Cascade SMaSHish - first brew of 2013

[fbsf]

Right, decided on my first 2013 brew - a Cascade SMaSH. Although me being me, I wanted to introduce a little extra sweetness and colour, so it's a SMaSHish!

I am going with the following for a 22L brew:

4kg MO
100g Crystal
90min mash @ 67C

90 min boil
15g Cascade FWH
15g Cascade @ 30mins
15g Cascade @ 20mins
15g Cascade @ 10mins

Using US-05 as I've heard it's better than S04 when it comes to allowing the hops to shine through, and have decided to spread the hops evenly throughout the brew so I get the best flavour and not just bitterness (not keen on back-of-throat-twangers). As this is going to be a summer brew (think drinking April onwards) I'm hoping this will give the US05 time to settle at the bottom of the bottle.

Any comments?

 

[puravida]

Not far off a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale there!!!
:thumb: looks lovely!

 

[fbsf]

Cool - I've heard a lot about the SMaSHes so wanted to give it a go.

I'm hoping I can then use the yeast left by the brew to do my Simple Double IPA (the 9% monster) as for one thing it will save on another sachet, and for a second, there should be plenty of yeast to deal with the thick wort!

 

[Swift Pint]

Looks great FBSF! :thumb:

I've played around with a couple of SMASH brews and have found that using Vienna as a base malt gives bit of pale beer, but has a bit more colour and malty sweetness than straight MO.

Are you planning on dry hopping at all? Not sure if it would be worth maybe some hops are flame out for a bit more aroma?

 

[fbsf]

Not sure about dry hopping - although it adds to the aroma, I've heard it doesn't make a great deal of difference to the flavour and as my nose isn't that great I reckon I'll probably give it a miss this time.