5 single dry-hopped IPA's

[HolmA]

I'm planing a 13 gal 7.5% ABV IPA and I coincidently have 5 x 2.7 gal fermenters at my disposal. The idea is to get an accurate feel for the aroma characteristics of 5 different newer hops by doing single dry-hopping of the same beer. I'd be doing primary fermentation in a 15 gal fermentor and aliquoting the beer into the 5 smaller fermentors.

I'll be using hops like: Sorachi, Nelson S, Topaz, Galaxy, Simcoe etc. for dryhopping.

For bittering I'll be using a 60 or 90 min addition of magnum, warrior or columbus to get a clean bitterness (85-115 IBU).

However, I don't want the IPA to be all punchy aroma and a lot of bitterness - I also want the hop flavour and juiciness typically achieved by late additions..
- As I see it my options are something like:

1. Do a 1:5 mix of all my aroma hops and do additions at 15-5-Whirl etc. (with the obvious risk of overpowering the individual hops used for dryhopping!)
   
2. I could use the less characteristic bittering hops for late additions as well (with the risk of getting a boring hop flavour or even harsh hop notes that characterises certain bittering hops when added late.)

How would you go about it? - Any other suggestions are of course welcome!

 

[MikeInMKE]

Chop & Brew – Episode 32: Brewing with New Hop Varieties

 

[drainbamage]

Unless you feel like taking the trouble to split up into 5 separate brewpots, you won't be able to get a flavor contribution of each type of hops. For the sake of not overcomplicating it, I'd take a portion of the bittering hops to add around 15-20 minutes, then do your individual dry-hoppings as planned. Adding all 5 as a flavor addition would probably be too much for you to identify each type on its own. Warrior and Columbus are good dual-purpose hops, so I think you could get a little flavor from those without overpowering the character of the dry-hop additions you have.

 

[kingwood-kid]

Best of both worlds: Brew with bittering hops only. When the wort is around 180F, split into your 2.7G fermenters and add some steeping hops for 15-30 minutes. Ferment in the 2.7s and dry-hop when the fermentation is done. I do this frequently; it's a great way to brew once and get multiple beers.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

If I were to do a similar experiment I would go with the dual purpose bittering/aroma hops, bitter with them, aroma with them. Then you have a nice blank clean slate beer. Each beer has the same bitter level and aroma/flavor level. Then you can control the experiment down to just the dry hop differential.

Otherwise you really would have to split the beer up as you boil. If you want to, you could have a 14 hour brew day splitting up the preboil volumes and boiling/bittering/aroma(ing) each individual batch.

Though for the sake of the experiment I would go with what kingwood-kid and drainbamage said, don't try and aroma with your dry hop varieties, way too many variables. Late addition hops are fun and I love them (even though I'm not a hop head, I'm a closeted hop head) and I think late addition and whirlpool additions are friggin amazing (just poor man whirlpooled fuggles/EKG at 170F in a ESBBrown and the whole room exploded with aromas of honey/spice/wood/dank so good I cant wait to drink this) so far my dry hops havent contributed as much of the flavor/aromas I expected.

 

[HolmA]

Best of both worlds: Brew with bittering hops only. When the wort is around 180F, split into your 2.7G fermenters and add some steeping hops for 15-30 minutes. Ferment in the 2.7s and dry-hop when the fermentation is done. I do this frequently; it's a great way to brew once and get multiple beers.

Yeah - well I seriously considered this.. It's just a lot more work with pitching and racking to secondary..