Homebrew Summer: The Smilinskie

When it comes to style selection, modern craft-brewers face the challenge of balancing adventurousness and marketability. Many would love to make all sorts of ales and lagers, including those of the obscure ilk, but at the end of the day breweries needs to sell through the offerings on their tap lists. So, hoppy ales, crushable lagers and other fan-favorites tend to win out. But when our Homebrew Summer program comes along, it provides a fun opportunity for professional brewers to venture beyond their standard operating procedures to brew out-there styles like today’s featured beer, a Polish-style Grodziskie called The Smilinskie. A smoked session beer based on a recipe from local homebrewer Matthew Smiley (pictured above, center), the beer went on tap at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station last week. It’s the only locally made Grodziskie that we can remember seeing in over a decade, making for the type of beer that’s not only worth seeking out, but brewing at home, something you can do using the recipe for the beer, which can be download below.

This is one of over 20 beers we’re sharing as part of this year’s program. Summer is over, but Homebrew Summer is not, so keep checking back with us to make sure you don’t miss the recipes that are yet to come. Or, if you prefer, you can sign up for our email newsletter, and we’ll send all of the recipes directly to your inbox. Cheers to homebrewing and another fun Homebrew Summer!

Kris Ketcham
Senior Manager, Brewing & Innovation – Liberty Station, Stone Brewing

I’ve been brewing at Stone’s Liberty Station location since we opened in 2013 and have always looked for reasons to step outside my comfort zone. As always, there were a lot of great recipe submissions for this year’s Homebrew Summer, but I was drawn to Matt’s Polish Grodziskie recipe since it was low-alcohol, used smoked malt and was a style of beer I had personally never had the pleasure of drinking or brewing. Historically, low-ABV (alcohol-by-volume) and smoky beers don’t perform well at our locations, but the Homebrew Summer program gave me the perfect reason to do both. We used Viking Smoked Wheat Malt and Lubleski hops from Poland. While doing some research, I stumbled upon WLP548 Original Grodziskie Yeast Blend, which was a no-brainer since local company White Labs went through all the trouble to work with Browar Grodzisk to bank this yeast in San Diego. Overall the recipe was simple, however, brewing this delicate, low-ABV beer on our single-infusion brewhouse presented some challenges. Typically, this beer goes through a step mash, but luckily modified malts like Proximity‘s Body Builder and Dextrin Malts exist to assist with delivering fullness and mouthfeel for beer styles like this. I think this Grodziskie turned out great, especially for our first time attempting the style without a lot of fresh commercially available examples of this type of beer to guide us. Come try it and don’t fear the smoke. It’s hardly noticeable, and before long you will be tossing back a couple of pints.

Matthew Smiley
Homebrewer

I had never even heard of a Grodziskie until reading about it 2022, but it quickly became a favorite for me, which is why I entered it in this years Homebrew Summer. Made by only a handful of breweries around the world, I was hoping it would get selected so other beer-lovers in San Diego could get a chance to try it. Brewing this historic beer at Stone was very much a bucket-list item for me. I was able to bring a couple other homebrewers along for the ride and we were all smiles on brew day. The hospitality was a masterclass and appreciated by all! As for the beer, letting it rest for several weeks was key to achieving the desired profile and aided in clarification. In the end, it is one tasty piwo! I’m happy that there are people like Kris in the world. It takes courage to make 16 barrels of a beer no one has ever heard of. Thank you to him, and seriously, everyone needs to try this historic beer. It might just be your new favorite.

Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station is located at 2816 Historic Decatur Road in Point Loma