU: 41

BU:GU: .77

Boil: 60 minutes

Pre-boil Volume: 6.2 gallons

Final Volume: 4.8 gallons

Apparent Attenuation: 81.1%

ABV: 6.05%

Grains:

10 lbs. Ashburne Mild (Briess)

Hops:

2.0 oz. Cascade (pellet 4.1% AA) @ 30 min.

1.0 oz. Cascade (pellet 4.1% AA) @ 10 min.

1.0 oz. Cascade (pellet 4.1% AA) @ 5 min.

2.0 oz. Cascade (pellet 4.1% AA) @ flame out

2.0 oz. Cascade (pellet 4.1% AA) dry hop

Yeast:

Safale US-05

Water:

Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Mash Schedule:

60 min @ 155° (15 qt @ 165°)

Sparge

20 min @ 168° (16 qt @ 190°)

Should be about 6.5 gallons of sweet wort.

Notes:

Brewed on 12/08/10 by myself.

I used this spreadsheet to calculate temps, it worked well for the barleywine.

12/8/10:

8:20am - Brrrrrr 11° outside.

9:00am  - Somehow I missed way to the low side on my mash temp (I thought I was getting better at this) sat around 140° for about 25 min then I added 6.5 qt of boiling water which brought the temp up to 156°. That temp had dropped to around 150° by the time I started sparging. I think the sub-freezing temperatures outside might be a contributing factor to the low mash temps. I wanted to mash at a high temp to ensure there was plenty of body in this small beer. Looks like it'll be on the dry side now.

10:40am - preboil gravity is about 1.043 with only 6.2 gallons collected. I'm going to have to adjust my original hopping schedule to account for the increased gravity.

12:15pm – 1.055. Nice.

1:30pm - Pitched yeast at about 68°. A little less than 5 gallons, going to call it 4.8. 78% efficiency? That would be my best ever.

12/11/10 - High kraeusen, temp is 64°

12/12/10 - Still chugging along at about 64°

12/21/10 – Added dry hops. Temp has settled down to the mid 50s.

12/29/10 – Bottling Day. 2.25 Vol. CO2 + 4.75 gal. + 65° = 3.2 oz. Table sugar.

16 x 22 oz. + 1 x 24 oz. + 1 x 750 ml + 2 x 500 ml + 4 x 12 oz. = 3.77 gallons. Might end up with carbonation in the 2.6 volume range instead. Glad I started low, kinda forgot how little wort there was to start with, plus trub. Sample smells very citric, orangy. With a toasty, bread flavor.

1/11/11- 1^st taste. Pretty nice. Big orange/cascade burst with a little spice, and a bread crust backbone. Clear with a short rocky head.

1/15/11 – Clear deep golden color, small rocky head, some lacing on the side. Orange-ish citrus in the nose, hint of bread. A touch of sweet, bread crust, more citrus. Clean finish, lingering grapefruit-ish flavor, mild bitterness. Carb is on the low side, I like it that way. Mouthfeel is on the light side of medium. Very drinkable.