SMaSH
6 brewers, 6 hops, 6 unique SMaSH beers. Boom!
Holland Hophouse has challenged well known brewers with producing a SMaSH beer! What's SMaSH? Why is that exciting? Let us explain…
SMaSH allows brewers to use ingredients in their purest form. That's Single Malt and Single Hops. That's what Holland Hophouse aimed to do. They supplied 6 brewers with hops and challenged them to produce a SMaSH beer. It’s not as simple as it sounds, they must get the most out of the single hop variety and brew a solid, tasty beer.
The SMaSH Beer Case can now be exclusively ordered here at Beerwulf. Discover SMaSH and the diversity of hops!
SMaSH Beer Case
The Beerwulf SMaSH Beer Case lets you taste all 6 of the SMaSH beers. Take your taste buds on a journey and explore the unique characteristics of 6 beautiful hops in 6 tasty beers. The case contains 2 of each beer (12 total), which makes it perfect for sharing. Taste, discover and enjoy!
Holland Hophouse
Hollands Hophuis (Holland Hophouse) are Dutch hop suppliers. They cultivate and distribute high quality hops to breweries all around the world. The idea for this project came from Carel Krol, their co-founder: "Hop is a beautiful, fascinating plant. Under good conditions they grow 12 to 13 cm per day, you see them grow, that's a small miracle. But it is also a reasonably sensitive plant, susceptible to diseases. That makes a good hop yield not a matter of course. In this profession, I can combine the wonder of the plant with a wonderful product: beer!”
SMaSH
One variety of hops, one type of malt, water and yeast. It sounds straight forward right? However, it is actually very difficult for a brewer to make something beautiful out of that, it requires a lot of skill. There's nothing to hide behind and little mistakes are magnified. Nevertheless, Carel was adamant about brewing SMaSH beers: "That way you can really show off the specific hop aroma. That's what makes it so much fun, that you can now taste what a certain hop variety can do in beer and what aroma that specific variety gives".
But does that mean all the beers will be simple and one-dimensional? "Certainly not. I find a large mix of hop varieties nonsense.That's like mixing 6 colours, they become grey, or brown. The differences disappear."
The SMaSH beers
Let's take a look at what you can expect in the SMaSH Case
- Rock City: SMaSH - DDH Double IPA with Sorachi Ace, originally a Japanese hop with aromas of lime, citrus and a touch of coriander.
- Bird: Puur Goudhaan (Pure Gold Rooster) SMaSH Pale Ale with Hüll Melon, this hop has clear aromas of honeydew melon with a hint of strawberry.
- Van Moll: SMaSH hit NEIPA with Callista, a German hop with aromas of apricot, passion fruit and red berries.
- De Prael: Vienna SMaSH Lager with Barbe Rouge, a hop from France with aromas of cherries and strawberries.
- VandeStreek: SMaSH Pale Ale with Junga hops, a Polish hop with aromas of blackcurrant and pineapple among others.
- Dutch Bargain: As bitter as Ariana Grande's exes IPA with Ariana hops. Appears American: Resin, tropical fruit and pear
Visiting Holland Hophouse
Nathan visited the Holland Hophouse to learn everything about there is to know about hops
6 brewers, 6 hops
"These are brewers we have been working with for a long time. Brewers who, just like us, set great store by quality, that's where beautiful SMaSH beers come from" says Carel.
Sustainability
Hops are a very important flavouring in beer, especially in the ever popular hoppy beers. "Especially fruity aromas are very important nowadays, you can see that in IPA's with American hops. However, we only work with European growers, that's a conscious choice. Europe is the cradle of hops. Within Europe we can visit a grower more often and work more intensively with the growers to guarantee that quality. In addition, it is much more sustainable; hop paddling across the ocean has a different footprint. Nowadays you can't ignore that, it is and is becoming more and more a demand from the various governments. And rightly so, by the way.