Hop Exploration

[Uziyahu]

I have been brewing since Christmas 2011, when my loving and wonderful SWMBO bought me a kit to get started. You know how the story goes. I quickly became obsessed, started building DIY equipment, etc...etc...

I am starting to get interested in formulating my own recipes, but don't know enough about ingredients to do anything more than simply guess at what kinds of flavors they would contribute to a beer. My thought was to make several one gallon batches with the same recipe, except each gallon would use a different kind of hops. I'd love to be able to do a bunch of 5 gallon batches and have more beer, but the same SWMBO is the accountant of the family. She frowns when I make beer too often.


1 Gallon Batch
1# 3 oz NB Gold LME
3oz Belgian Caramel Pils (Steeping)

For the hops, I would keep the same schedule, but add different amounts in order to keep the IBU's of each gallon about the same. I'm looking at targeting about 40 IBU's.

60 Min
15 Min
1 Min
Dry Hop

I'm looking at trying these hops varieties:
Citra
Amarillo
Galaxy
Centennial
Any suggestions for others?

So, here are my questions:
1) Have you done something like this before? Have any advice?

2) I don't want to buy small fermenters just for this project. Any suggestions for containers to ferment 1 gallon batches? I have plenty of 1 gallon milk jugs, but then I'd need to cut each batch down to allow for the krausen.

3) Is my hop schedule ideal for getting a sense of the taste and aroma for each hop variety?

Thanks for the help!

 

[mewithstewpid]

yes that schedule looks good!

As for the containers, i have always used these, but i dont see why a milk jug woulndt work, just rig up a blowoff tube to control the kruasen spillover if there is any.

or use Fermcap to reduce the krausen

 

[bobbrews]

If you want to get a feel for hops with simple 1 gallon experiments then use a neutral yeast, no crystal, use EXTRA Light DME only and also a bit of sugar to aid dryness. High FGs will mask some hop character.

With your experiment, try to reach a specific target OG each and every time and match the IBUs with that OG. I would shoot for 1.060 OG / 1.010 FG and 60 IBUs, but that's just me. The first hop addition would be the smallest, and down the line, the additions would get progressively larger. For 1 gallon batches, 1.5 oz. total hops per batch seems appropriate.

Your hop schedule is fine, but I would adjust the 1 min addition as a 20 minute Aroma Steep, whereupon the heat is off and the wort isn't so close to boiling temps. More like a 100-150 F hop stand.

If I were to do this, I would probably do quick 15 minute boils, not full 60 minute boils. Seems like a waste of time for 1 gallon.

Any large glass jar should work for fermentation.

 

[TyTanium]

Many hops are good alone, but really shine in combination.

When you're done, I'd recommend blending a few to see which combos you like. There's a reason why certain combos are frequently used.