I’ve had this post kicking around in draft form for a month, so FINALLY here’s a recap of the Brewbegin’s Brew Day on February 3, 2024.

Today we are brewing Lemon SMaSH IPA. That three-word moniker represents:

• Lemon: we will be adding lemon zest to the boil kettle for a kick of fresh citrus. We have an abundant crop of lemons from our backyard tree.
• SMaSH: in beer lingo, SMaSH is an acronym of Single Malt and Single Hop. Our malt today is Briess two-row barley. Our hop today is Mosaic.
• IPA: That’s an and acronym of India Pale Ale. From Beer Judge Certification Program, an American IPA is: “A decidedly hoppy and bitter, moderately strong American pale ale, showcasing modern American or New World hop varieties. The balance is hop-forward, with a clean fermentation profile, dryish finish, and clean, supporting malt allowing a creative range of hop character to shine through.”

The base recipe we are making today is a clone of Mai Tai from Alvarado Street Brewery. The More Beer kit is called Flamingos and Fronds. More Beer’s description says that: “While technically a SMaSH beer (single malt and single hop), this delicious west coast IPA has a surprisingly complex flavor and aroma profile that perfectly expresses the versatility of Mosaic® hops. Take a deep breath and let waves of passion fruit, mango, and lychee wash over you while sipping a pint of Flamingos & Fronds.”

Our variation on this beer adds lemon zest, which picks up those tropical fruit flavors and kicks it up a notch. We’ll also be adding half a cup of orange blossom honey at the end of the boil for additional fermentation sugar and a hint of flavor.

We are particularly fond of this recipe because less than six months after we started brewing, we entered our lemon IPA in our local More Beer’s monthly competition and took third place!

We are particularly fond of this recipe because less than six months after we started brewing, we entered our lemon IPA in our local More Beer’s monthly competition and took third place!

[If you’re homebrewing to save money, the quick math here is that Mai Tai is currently $17.20 for a 4-pack, which is half a gallon. Five gallons then, is $172.00, plus tax. The More Beer kit is currently $39.99, plus the yeast, plus tax, for a five gallon yield.]

When we first brewed Flamingos and Fronds, we used liquid malt extract, but today we are brewing all-grain. For an all-grain process, the four basic steps are:

Mash – Extracts the sugars from the malted grains. Here we steep the malted grains in hot water, kind of like making oatmeal. We’re doing the mash today in the Grainfather. This results in a sweet wort.

Boil – After removing the spent grains from the sweet wort, the wort is boiled to concentrate the sugars. Hops and other flavors are added during the boil for bitterness and flavor.

Fermentation – The wort is cooled to a temperature favorable to the yeast and transferred to a sanitized fermentation vessel. We add the yeast and let those little critters do their thing.

Conditioning/Packaging – The wort becomes beer during fermentation, but that beer is not fizzy yet! After fermentation, the beer is moved to a keg to carbonate with direct application of CO2, or moved to bottles with additional sugar so that the residual yeast can complete the carbonation process for you.

There are a whole host of mini-steps within those four basic steps, and future posts might get far out into the weeds of the brewing process.

A brew day includes the first two steps – mashing and boiling – plus cooling the wort and moving it to the fermentation vessel and adding the yeast. Fermentation might begin on brew day and will continue for several days thereafter. For a typical brew day, plan for as little as three hours (with some advance prep and clean-as-you go) up to six hours (for longer boils or complicated clean-up). There are periods of intense brewing activity and periods of downtime during the process.