Robin Shepard
Capital brewmaster Ashley Kinart is giving her new seven-barrel system a whirl with a series of single malt, single hop beers.
Recent major changes at Capital Brewery in Middleton include a bigger taproom and, more crucially, a new seven-barrel brewing system on which brewmaster Ashley Kinart will be making pilot brews and small-batch specialty styles that will add depth to the brewery’s offerings.
A few weeks ago Kinart fired up the system for the first time and created a SMaSH — for the uninitiated, that means a single malt and single hop beer, fairly rare in the brewing world, but not unheard of for craft breweries that feature plenty of one-offs. She plans on it being the first in a series of beers featuring unique combinations of one malt and one hop.
It was a perfect opportunity to get to know the equipment and how it performs. “Just taking straight and simple ingredients and getting a clean product is a good way to get a baseline on a new system and see what it can do,” says Kinart.
The new system will produce mostly draft beer for the Capital’s onsite Bier Stube, Grain Room and Bier Garten, with occasional releases finding their way into select taphouses.
A SMaSH beer can end up being any sort of style, or no accepted style at all, as they are intended to showcase the combination of individual malts and hops. Kinart’s first SMaSH, called Ash’s SMaSHes Part 1, falls between a blonde/golden ale and a pale ale.
It features Amarillo hops and the brewery’s pale base malt. The base malt makes up the majority of the grist in a beer; Capital’s base malt is a custom blend of two-row and six-row barley from Malteurop of Milwaukee and is used in nearly all of the brewery’s beers. Kinart says that while technically it is two malts, she uses it as one ingredient in her recipes. She was curious to see the results when used alone next to a grapefruity hop like Amarillo.
This is a nice hoppy surprise, somewhat of a departure from the clean, balanced lagers Capital is known for. It doesn’t achieve quite the level of hop character one expects in a pale ale; however, it has the hazy look and tropical flavor popular now with the New England pale ale craze. It’s creative, hop-forward, flavorful, very easy drinking and a sign it’s going to be fun to see how Kinart uses her new system.
Ash’s SMaSHes Part 1 finishes around 4 percent ABV and an estimated 20-25 IBUs. In Capital’s Bier Stube and Bier Garten it sells for $5/glass. You can also find it over the next few weeks on tap at the The Old Fashioned in Madison.
Kinart’s next SMaSH is likely to be a malty lager with Munich or Vienna malt and Hallertauer Mittelfruh hops. That will make it somewhat of a hopped-up version of the brewery’s Winter Skål.
Another upcoming release will be a Brut IPA made with Apollo, Bravo and Simcoe hops that was also made using the brewery’s seven-barrel system.
