I am entering a club only SMaSH competition and need help on naming the style of this beer. It does not need to fit into the bjcp categories. There will be a tasting of each beer by all present at the meeting and then voting.
The beer is nice and malty with good hop character from the northern brewer hops. It has slight caramel flavors and a light orangish/amber color. It is remniscent of an amber I suppose.
What do you think?
Maris Otter
-78% as is
-9% toasted at 350 for 15 min
-13% toasted at 350 for 30 min
Northern Brewer hops
-about 37 IBU
US-05 yeast
1 gallon of first runnings was boiled hard until about half of the volume remained.
I had some purists telling me that if I home-toasted grains, the beer was no long a SMaSH, as you were technically using a ‘different’ malt. Anyway, your beer sounds pretty solid. NB’s are one of the more underrated traditional American hops IMO.
What about American bitter (Bitter American like 21 Amendment’s)? Something with ‘Steam’ or “Common” in it might also be a good name, as experienced tasters/judges will likely recognize the NB hop profile. American Amber is a good one too I suppose. Why can’t they just call it a SMaSH? Are they looking for a NAME of the beer or a NAME of the ‘style’?
The rules for this comp are single malt, modified in any way (by the brewer), single hop and single yeast.
No “need” for a style, but I would like to include something as all other entries have done so. I was thinking maybe light amber. I like your suggestions as well.
I turned this one around quick. It was brewed 23 days ago and kegged friday. The comp is at tonights meeting and still need to bottle. I am very pleased with the result.
Probably an American Amber, or some kind of hybrid between American Pale, American Amber, and California Common. Whatever it is… it sounds like a tasty beer!
Not to steer this thread in the wrong direction, but I’m curious, was the toasted malt taken right from oven to mash, or did you let it rest for a period of time?
What would you estimate the color of the finished beer to be?
If you could brew this again, without SMaSH restrictions, would you add anything to round out the malt profile? Some crystal 80-120? Munich?
I toasted it the previous evening and used it the next day. I think a better practice is to let it sit for a week or so. That being said, I don’t think I needed change anything. I turned the malt a couple times through the toasting.
The malt profile is awesome. I worried about it fermenting too dry, but it was fine. I think boiling the first runnings helped give the beer some added complexity. The beer is very nice as is, IMO.
I would estimate the color around 7 srm. I can maybe post a pic later.
I used toasted Maris Otter malt in an IPA once. I used the toasted malt fresh the same day. The resulting beer tasted as though it contained roasted peanuts. Very unique and delicious.
I got 2nd place out of 12. I would have won had I voted for my own entry. There was a three way tie for first place so we did another round of votes. pppfftt! It was fun though.
