Same brew, different hops. An experiment

[WVBeerBaron]

In an effort to get to know hop verities better I am considering brewing a couple of one gallon experiments. Each would use the same fermentables but a single, different hop variety. At first I was thinking of doing some small mashes and doing this all-grain but the small size of the mash and having to keep the temp constant worried me so I think I will go an easier route. For malt I will use amber dme at 90% of the bill and corn sugar at 10% (mimicking an IPA). Then I will just use one hop variety in each one gallon batch. I will start with cascade, simcoe, centennial, etc. Since each has a different alpha acid level I will adjust the boil time and amount so all batches end up with as close to 30 IBU as I can get. I will use glass fermenters and ferment at 68 degrees, with 2 weeks in the primary, then bottle and age for a month. I hope under the same conditions and same base malts the difference in hop flavor and bitterness will be easy to identify and analyze. Anything else I am not considering? Has anyone done something like this already? Tips or opinions? Thanks!

 

[ArcaneXor]

In general that's an excellent idea (I do something similar when I make SMaSH beers, except I don't always use the same base malt because plain 2-row is pretty boring). A couple of things to keep in mind:

1.) The yeast won't ferment exactly the same each time. There will be some flavor differences that are unavoidable.

2.) You'll get the whole cross-section of each hops' bittering, flavor and aroma. For many hops that is just fine, but you will find that some hops are awesome for bittering and aroma, but have an unpalatable taste (or some other combination). Ultimately, you will probably want to pick one flavor-neutral, high-alpha, low-cohumalone hop for bittering in all your recipes (like Magnum), unless you are making something special, and then use your knowledge from this experiment to customize your late additions.

 

[Oldsock]

I did something similar a few years back: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2007/02/hop-experiment.html

I did one mash and boil, then took a gallon at a time and did a short boil with an addition of hops to hit ~45 IBUs. Each batch was also dry hopped with the same hop from the boil. It was a worthwhile experiment, but it is always a pain to deal with five different beers instead of one.

I did my first Basic Brewing interview on the experiment if you want to hear more about it: http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr09-07-06.mp3

 

[WVBeerBaron]

ArcaneXor - any hops to you that have an unpalatable taste? I made a pliny the elder clone last year that ended up tasting like grapefruit juice, it was awful! Of course, I've never tasted the real thing so i can't compair it. Seemed like the over use of american citris tasting hops caused this grapefruit flavor. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/made-pliny-clone-austin-yesterday-146633/

Oldsock - very nice website! ....all those great experimental recipes! The results of your hop experiment is interesting: the different tasting notes associated with each variety of hop.