Can you brew a partial Smash?

Most and perhaps all malt extracts have more than one malt.

 

You cannot achieve a malt or hop profile like those beers with one base malt. A great malt for this would be maris otter as great extract for this can be obtained from Northern brewer, autstin homebrew, or morebeer.

That isn't even remotely true

 

prove it

 

Usually I don't consider it worth my time to prove a negative.
http://www.morebeer.com/products/maris-otter-malt-extract-syrup-crisp.html
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/maillard-malts-maris-otter-malt-extract-syrup.html
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/Beer/Liquid-Malt-Extract/Sorghum-3-lb.html#.VTA1DvnF95c Gluten-Free option
http://homebrewacademy.com/smash-extract-brewing

Having used this in the past I'm fairly confident this one is 100% base malt but I can't confirm.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/Beer/Liquid-Malt-Extract/Extra-Pale-LME.html#.VTA20PnF95c

I wouldn't at all worry about the malt extracts which only contain base + carapils. Effectively it's just going to seem like mashing at a slightly higher temp. The flavor will be basically the same but the loss of control over the body by controlling fermentables is already something given up by using extract in the first place.

 

My statement was most extracts and *perhaps* all malt extracts have more than one malt. Most means more than 50%. Your convenient and erroneous dismissal of extracts containing two malts with one of them being Carapils isn't helping your cause. The fact is they contain more than one malt and most extracts contain more than one malt. It's entirely possible there are a few single malt extracts. Hence the word perhaps. Congratulations on maybe finding one or two!

Breiss is the largest maker of extract in the country.

http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Extracts.htm#PilsenLight

And SMaSH beers are weak.

 

I didn't dismiss those malts at all, I was communicating with the OP. Your original statement heavily leans towards the all extracts contain two or malts from my perspective. You ignore the fact that I listed 4 confirmed sm extracts (many pale(light) or extra pale(light) do not say whether or not they are 100% base malt.) by calling it "one or two" I don't know why you consider Breiss to be the end all be all when it is TINY compared to many foreign maltsters. I will admit that not even "remotely" true was a stretch.

Muntons produces over 30,000 tons of malt based extracts a year
http://www.muntons.com/latest-news/malt-extract-output-at-record-levels/
Breiss between it two facilities produced 45,000 tons of MALT a year in 2014 (source malt by John mallet)

Calling smash beers weak is just plain ignorant. Tell that to liberty ale.

 

Four extracts doesn't qualify as most. Volume of Breiss vs Muntons is irrelevant.

 

Let's not split hairs (or malt : )...SMASHes are all about the single HOP...as long as you are not using a wheat, etc. extract, I would consider any light extract to be essentially a single malt even though most have a little dextrin malt included.

This , of course assumes you are not on the run from the Crystal Malt Police : )

 

Nope. Sorry. SMaSH is one malt and one hop. There can be no compromise. It's my sworn duty to protect the sanctity of SMaSH beers despite having absolutely zero interest in brewing them.

 

Continue to be a troll

 

Alright, now that we got that out the way.

It's time to answer the OP's question. Yes, you can use extract and a partial mash to make a SMaSH! I haven't the slightest idea why you would want to do that, but you certainly can.

The quantity of grain you would need depends on how much extract you intend to buy. Tell us how much extract and which extract you are buying and someone can tell you how much grain to use. Perhaps Theheroguy will step up to the plate for you.

 

Smash is a minimalist approach that should help you learn ingredients better. It's especially valuable for learning what specific hops bring to the table because some hop contributions get obscured by specialty malts. I think you would learn hops better if you stuck to all extract smashes, but that might bore the part of your makeup that gets off on process. But I think you can keep it simple and do all right - use Maris otter extract with Maris otter grain, Pilsner extract with Pilsner grain, Munich extract with Munich grain. Wheat extract with wheat grain. Some of these extracts may not be pure, but I think as long as they do not have crystal malt it would be suitable. I would avoid extracts labeled dark or Amber in this endeavor because they will have specialty malt. While there is nothing wrong with crystal and other specialty malts, the smash approach allows you to think about ingredients in isolation of others. In the long run, I think the goal is to better learn ingredients so you can get better at combining them, i. e., I think a legitimate goal of smash brewing is learning how to not smash in an efficient and effective way. I suggest you look for drew beechum's brewing on the ones articles, discussed in zymurgy and also drew's experimental brewing book.

 

The cool thing about homebrewing is you can do whatever you want to, for the most part. You want to mash a single malt and add an extract? Go for it. You want to you one hop variety? Go for it. You want to use 19 hop varieties and 12 specialty grains? Knock yourself out.

edit: Just be warned that the police will show up if you add crystal malt to an IPA.

 

Inside joke with IPA brewers meaning there are 2 schools of thought on using a crystal malt in an IPA...don't if you want a "West Coast" style IPA or use a judicious amount if you want something else. This, along with the term "Crystal Malt Police" have been used here on BA (and perhaps elsewhere) to poke fun at those staunchly advocating NO crystal malt in an IPA. Crystal malts (especially) tend to result in higher finishing gravities and a less dry IPA.

I will probably get called out for using the term "West Coast IPA" also : )

cheers and welcome to opinions unlimited : )

 

That's the dirty little secret...most west coast IPAs have some crystal. I have found, for my own palate, that usually staying below 4-5% crystal/caramel is mo betta : )