Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

edit: That's supposed to read "same recipe, one ingredient different" but too many characters...

Being limited in both my equipment (5 gal batches) and time (2 kids under 2) its hard for me to get too experimental with batches, let alone do re-brews within a short enough period of time that I remember what the previous beer tasted like well enough to give a valid comparison. Usually if something isn't quite what I expected, I tend to just move on. Maybe I'll re-brew, but when you're as limited in time as I am, with as big of a want-to-brew list as I do, there isn't much time to look back and do testing and comparisons.

I'd like to hear if anyone would be interested in doing a group brew of sorts, to do a recipe that would be exactly the same in terms of all ingredients except one, such as yeast, and then getting together when they're ready to taste the differences. Or doing something like brewing the same APA or IPA except changing up hop additions in terms of time and quantity to see firsthand how bitterness and aroma changes.

There are a lot of variables at play in this sort of experiment so things such as water, equipment, mash process, ability to control fermentation temps, etc would play a big part in this as well. We don't even have to all get together and brew at the same place, it could just be a designated weekend, or at least within a week of each other. I think this would be a very cool thing to try though. If say, 5 people were interested, we could bring our beers to a club meeting and let others see the differences as well.

Even thinking about it as I'm typing it out, it would be easy enough to just split a 5 gal batch into two vessels and pitch two different types of yeast. So that could broaden the spectrum even more. Imagine how cool it would be to have 10 different versions of the same beer with only yeast as a differing factor.

I went to a few different seminars at NHC on this. The differences range from subtle to obvious. Doing split batches with yeast or sugar additions is the easiest. Dry hopping would be as well. I would be interested to try this, but differences in brewing techniques usually make for a different beer as well.

I am doing five beers in a row pitching on two different yeast cakes over the next month or so. I will be doing 10 gallon batches and then splitting the batch in to two carboys and pitching the two yeasts. The two yeasts are Wyeast 1968 and 1098. I will make sure to bring samples of both versions to meetings when they are ready. Here is a list of the beers I will be doing this with.
1) American Pale Ale
2) American Brown Ale
3) Arrogant Bastard Clone (from Can You Brew It second attempt)
4) American IPA
5) Smoked Porter

I also hope to compare my Arrogant Bastard clone to a commercial example so I may be searching for one of those when the time comes unless I have snagged one by then.

Matt F wrote:3) Arrogant Bastard Clone (from Can You Brew It second attempt).

Do you actually mean their second attempt or the one they just did recently which all but Tasty called cloned? The one they they just did was more then two. I am sure it was at least three and I thik it was four attempts.

It is the most recent one where they think they needed to pasteurize it to convince Tasty it was cloned. It sounds like to me they have it except it had a fresher hop flavor which sounded nice to me.

I usually have at least 2 3gallon carboys free at any time which is nice for splitting 5 gallon batches. I can fit two of these into my fermentation fridge at a time too, so the temp conditions can be identical and controlled. . Finally, these smaller batches never need yeast starters.

I've thought about trying this but just never gotten around to it. So if anyone wants to get together on this I'd be game.

Matt F wrote:I am doing five beers in a row pitching on two different yeast cakes over the next month or so. I will be doing 10 gallon batches and then splitting the batch in to two carboys and pitching the two yeasts.

Wow, that's a ton of beer! Are you doing a batch a week or something? You're going to make me look like a slacker.

In March sometime I'm doing an APA. I think at the very least I'm going to split the batch and use two different yeasts. Maybe WLP001 and a belgian yeast.

carrisr wrote:

Matt F wrote:I am doing five beers in a row pitching on two different yeast cakes over the next month or so. I will be doing 10 gallon batches and then splitting the batch in to two carboys and pitching the two yeasts.

Wow, that's a ton of beer! Are you doing a batch a week or something? You're going to make me look like a slacker.

I will be doing 10 gallons every 7-10 days. I am thirsty.