This year's challenge

[FedoraDave]

I consider the "brewing year" to begin around Labor Day and continue through the fall, winter, spring, and early summer. Then I take a bit of a break during July and August -- Too hot, and I'm ready to not brew every weekend by then.

Lately, I've tried to challenge myself to do something new with my brewing, so it's not always the same ol' same ol', and also to stretch my knowledge and experience. Last year I experimented with researching styles I'm not as familiar with, and formulating recipes in those styles. I came up with some pretty good recipes that I know I'll make again.

This year, I'm going to investigate hop strains that I really haven't used before. I found myself relying too much on the Hallertaus and Cascades and Northern Brewers, and not looking into what other strains could bring to a recipe.

So here's my plan: I'm going to formulate a 2.5 gallon recipe, fairly simple grain bill, such as 5# 2-row, 0.5# chocolate, 0.5# 40L, and every other 2.5 gallon batch, I'll use a different hop strain. Not exactly a SMaSH beer, but a single-hop beer, with the same base recipe to allow the hop influence to be what makes the difference.

I should be prepared to take notes on each beer, to capture my thoughts on first taste, so I can make better decisions in the future when formulating new recipes and deciding which hops to use, and what combinations might go well in more complex recipes.

[mashani]

I like your idea.

But I think I'd suggest a more lightweight recipe - maybe something more like 1-2oz of chocolate and 3-4oz of crystal if you want to really taste all the nuances of the hops. Not saying it's *necessary*, but it will help the subtle flavors show through in some types of hops. Especially the chocolate malt - 1/2# of chocolate malt in 2.5 gallons is going to hide a lot. At least IMHO.

[Brewbirds]

I don't know if you remember FD that we did the same thing during the summers in Texas a while back. It was way to hard to maintain temps then so, when we discovered Mauribrew (sp?) yeast with its high temp tolerance, we explored a bunch of hops varieties with SMaSHs. It was a fun (and tasty) project and a great learning experience.

I would definitely recommend keeping your grain bill simple and finding a clean bittering hop if your intent is to study the forward hop additions.

You might consider if you don't want to rotate a batch or two of favorites house brews just so you don't find yourself craving a glass or have someone come over expecting it to be on tap.

Have fun with it and keep us posted.

[Kealia]

Things like this are always a good idea and I applaud anybody that has the discipline to test and learn in this manner. I've done this a few times, with known grain bills, and had good results in terms of learning about new hops. My latest Mandarina Pale Ale is that way - built off the foundation of a previous grain bill so I could limit the variables involved.

And good on ya for having a plan.

[FedoraDave]

I like your idea.

But I think I'd suggest a more lightweight recipe - maybe something more like 1-2oz of chocolate and 3-4oz of crystal if you want to really taste all the nuances of the hops. Not saying it's *necessary*, but it will help the subtle flavors show through in some types of hops. Especially the chocolate malt - 1/2# of chocolate malt in 2.5 gallons is going to hide a lot. At least IMHO.

No, I'm totally aware of this. I was typing off the top of my head. I know that's too much chocolate, and too much crystal for a recipe like that; I just want a bit more body and malty intrigue, while still allowing the hops to shine through. I didn't even run anything through BrewToad. I'll have to monkey around with the numbers in order to get a fairly innocuous yet decent malt bill. I do want some flavor and body, and I''ll be happy with an OG in the neighborhood of 1.050 or 1.055.

[HerbMeowing]

... just want a bit more body and malty intrigue, while still allowing the hops to shine through.

2-3 oz. Belgian Aromatic FTW!

[Pudge]

Here is something we did a few times over at MrBeerFans to get several folks out of their wheelhouse and brew something different... to learn a new style. We did several competitions referred to as Girly Comps, Friendly Girls Comps, or whatever. I think it actually started as a "Friendly Competition Among us Girls".

Anybody that wanted in was in. We would then select a style which was usually a rarely brewed style... Dark American Lager, Dunkelweizen, Scottish 60, to name a few. We would then select a BJCP competition site/date. We would share all info from recipe building right through Judges feedback. Highest score won. You didn't win anything actually except bragging rights.

During the process, the entire forum learned a new style everything from what not to do and what works.

Good times...

[mashani]

... just want a bit more body and malty intrigue, while still allowing the hops to shine through.

2-3 oz. Belgian Aromatic FTW!

Or just 1/2# of Munich in the grain bill will do it just fine too.

[FedoraDave]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I won't get around to building the recipe for a while, but this definitely gives me something to think about.

[FedoraDave]

Well, I've got my recipe into BrewToad and I'm pretty happy with it. Mostly, I'm happy that I'm experienced enough to just throw together what I think will be a decent grain bill for a simple APA and have the numbers actually work within the guidelines. But I think it'll be a good base for my experiment.

So here's what I'm going to be brewing in a couple of weeks:

HOPSPERIMENT - Ahtanum

5# Two Row
1 Oz. Chocolate malt
1 Oz. 40L

0.75 Oz. Ahtanum - 60 minutes
0.25 Oz. Ahtanum - 22 minutes
0.5 Oz. Ahtanum - 7 minutes
Dry hop 0.5 Oz. Ahtanum

Mangrove Jack M10 yeast

Every third week, I'll make another batch of this, using a different hops that I've never used before. It'll be interesting to see what I pick up, and how I can use this knowledge when formulating new recipes in the future.

[Dawg LB Steve]

On an every 3 week rotation I would just do a quick wash (1 rinse) of the yeast and pitch in the new recipe.
Pudge that sounds like it was a pretty neat idea.