MO/WGV SMaSH

SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beer brewing is a great way to experiment with ingredients.  You select one kind of malt, and one kind of hop, and brew a beer using only those ingredients and yeast.  This lets you really see what any given malt or hop tastes like by isolating it from the rest of the ingredients in your beer.  It works well for exploration purposes, but you are limited in what style guidelines you can fit into as not many types of beer can be brewed to style with just one malt.

We decided to make an Ordinary Bitter; we stretched the guidelines a little on this one as it is fractionally under colored and has a touch too much alcohol, but we really wanted to give it a shot.  Maris Otter (MO) is the traditional British Pale Malt.  It gives English beers that stereotypical bready, biscuity sweetness that you can't get from anything else.  It's a lovely malt and is widely used in SMaSH beer.  East Kent Goldings are the textbook British hops, and are responsible for the earth, spice and floral notes so common in English brews.  We really wanted these but our store was out of stock.  We settled on a distant relative of EKG's, the Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV).  We spread the hop bill out far and wide, so we would be able to see the WGV's in all their roles, Bittering, Flavor and Aroma.  As far as yeast was concerned, we really wanted to be true to style, so we chose Wyeast 1469 Yorkshire Ale Yeast.  All in all this simple experiment should make us a very true tasting, if a little lightly colored, brew.

Here's the recipe:

Beer Name: MO/WGV SMaSH
Style: SMaSH Ordinary Bitter
OG: 1.036
FG: 1.008
ABV: 3.9%
IBUS: 30

Grains:
7 lbs Maris Otter Malt

In the Boil:
¾ oz Whitbread Golding Variety Hops @ 60 Minutes
¾  oz Whitbread Golding Variety Hops @ 30 Minutes
¾ oz Whitbread Golding Variety Hops @ 5 Minutes
1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 Minutes
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 Minutes

Fermentation:
Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale Yeast in primary
Dry hopped with ¾ oz Whitbread Golding Variety Hops in Secondary
Primed with 2.3 oz Amber DME

Brew Notes:
11/06/13: Brewed
Single infusion mash @ 153F
16/06/13: SG of 1.010
19/06/13: SG of 1.008, racked to secondary
03/07/13: SG of 1.008, Bottled

Tasting Notes:
26/07/13:  Pours a pale straw color with a thin white cap.  Aromas of lemon zest, herb, biscuit, bready yeast and crisp malt.  A touch dry for the style, crisp and refreshing.  Medium carbonation and light body.  A sessionable quencher with a slightly bitter finish.

It's easy to appreciate the value of the Maris Otter in this beer.  It generates a huge amount of character for a base malt, I'll certainly be using it more often.  The WGV hops play their part as well.  If this weren't a SMaSH and an experiment, I would be adding a touch of Crystal 120L or even Chocolate Malt for color and richness, and a bit of Biscuit Malt for depth and complexity.  I'd adjust the hops back so that most of the IBUs come from the bittering additions, rather than so spread out.  I'd carbonate slightly less as well.  All and all this is a great thirst quencher and a damn tasty experiment.  I look forward to brewing a 'real' bitter.