The Newbie's Beer Ingredients Taste Experiment

[EccentricDyslexic]

Hi chaps,

Now i have done a few brews, all clones from GW's book I'd like to move on and try brew a beer designed by me for me! My problem is I don’t really know how stuff tastes, by that, i mean i don’t know my Stryian Goldings from my Fuggles nor my Pale Malt from my Vienna Malt.

Now, i can probably learn over years of trying other peoples recipes and making my own adjustments after each brew has been evaluated, but I'd prefer a clearer and more logical route so i propose the following- a bunch of fellow brewers on here work together on a learning experience by brewing very similar brews with exact timings and methods, but with slightly different ingredients. Then we bottle our brews and send each other a bottle or two each!

I'd like to start with brewing a Pale Malt only brew, boiled with one hop for bittering, flavouring and aroma ie Fuggles. I would do this brew and someone else would do a Pale Malt only brew with East Kent goldings, and someone else with Stryian Goldings. All would be brewed to the same gravity, use the same yeast (So4?) and use the same water profile treated with CRS and DLS in line with brupacks instructions. Later on in the experiment we can play with different malts and use the same hops etc.

What do you chaps think? Anyone interested in starting a little group?

Cheers!

Steve

[trucker5774]

I have pretty much tried to do this on my own. It takes a lot of brews and is time consuming. It does help with learning though. I think it is a very good idea but I see a few problems. When I brew the same recipe it is not always identical to the previous brew. There can be unnoticed or accidental variations in method, water treatment, suppliers and ultimately, the taste test............you would all have to be local try each others brews to get the best comparison (mmmm not such a bad idea )

Overall, I think it is a good idea though

[EccentricDyslexic]

I think we'd have to post bottles out to each other as its difficult for me to get away from home cus of me business (and the wife!). I like the idea of using Asda water for consistantcy, though i dont have one local to me, i wouldnt mind going and finding one and buying a couple of brews worth at a time.

Steve

[vacant]

Why bother brewing to test? How about hunting around for the best clone recipes, then buy bottles and compare? There must be quite a few single hop beers out there. If you assume that the 60/90 minute copper hop variety doesn't matter when you just want X IBU of bittering , then you can include beers with two hops.

[dogchillibilly]

For hops pick up supermarket beers that state what they are hopped with. Also when you go to beer festivals do the same, that's how I sussed out I don't like nelson sauvin. And once you recognise the taste of a specific hop you can start relating it back to other beers you have liked or disliked.

[EccentricDyslexic]

Vacant & dogchillibilly, i think your both missing the point here chaps, my idea is to completely isolate certain ingredients, firstly hops, then malts, then yeasts, then maybe water profiles.

The problem with buying commercial beers (and beer festival beers to a lesser extent) is that you don’t know;

firstly that they're telling the complete truth on the bottle, hand pull or website when they say they use challenger for bittering and cascade for flavour;
secondly you don’t know if they are using a yeast with fruity notes itself or one that accentuate malts;
thirdly you don’t know the water profile they are using, if they are burtonising this may be bumping the hop notes up or mellowing them;
fourthly you don’t know the quantities or the ingredients ie bittering, flavour and aroma;
fifthly they could be using combinations of hops and malts for different things....i could go on.

Basically there are too many 'known-unknowns' and no doubt 'unknown-unknowns'! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq5mQLArjmo

My proposal is to completely isolate one ingredient ie fuggle hops and use it in isolation to bitter, flavour and aroma hop to a known IBU and frequently used flavour and aroma hopping rates, a simple brew and to compare this with the exact same simple brew but bittered, flavoured & aroma hopped with another hop. This way we can isolate the different bitterness profiles, taste profiles and aroma profiles. We may find out some surprising stuff ie we could find that a particular hop has harsh aggressive bittering profile and another one has a mellow bittering profile.

Its all about detecting those nuances and then getting on here and talking about what we have found and where to go next.

Steve

[EccentricDyslexic]

Well, i have started thinking about me first brew experiments and have come up with the following based on GWs Summer Lightning clone but rather than use Challenger for bittering, i will use Goldings to 35 IBUs-

Recipe: EKG Brew
TYPE: All Grain
Batch Size: 25.00 L
Boil Size: 30.11 L
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated IBU: 35.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

5.05 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 100.00 %
60.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (90 min) Hops 32.3 IBU
17.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 3.1 IBU
10.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (steep at 80c for 20 mins)
1.32 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
25.00 L Burton On Trent, treated with CRS and DLS
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar)

Recipe: Fuggles Brew
TYPE: All Grain
Batch Size: 25.00 L
Boil Size: 30.11 L
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated IBU: 35.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

5.05 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 100.00 %
75.30 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (90 min) Hops 32.9 IBU
17.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (10 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
10.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (0 min) (Steep at 80c for 20 mins)
1.32 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
25.00 L Burton On Trent, Treated with CRS and DLS
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar )

I will scale these down to 15litres, if only to speed up consumption! I aim to have quaffable ales whilst experimenting!

Any comments chaps?

Steve