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.
The best way I’ve found to learn a hop. With no other hop or specialty malt in the way, everything in the glass belongs to that one variety, and running it through every stage shows what it does as bittering, as late-boil flavour, in the whirlpool and in the dry hop. Motueka is a good example: on its own, the herbal Saaz side it’s descended from sits clearly under the lime, citrus and tropical fruit.
Seven brews between June 2023 and September 2026, by Owen and me, across four hops and four base malts.
The frame
The numbers settled with Krush’d Promise in April 2025 and the Golden Weka Ales after it. 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 | 67.5°C, 60 min |
| Boil | 75 min |
| Result | 23–24 L at 1.059–1.062, 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. Owen’s Golden Weka ran the same weights with the late charges at 10 and 5 minutes and a 15-minute whirlpool.
How it got there
The two 2023 Superdelic brews started from the League of Brewers kit and put more of the hop into the late boil and less into the dry hop: 50 g dry of 250 g in SMASHadelic, 100 g of 300 g in Shagadelic Baby Yeah, which also ran a 90-minute boil.
Owen’s 2026 Smashadelic took Superdelic back through close to the settled weights, with the bittering charge cut to 10 g, Gladfield Ale Malt, Verdant IPA and the dry hop in on day 4.
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.
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 |
| Smashadelic | Gladfield Ale | Superdelic | Owen |
Two of the pairings have been brewed by both of us: Maris Otter with Superdelic, and Golden Promise with Motueka. The Golden Weka pair is the closest thing here to a controlled repeat, same malt, hop, weights and yeast.
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 and Ale malt work 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.