Chinook Pellet SMaSH All Grain
Chinook hops are pine like and spicy with robust flavors of grapefruit. From the chinook homebrews I have made I get more citrus than spice. I grow Chinook hops so I wanted to make 2 small batch beers. One using pellets and one using my leaf hops. With the AA% being over 10 on Chinook I wanted to add a little more backbone to the smash beers. This will be the pellet version. Here is the recipe I used. 1.25 gallons into the fermenter
2-1/2 LBs 2-Row
.25 oz Chinook 30 mins
.25 oz Chinook 10 mins
.25 oz Chinook 5 mins
7.3% ABV
Color: Bright yellow hazy
Smell: A hint of spice but more citrus, orange lemon citrus. I don’t think I would say spice if I didn’t know it was Chinook
Taste: Smooth. Lemon citrus. I get more spice in the aftertaste. The citrus and spice mix well together. I do get some sweetness from the added malt vs the other smash beers I have made with 2 LBs 4 oz of grain
Overall: Very good homebrew. I could make a 5 gallon batch of this and drink it all day. Maybe cutting back to 2 LBs 4 oz of grain would drop that sweetness some if you didn’t want that in your homebrew.
Tasting 2
Color: Hazy bright yellow
Smell: Hint of citrus and spice. Hint of sweet malt. The spice is light in the back
Taste: Lite beer. Water citrus with some malt and spice on the back.
Overall: White head but not big. I think Chinook needs more of a backbone. Maybe using more chinook in a smash would help but I think it needs more malt to help it. This one has gone downhill.
Tasting 3
Color: Yellow with a hint of haze.
Smell: Citrus with some spice
Tasting: Sweet citrus with some spice.
Overall: I do like chinook and I think this turned out well. You do get some bitterness in the back. Spice is good.
Tasting 4
Color: Yellow. Very clear
Smell: Sweet roasted malt. A hint of fruit and citrus
Tasting: Toasted malt. Dry with some bitterness
Overall: Im not sure what happen to the sweetness in this one from tasting 3 to 4. This beer is dry now.