HOP TEAS & MASH TEA EXPERIMENT back to basics

[newtonsshed]

Hi,
I'm returning back to brew after a 3 yr break and in the mist of redisgning the brewhouse and am looking to get back to basics to understand good beer and I think as a part of this process I want to re learn the different flavours of hops and understand what each malt tastes like and I'm starting to think how I could pratically do this.

For the hops this I think will be relitively easy the plan is to make hop teas different amounts of same hops in each and different types hops steeped in hot water also for steep for different amounts of time just to give a comparrison I also then am thinking as this will give me the idea of bitterness and woodeness of each hops and levels to use BUT they will and do taste differently when put with sweet wort and even more so in fermented beer so I was thinking to mash boil and FERMENT a basic ale say 95% pale malt 5% crystal volume about 10l or so and then add the hop teas to a small amount of the fermented wort does this sound like a vaible experiment has anyone tried doing it?

For the grain/grist the harder of the two - I was thinking to ferment somehow a very small amount of grain say 50g to 100ml of water in say a plastic drinking cup and the 50g be made up of pale malt with non dylastic? malt again use different malts and in different proportions with a small amount of yeast and leave to ferment for a few hours/days eg pale malt + 10% chco pale so 2g chcoc and 48g pale, pale malt + 20% chco so 4g chco and 46g pale would this work and give a fair basis of comparrison oh and then again add some hop tea to balance it once fermented but I not sure how you would "boil" such small volume but in quantity? Would you beable to ferment directly ie add water at mash temp leave to mash then cool then add rehydrated yeast again would this work anyone tried it?

[Scooby]

No not tried any of that, I find brewing and drinking beer much more fun

[Valley Commando]

Small volumes = small samples, hard to get much useful information out.
The hops experiment is easy and viable. Part 2 is more difficult and I would rely on bigger volumes of brew and brew different batches over a period to get a reasonable feel for what works.

[greenxpaddy]

Yes, I have thought about it but never got round to it. I was going to ferment starter sizes with hops as a test. If you do a new hop combo with each starter it kills two birds with one stone. Obviously not to use a stir plate.