An idea for maxium variation experimentation...with limited fermenter space

[johnnychicago]

I just had a mini flash of genius that I thought I'd share:

My girlfriend and I have been talking for some time about brewing a beer that's flavored with edible flowers. We finally decided on a simple Belgian Witbier recipe and began narrowing down our list of flowers. While discussing this, I an idea came to me.

Whenever I add post-fermentation ingredients i.e. cocoa nibs, vanilla beans, etc. I try to split the batch and try part of the beer clean and part with the flavorings. With only a couple of carboys, this always slowed down my rate of brewing and held up other beers. I realized that the answer was...minikegs!

I have 4 minikegs from Bell's brews that I've used a couple of times for bottling, but I never used them for their full potential. These minikegs will collectively hold a full batch. I can brew one 5 gallon Wit and ferment in out in a primary. Then I can put 4 different flowers in each of the minikegs and fill 'em up, carb them and I have 4 variations to sample.

I'm pretty excited to think of what else I can do with this discovery:

• Stout base split between lactose/vanilla/cocoa/cinnamon
• Saison with four different cooking spices
• IPA with 4 different dry-hop strains
• High ABV brew with oak cubes soaked in bourbon/rum/rye whisky/scotch
• If I want to brew 4 individual 1.3g batches (from 1 mash) I could even do single malt/hop/yeast beers (as long as I ferment in the minikeg)

The options are endless.

I realize that the downside is that the minikeg would have to be drunk fast, but that actually has a silver lining. I can throw a party and have all my friends try the variations side-by-side and vote for their favorite. BAM! Instant feedback; now I know what to brew a full batch of!

This may not seem like such a big deal for folks with lots of free fermenters, but for me, this is an exciting discovery.

Anyone else come to this or a similar realization? Anyone else going to try this? What other variations do you think I should try next?

 

[Pdeezy]

I have an old Mr. Beer fermenter and I use it to do similar things. This weekend I will be adding fruit to a batch of BM's Centennial Blonde. The majority of the batch will be bottled as is, but about 2 gallons of it will be racked on top of strawberries in the Mr. Beer kit. I think it's pretty cool. If I like the taste of it then next time I will do the whole batch, and if I don't...well I onlly screwed up 2 gallons.

 

[SuperSynapse]

Yeah, let us know how they turn out.

One thing to know though, a while back a friend made a batch of pumpkin ale with lots of spices. When it was time to drink it it tasted pretty putrid and nothing like pumpkin. We later found out he put too many spices in it (he had somehow doubled the proportions of cinnamon, clove, and allspice)

In any case, after debating throwing away the keg he put it in a corner of his kegorator and forgot about it. A year later when he was going to make it again he realized he never threw the old one away and decided to try it again. It was excellent, and the spices had tamed significantly with a full pumpkin flavor. Anyway, if you find you "over seasoned" your beers, and as long as they have an alcohol content above 5%, I'd say keep them in your fridge for a while if you can dedicate the keg. It might come out really well over several months/a year when the spices mellow.