science fair recipe critique, please

[graybeard]

Greetings -

My daughter is getting ready to begin brewing four 5-gallon batches of the same recipe for a school science fair. She'll then split each batch into two identical mini-batches, in order to run her side-by-side evaluation of yeast attenuation.

I wanted a sorta simple all-grain recipe that she could brew without much hassle, that would result in a drinkable output for me and other adults later.

I've brewed ~20 AG batches in my time, but always from someone else's recipe. For this exercise, I started with EdWort's Haus Pale recipe (made it in the past, loved it), then tweaked the grain bill. Then I thought, "why not run each batch with a different, single hops strain, so I can taste test to find ones I really like," then I thought I'd save a few bucks by using yeasts i already have on hand.

So, looking at the recipe, you may not recognize EdWort's influence, but it was the inspiration.

Anyway, I bought ingredients to make the following:

Size: 5.5 gal.
Yeast: Wyeast 1948 Neobritannia or Nottingham
OG: 1.056
FG: 1.015
IBU: 38

Grain bill:
8.0 lb. 2-row (US)
1.0 lb. Munich
0.5 lb. Cara-Pils
0.5 lb. Caramel 60L

60 minute mash @ 150F, single infusion
170F fly sparge

60 minute boil

Hops vary by batch. Typical:
Willamette 5% AA, 1.5 oz. @ 60 min.
Willamette 5% AA, 1.5 oz. @ 20 min.
(1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min.)
Willamette 5% AA, 0.5 oz. @ 7 min.

(Maybe another 1.0 oz. to dry hop a couple of weeks hence...)

Cool wort, strain into two half-batch fermenters, pitch NeoB into one and Notty in the other.

Are there any last minute tweaks or advice?

Thanks.
Patrick/Graybeard

 

[airving]

I fully approve of getting the family involved in the hobby. 20 gallons of beer, for science!

Having said that, I'd be worried about how consistent the mash temps were across the 4 batches, given the affect of mash temp on fermentability. If you weren't trying to change up the hops, I'd suggest mixing the 4 worts thoroughly (all 20 gallons together somehow) and then dividing into your 8 x 2.5 gallon batches. 8 different yeasts, yes?

Most certainly I'm imposing doubts about my own process on you - yours may be dialed in such that times and temps are not a concern for you. Alternatively, you could go with extract, taking mash temps out of the equation.

I do get that the result of the experiment is 20 gallons of drinkable beer - but would the goals of the experiment be better met in a different fashion?