5 1-gallon batches

[stevem86]

I read this on here a while back but can't seem to find it.
Someone made a joke about splitting 5 gallons of beer into 5 separate 1 gallon secondaries and adding something different to each secondary.
Has anyone tried this?
Maybe dry hopping with different types of hops or adding different amounts of fruit or something like that.

This seems like a cool experiment.

 

[ja09]

Yes. This is a great idea if you want to make the time for it. You'll develop a palate for different ingredients much faster this way. Cheers

 

[ja09]

I should also say that 5 is a bit much. If I do it's usually a 3gal and two 1gal which is much easier. Go crazy with the experiments if you have time.. just make sure the rest of your process is good as well. And be careful of oxidation

 

[brewmeister13]

Done it. My first batch I did an Arrogant bastard clone that i spilt up and dry hopped a gallon, brewed a hop tea for a gallon, oaked a gallon and bottled 2 gallons normal.

Right now I am working on a hop series I dubbed Hops 101, where I actually brew 6 separate gallon batches using identical bases and a single hop for bittering, flavor, aroma and dry hopping. It's a lot of work, but the amount of knowledge gained in invaluable in my book.

Go for it, you won't be disappointed.

 

[501irishred]

I have two "Mr Beer" fermenters (~2.5gal) that I've kept for this purpose. Have a (now) strawberry wheat, and a strawberry mango wheat going right now.....

 

[JuanMoore]

I did a lot of those when I first started brewing to get a better feel for various components or techniques. I compared a lot of yeasts by splitting the wort into 5ths and then pitching a different yeast to each one. These days I typically brew 10-12 gal batches, and either split them into two 5-6 gal batches or into three 4 gal batches to ferment. I'll do different yeast, or dry hops, or other adjuncts in each one. Makes for a little more variety.

Edit: Here's a pic from one of the early yeast comparisons-

 

[Calichusetts]

There is a thread on this very subject out there with a nice documentation, searched for it but didnt find it. My first 30 batches were smash brews or something similar to learn malt and hop profiles. So worth it.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Another option to add variation to your brew is to add various grain and hops teas to your beer when you bottle. Recently I made three varieties of doppelweizen. The young beer had a nice amount banana ester for the style. One was hopped a little more bitter, one had chocolate malt tea added, and the last I added banana liqueur.

Details on making the teas and an easy way to covert sample size to batch sizes in my book which should be out very soon!

 

[stevem86]

Sounds great!
I think I will be trying this on my next brew.

 

[pluchar]

I did this recently with a wheat. I wanted to see what the different things would taste like when added to it. I had 5 1 gallons going: An orange peel, cinnamon, dry hopped with Saaz, raspberry, and oak cubes.

Overall, the raspberry and the dry hop were pretty good. Most who tried them seemed to enjoy it. However, the orange, cinnamon, and oak were just terrible.

I would caution you to be careful about adding in the priming sugar if you are bottling. I estimated as I poured it into the bottling bucket and accidentally overcarbed the cinnamon and undercarbed the orange.

I am happy I was able to learn a little more about what works in a wheat, but don't get your hopes up that they all will work out. If you can get one you like, it is a victory!

 

[ja09]

I would caution you to be careful about adding in the priming sugar if you are bottling. I estimated as I poured it into the bottling bucket and accidentally overcarbed the cinnamon and undercarbed the orange.

For small batches, I've had really good luck with the Brewer's Best conditioning tabs despite their terrible reviews on NB. It's just really easy to pop a couple in a bottle rather than mixing/boiling priming sugar.

OTOH, I've heard really bad things about NB's Fizz Drops, which have much better reviews