Note that I originally targeted this for a lower gravity, ~1.058.

Equinox (HBC 366) hop pellets (13.4% alpha), whirlpool Equinox (HBC 366) hop pellets (14.2% alpha), 5 minute boil Equinox (HBC 366) hop pellets (14.2% alpha), 60 minute boil Equinox (HBC 366) hop pellets (14.2% alpha), first wort hop So, after this brew I widened my gap to 0.041″.

As noted below, I had incredible mash efficiency (84%!), but the mash itself was a little slow to drain. After reassembly, I set the gap to around 0.039″. There was some grain dust worked into places, and as a result it wasn’t holding the gap as well as it should (hence my low mash efficiency on some previous batches). Additionally, the night before brewing, I completely disassembled and cleaned my mill (a Monster Mill 2). For a few batches now, I have noticed that my wort volumes and starting gravities are a touch off, so I am going to adjust the mash and boil-off assumptions accordingly in BeerSmith. The only minor deviation from a true SMaSH is that I threw in a touch of de-bittered black malt for color.įinally, I am using this batch to recalibrate some of my brewing parameters. This was also an opportunity to continue my exploration of Vienna malt, so I crafted a SMaSH-ish recipe that had a decent late-hopping dose of Equinox. Even if it’s totally stereotypical for a homebrewer, I do like big, aroma-rich hops, so a batch with Equinox made it onto my “brewing goals” list. Like many of the recent American varieties, it is supposed to pack quite an aroma and flavor punch. I have been seeing a fair bit about Equinox…err, HBC 366…hops during the past year, and wanted to try them for myself.

Beersmith 3 locking up