greenbirds

Recipes 

I'm designing an experiment to learn about the characteristics imparted by some of the various dry yeasts lying around my refrigerator. I am going to brew one 5-gallon batch, split it into five 1-gallon carboys, and inoculate each with one of the following:

Safale S-04
Safale S-05
Safale S-33
Danstar Nottingham
Danstar Windsor

I will be following Orfy's Mild Mannered Ale recipe. I was considering a single-malt single-hop recipe, but I wanted to learn from a beer that had some malt and hop complexity like most beers we drink.

This won't be ultra-scientific, as some of the yeasts vary in their use-by dates (they are 3-12 months away, have been in the fridge), but I figure since I'm pitching into 1-gallon batches there will be plenty of viability.

And there is my question. Is pitching a full packet too much? I know it's hard to overpitch, but that's like dumping 5 sachets into a low gravity 5 gallon batch. I'm considering 1/3 to 1/2 of an 11 gram sachet per gallon (have a kitchen scale). I won't be rehydrating, because I'm too lazy to do that with 5 separate yeasts, and I figure the extra yeast will ensure viability anyhow.

Please let me hear your thoughts.

Revvy

Recipes 

Sounds great.....I look forward to hearing your results in a side by side comparrison!

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greenbirds

Recipes 

It has been 22 days since I brewed and innoculated. I used the 5 yeasts listed above + I added Cooper's.

This beer was mashed for an hour at 157 F. Overshot the gravity in the recipe by a good bit (1.041 vs 1.037), but then miscalculated my dilution, which gave me about 5.5 gallons of 1.033 wort. Whoops! Anyhoo, they fermented at 66 F, yet the S-33 and Nottingham appear to be not quite finished, so I am letting them go a few more days until they are completely still, like the others.

Current gravities are as follows:
S-04: 1.015
S-05: 1.014
S-33: 1.016
Nottingham: 1.016
Windsor: 1.017
Coopers: 1.014

Mighty high FG's considering the low OG and the massive amount of yeast I pitched (about 5g per 1gal carboy).

I gave them a preliminary tasting, which I will update once they are in the bottle and fully carbed. It goes without saying that these ~2.5% alcohol beers are pretty thin, but there is some body there from the dextrins produced by the high mash temperature.

S-04: Faint roasty aroma. Taste some sweetness, coffee.
S-05: Strange, bready aroma. I've only used this yeast for APA's and IPA's, so I don't know if there is a problem, or if I'm just not used to what S-05 imparts to this type of beer. Taste is kinda like 2-row malt & husks, not good, but not bad.
S-33: Fruity aroma, nice taste, balanced between fruity and roasty.
Nottingham: Slightly bready, grainy, toasty smell, taste follows suit. Good.
Windsor: Very strange smell, I suspect brett infection or something funky. Some astringency in the finish. Not good.
Coopers: Strong fruity aroma with some vanilla notes! Interesting and very different from the others. Taste is also fruity with a slight roasty character.