Micro-batch brewing (1/2 gallon X 13) to learn about different types of hops?

I just started homebrewing this year and all my batches so far were extract+specialty grains. The first batches were 5 gallon each, I recently moved to 2X 1 gallon batches for side-by-side comparisons, and now I'm looking into 2L (less than 1/2 gallon) batches, mostly to try different types of hops. A few questions:

- Does anyone have experience with such tiny batches? Any special points to consider?
- I'm considering buying a 13 hops sampler and brewing 4~5 batches at a time. Any recommended order?
- To get comparable results I plan to calculate a certain target bitterness, e.g. 30 IBU (Tinseth), and change the ratio between 60 minutes boiled hops and, say, 5 minutes boiled hops so that I achieve the same bitterness with a single type of hops. Makes sense? Should I also add some hops 1 minute before finish?
- To reduce complexity around the hops and to get the results quicker it would probably make sense to avoid specialty grains and stick with pale LME and ale yeast (e.g. US-05). Should I still add some specialty grains to ensure the resulting beer is also enjoyable to drink? The main goal here is to learn about the differences between different types of hops, but I do plan to actually drink this beer

Thanks in advance!

How did this turn out, by the way? Inquiring young minds want to know

I haven't done it yet, but haven't given up on the idea. Right now I'm focused on brewing more traditional beer

There's a thread around here about splitting batches. My preferred method, assuming you have small fermenters that can handle boiling temps (such as PP or I believe HDPE plastic), is a bagged hopburst in the fermenters from a base batch. You brew a big batch, use a neutral bittering addition at the beginning, then at the end of the boil, while the beer is still at or near boiling temps, you scoop, pour, or drain it into your fermenters which are already holding your hopburst bags. Basically, you're doing a bunch of small batches from an identical base wort, each getting all of its hop flavor and aroma from a 20-30 minute steep/hopburst in the fermenter.

Another way to learn hop flavors is to get a twelve pack of something recappable, anywhere from bud light to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale but probably nothing hoppier, pop them open, toss a couple pellets of hops in each, then recap, refrigerate for a couple days, and do a tasting. You're essentially dry-hopping the beers to test the aromas of a bunch of hop varieties. You can even mix samples from multiple dry-hopped varieties in order to see how different hops play together.

Nice post fatdragon, that seems like the way to do it. Or, since the size is so low, you could hop burst/ whirlpool into any household pots, then transfer into the fermenters after they cool a bit.


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Check this out. Be sure to watch the video far enough in to where they brew up multiple one-bottle batches to test out different hops.