Hopstravaganza Advice

[pfooti]

I had this wild idea: brew up a large (4 ~ 8) number of one-gallon batches of very similar beer, and use a different hop variety in each batch. Get them all going at about the same time, and then throw a drinking / tasting party for friends who are interested (as I am) in tasting the differences between hop flavors.

Anyone try doing something like this? I've got some basic issues that I'm still working on hammering out.

1. Basic recipe- probably a "standard" IPA style, 1.050 OG from light DME and a little Victory steeped (no need to do this AG). US-05 fermenting, 7/7/7 schedule?
2. Vary hops by weight or AAUs? (1 oz of each variety, or 8 AAU of each variety)?
3. Which hops should I try?
4. Hop schedule- 60/15/5, single-type in each? Dry hopping?

 

[dcp27]

Sounds very similar to SMASH: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/what-does-term-smash-mean-138096/

1. sounds good, dont secondary. just 2+weeks in primary.
2/4. bitter to the same IBUs, and add 4-8g @15/5/dry.
3. any and all. you can choose a few from different regions

 

[heywatchthis]

I've done this EXACT same thing, and it gives a great picture into what hops actually contribute to a beer.


The only caveat here is that bittering can be a pain in the butt here. Its easier to bitter with a low alpha hop on a one gallon batch, to give you room for error. Off by a tenth of an ounce with warrior/magnum/etc, you can ruin one of these...off by a tenth using a 4%AA hop, not quite so big a penalty.