We've been brewing SmaSh beers for the last several years. We really enjoy them but have found a few draw backs. When we drink a big box beer, We typically drink Modelo Especial. We like because it is light and crisp. It doesn't have the sweetness or feel as heavy as say Bud or Miller High Life. And it has an OK kick. Please don't suggest the Lite versions of these two..... well you know, just please don't! We used Modelo as a goal for our SmaSh beer. Clean, crisp, simple, and very lager like. For the most part we have achieved our goals with one draw back. If we use enough grain to get to get the OG up there, around 1.050, no matter how we mash, the beer is heavier than say our Modelo goal. We assume that like most, Modelo uses adjuncts to keep it light and cheap, yet still have the 6+ ABV.
The cheapest and easiest adjunct for us to use is Sugar. We have mostly avoided sugar in the past because of all of the horror stories about the taste effects and the one time we did use sugar, we used Corn Sugar or Dextrose to hopefully avoid the horror story taste. The entire recipe wasn't one we were too proud of, probably for many reasons. We were new brewers and many things didn't go exactly like we planned. We drank it, but we never tried to brew it again. That was more than a few years ago. Now we were searching for a way to amp up our SmaSh's without adding more grain or complications and come back to sugar.
We are told that sugar will ferment completely and does not add sweetness to the beer. Corn Sugar or Dextrose is not easily available except at brew suppliers. When compared to the cost per pound of bulk 2-row, it's pretty expensive. Cane Sugar or Sucrose, is easily available at the discount grocery and is significantly cheaper than even the grain. BUT ... all of the horror stories about bad tastes center on Cane Sugar. So we did a lot of reading. We learned that Cane Sugar or Sucrose is a disaccharide and that the yeast has to produce extra enzymes or what ever, to break the disaccharide into monosaccharaides. We though these additional yeast byproducts may be the cause of the horror stories. Further reading showed that bakers and candy makers "invert" sugar to break it down into the two monosaccharaides, Glucose and Fructose. We conjectured that use of an invert syrup made from cheap cane sugar might prevent the yeast from doing the extra work and thereby prevent the possible bad tastes. I won't detail this, its quick and easy, done while the mash and boil are taking place so no addition to you brew day. AND We think it WORKED!!! It's been used several times now at 25% of our gravity units. With No residual sweetness or objectionable back taste.
We now have a simple SmaSh lawnmower beer with an attitude!! That's with AB V's of 7%!
So, where am I going with all this.... IBU's. We aren't the typical new craft beer Hop Heads. There is defiantly a limit to us between good beer and carbonated hop tea!! Our comfort zone for bitterness lies at BU/GU's of .5 and below. We've mostly moved away from late additions or dry hopping as they add cost and an unpleasant to us grassy taste. We get our most cost effectiveness and a very smooth hop flavor using First Worting type of techniques. That was until these last few brews using 25% invert syrup or Sugar as an adjunct. The last thing we expected was to feel that our brews, with BU/GU's of .5 or less were over hopped. Not terrible, very drinkable, similar to a Bell's Pale Ale. But more hop than planed or expected.
So here's where we are getting too. If we calculate our BU/GU of .5 using our brew's og of 1.050 as we did, it seems over hopped. Should we subtract the sugar's GU numbers and then calculate BU/GU?? For our brews we would the be using an og of 1.025 rather than 1.050 for our hop calculations. The rational is that the sugar theoretically is fermented 100% and does not contribute sweetness, and maybe??? therefor should not need to be bittered?? We're not sure. As much as we say we aren't Hop Heads, we don't like the sweet beers either. That's what got us here with the SmaSh brews.
So we asking your thoughts before we brew another batch. The kids will be home this weekend so we wont be brewing. We have a couple of weeks so what do you guys think?? Should we calculate our BU/GU at an og of 1.025 or the full wort og of 1.050??
The cheapest and easiest adjunct for us to use is Sugar. We have mostly avoided sugar in the past because of all of the horror stories about the taste effects and the one time we did use sugar, we used Corn Sugar or Dextrose to hopefully avoid the horror story taste. The entire recipe wasn't one we were too proud of, probably for many reasons. We were new brewers and many things didn't go exactly like we planned. We drank it, but we never tried to brew it again. That was more than a few years ago. Now we were searching for a way to amp up our SmaSh's without adding more grain or complications and come back to sugar.
We are told that sugar will ferment completely and does not add sweetness to the beer. Corn Sugar or Dextrose is not easily available except at brew suppliers. When compared to the cost per pound of bulk 2-row, it's pretty expensive. Cane Sugar or Sucrose, is easily available at the discount grocery and is significantly cheaper than even the grain. BUT ... all of the horror stories about bad tastes center on Cane Sugar. So we did a lot of reading. We learned that Cane Sugar or Sucrose is a disaccharide and that the yeast has to produce extra enzymes or what ever, to break the disaccharide into monosaccharaides. We though these additional yeast byproducts may be the cause of the horror stories. Further reading showed that bakers and candy makers "invert" sugar to break it down into the two monosaccharaides, Glucose and Fructose. We conjectured that use of an invert syrup made from cheap cane sugar might prevent the yeast from doing the extra work and thereby prevent the possible bad tastes. I won't detail this, its quick and easy, done while the mash and boil are taking place so no addition to you brew day. AND We think it WORKED!!! It's been used several times now at 25% of our gravity units. With No residual sweetness or objectionable back taste.
We now have a simple SmaSh lawnmower beer with an attitude!! That's with AB V's of 7%!
So, where am I going with all this.... IBU's. We aren't the typical new craft beer Hop Heads. There is defiantly a limit to us between good beer and carbonated hop tea!! Our comfort zone for bitterness lies at BU/GU's of .5 and below. We've mostly moved away from late additions or dry hopping as they add cost and an unpleasant to us grassy taste. We get our most cost effectiveness and a very smooth hop flavor using First Worting type of techniques. That was until these last few brews using 25% invert syrup or Sugar as an adjunct. The last thing we expected was to feel that our brews, with BU/GU's of .5 or less were over hopped. Not terrible, very drinkable, similar to a Bell's Pale Ale. But more hop than planed or expected.
So here's where we are getting too. If we calculate our BU/GU of .5 using our brew's og of 1.050 as we did, it seems over hopped. Should we subtract the sugar's GU numbers and then calculate BU/GU?? For our brews we would the be using an og of 1.025 rather than 1.050 for our hop calculations. The rational is that the sugar theoretically is fermented 100% and does not contribute sweetness, and maybe??? therefor should not need to be bittered?? We're not sure. As much as we say we aren't Hop Heads, we don't like the sweet beers either. That's what got us here with the SmaSh brews.
So we asking your thoughts before we brew another batch. The kids will be home this weekend so we wont be brewing. We have a couple of weeks so what do you guys think?? Should we calculate our BU/GU at an og of 1.025 or the full wort og of 1.050??