What this is
Single Malt and Single Hop. One base malt, one hop variety, nothing else in the grist and nothing else in the kettle.
This is not a recipe for a particular beer. It is a fixed frame for evaluating a hop, and the frame is what stays constant while the malt and hop are swapped out. Six brews have used it between June 2023 and July 2025, across four hops and three base malts.
Because the frame does not move, the beers are directly comparable. If you want to know what Motueka actually tastes like without a co-pilot, this is how you find out.
The frame
Everything below has held across the lineage. These are the numbers; the varieties are your choice.
| Grain | 6 kg of one pale base malt, 100% of the grist |
| Hop | 300 g of one variety |
| Schedule | 15 g @ 60 min · 30 g @ 20 · 45 g @ 10 · 60 g whirlpool @ 80°C · 150 g dry hop |
| Yeast | Two packets of a clean ale strain |
| Mash | 66–67.5°C, 60 min |
| Boil | 75 min |
| Target | ~23 L at 1.058–1.063, finishing 6.2–6.9% |
Half the hop load is the dry hop. The three boil charges climb 15 → 30 → 45 so that bitterness stays moderate while flavour builds, and the whirlpool at 80°C is hot enough to extract but not so hot it strips the aroma. That ladder is the same in all six brews.
What has been brewed
| Beer | Malt | Hop | Brewer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smashadelic | Maris Otter | Superdelic | Owen |
| Shagadelic Baby Yeah | Maris Otter | Superdelic | Matt |
| Krush’d Promise | Golden Promise | Krush | Matt |
| Golden Weka Ale | Golden Promise | Motueka | Matt |
| Golden Weka Ale | Golden Promise | Motueka | Owen |
| Smashatron | Gladfield American Ale | Nectaron | Owen |
Two of the pairings have been brewed twice, once each by both brewers — Maris Otter with Superdelic, and Golden Promise with Motueka. Those pairs are the closest thing here to a controlled repeat, and worth reading side by side in the lineage below.
Smashatron is the one that bends the rule: 150 g rather than 300, split between Nectaron pellets and Nectaron Cryo. Still one variety, but two products at roughly half the weight, since cryo runs at about double the concentration. Same beer in spirit, different arithmetic.
Choosing what to put in it
The malt should get out of the way. Golden Promise and Maris Otter both bring a little more than a neutral base would, which is a feature at 100% of the grist — a truly neutral malt makes for a thin beer with nothing under the hop. Gladfield American Ale works the same way.
The hop wants to be one you actually want to learn. A SMASH will expose a hop’s weaknesses as readily as its strengths, and at 13 g/L there is nowhere for it to hide.
Reference build above is Golden Promise with Motueka, chosen because it is the exact 6 kg / 300 g / two-packet spec and both of us have brewed it. Read the malt and hop as placeholders, not prescriptions.