Did you know the UK is making some great beers? Of course you did. This week is no exception. This week we gat a nice SMASH beer from Dave in the UK. An equinox SMASH beer, and interestingly good beer for the Brew Dudes Homebrew Swap Exchange 5.
Our newest exchange comes from you new buddy Dave in Hampshire England! AKA Basingstoke Dave! This is a simple SMASH brew featuring Equinox hops. Here’s the basic recipe:
3.1kg (6.8lb) of Minch grains
50g (1.76oz) of Equinox hops
1hr Mash at 67C (153F)
All the hops went in for the full boil.
No indication of the yeast.
Off the top I have to provide a link to the Minch Malting company. ( I hope I got that right because its a very pretty website.) And I have to issue my apologies for the mix up in the video. Looking over John’s shoulder at the printed recipe I saw the word Minch and thought it was Munich. I assumed in the tasting this was some really light Munich. I was very wrong. On to the review.
So we both really liked this beer. It was nearly perfectly clear. The fermentation character was right on. Very clean and no flaws. The hop profile was where this beer shined. I was really happy that Dave sent us this. When we did our hop review of Equinox we did our typical spread out the additions. Namely to focus on the aroma and flavor. Interestingly, here Dave just did a big battering charge.
Neither of us found this super bitter. But the bitter bite did linger on the palate. Used just as a battering hop a true green pepper finish came through. It wasn’t off putting in a big way, just to something you’d want to repeat after experiencing it. Interesting there were still subtle hints of the Equinox flavor and aroma profile, despite all the hops going in at 60min. Very cool to see that some of those compounds survived the boil and the ferment.
Overall this demonstrated to us that 1.Dave can brew! 2. Equinox is a pretty interesting solo battering hop and may be best left to as a late kettle addition hop. I am so stoked that we got to try this. It really opened our eyes to a different dynamic of this hop. I think it would be interesting to see how other hops stack up just as a battering addition. Great learning experience.
Well Basingstoke Dave, CHEERS! Thanks so much for the beer. Maybe one day our paths will cross.
BREW ON!
brewella5082@gmail.com
Minch malts? That’s something new. To be honest, I haven’t given much thought to which malt company produces the grains I buy from the bulk bins at my LHBS. People talk about the complexity of wine, but between grains, hops, and yeasts there must be more potential for variety in beer. When you break it down even further into the different companies producing these items, thinking about experimenting with as many as you have access to seems a bit intimidating, if not a real life time endeavor.
Dwalin
I’d like to know how Basingstoke Dave managed to ship homebrew to you in the states! A desire to homebrew swap with a stateside brewer I met not long ago feels almost impossible to actualise! Help!
John
That’s a good question – We can ask him.
John
It’s quite the rabbit hole… 🙂
John
Here is what Dave said: All i done was packed bottles in a box with bubble rap and took it to my local post office . I took a note of box size and put it on box case i was asked . They weighed it and asked me what it was . I said home made gift? Cost about £20 pounds to post to you. Hope this helps