2nd Bew SMaSH

I'll not sugar-coat it . . . this is a bad idea. Many of the styles you are suggesting will suffer from a common SMASH recipe. Practically speaking, you're looking at styles with a temp range all over the board. Are you able to accurately (simultaneously) control ferm temps that may range from 80s to lower 60s? If your temps are off several degrees the yeasties will not be happy. Speaking of yeast, you are talking five strains . . . figure $3 - 4 if dry or $7 -8 if liquid. Do you understand yeast viability? Ready to make multiple starters? Do you realize you'll be lucky to get ten 12 oz bottles from a one gal primary? They are hard to rack from (typically small opening) coupled with the trub makes it very inefficient.

Your efforts will be rewarded more if you concentrate on a single style at a time, preferable something simple (American/Belgian/British pales). Try to perfect your process to include understanding what the yeast are doing. Let your exotic taste be satisfied with a trip to the beer store.

 

Agree with @PortLargo but I'd like to offer another option. You could split it just two ways, between two 3+ gallon fermenters. That way you can still experiment and compare, but you can choose two yeasts that are happy at the same temperature and pick two styles that are okay sharing the same mash. You would still get almost as much beer as you would from a single vessel, and there would be much less work and expense.

 

I will say it depends on what you are wanting to get out of this.

Are you trying to make 5 gallons of great stylistic beer? Then this is not the method you should use.

Are you trying to start understanding the true differences between the yeast and how they affect a single beer? Then this couldn't hurt.

I did 7 one gallon batches with different hops in each. I didn't care that I only got 7-8 bottles out of each because I was trying to understand the different hops, not get beer that I would want to drink daily.

If you brew a tailored batch of beer for each yeast then you won't really know what the yeast are doing separately. Where does the flavor from a Belgian Dubbel come from? Is it the yeast, or the candi sugar, or the malt? If you do the SMaSH then you may be able to understand better the influences and then generalize that for understanding later brews.

But the temperature considerations can be important. Saisons are often fermented warm but most of those yeasts will work at the normal temperatures... Just less phenolic. Hefeweizen yeast I believe produce more banana esters at higher temperature and are more clove phenolic at lower temperatures so those would really require additional testing to figure out what you really want.

I'd like to see how the German, American, English, and Belgian yeast strains all perform at around the same temperature to see what sort of character difference between them there is.

But again. @PortLargo is correct it will be a costly experiment. Because yeast are not cheap... But I wouldn't worry as much about the viability. You will have PLENTY of yeast in a vial/pouch for 1 gallon batches... You will be overpitching if anything. When I used dry yeast for my tests I did half a 11g pouch of US-05 in each fermenter.

 

I agree with Ten_seventysix – Maybe split the batch 2-3 ways and try out a few different brands of yeast type? For example you could do a saison and try out 3711, yeast bay saison blend and another strain with brett to see how they all compare. I would stick to one particular style though because yeast is the deciding factor in completely transforming a base beer, and not always in a good way.

 

Again. I'd think it depends on the OP's goal.

If the OP is trying to figure out the way to make the best saison then trying two different saison strains/blends would be great.

If the OP is trying to learn how different yeast strains affect the outcome then trying the different strains that he was listing in the original topic would be good... And with 1 gallon batches if one is not pleasant then there will only be 8-10 bottles down.

I would be interested in finding out what style of beer a Blonde Ale fermented with the different yeast strains resembles. That then can be generalized to a wide variety of styles... If I want to make a brown ale or IPA would I want the esters/attenuation from an english strain or would I want the characteristics of the american strain?

Then later on when trying to perfect styles you can test different saison yeast blends, or different hefeweizen strains/different temperatures/pressure.

But what exactly is the OP trying to get out of this brew?

 

@Roadkizzle I would agree that the experiment has merit, but I think that given OP's brewing experience (one batch) it's too ambitious. I doubt he has ever worried about temp control, and having several yeasts at different temperatures all at once would probably be an overwhelming introduction to the topic. Also, he probably isn't very comfortable with the process or his system after only one brew, and dealing with one or two fermenters is probably more than enough. Lastly, being inexperienced often leads to mistakes (fermenting too warm/cold, sanitation issues, etc.). If he does make a mistake and doesn't like the resultant beer, he likely wouldn't know that he made a mistake, and might deduce that he simply does not like that yeast.

My point is, I believe your first few batches should be about learning your system and the basics of the brewing process. Leave the experiments and learning about specific ingredients and styles for later, once you're comfortable with your system/process.

OP, if you disagree, obviously, feel free to give it a shot. What do you have to lose besides ~$60 and a few hours?

 

Why does the OP necessarily need to have his fermentation at different temperatures?

Looking at the White Labs website:
German Ale/Kolsch yeast Optimum Temperature: 65-69F
English/British Ale Yeast: 65-70F
American Yeast: 65-73F
Belgian Ale Yeast: 65-72F
The biggest question is adding Saison or Hefeweizen strains.
Saison: 68-75F
Hefeweizen: 68-72

Fermentis' Temperature Ranges:
English Ale 59-68
American Ale 64-82
German Ale 59-68
Belgian Ale 59-68
Saison 64-80
Hefeweizen 64-78

All ale yeasts will be decent in the mid 60's. Ideal flavor profiles for specific palates may be different especially with Saison or Hefeweizen yeast where different temperatures produce varying phenol/ester profiles. But at this point I don't think that it would be necessary to dial those in so exactly. There will be a noticeable difference of the profile when those are fermented in the mid-60's showing how they can affect different beers.

There are legitimate considerations and concerns for this that you point out. But the specific fermentation temperature is more important when shooting for specific styles not just the yeast.

 

That's all true, for sure. I'm fermenting 3 different yeasts at the same temperature as we speak! I guess my main point is that it would be lots of work and expense for what would be, in my opinion, a less than optimal experience. Of course, I've been known to do things that are less than optimal and have definitely learned from those experiences.

 

Bottling 1 gallon batches sucks in my opinion unless you don't care about mixing dregs from one batch to the next.

I would go with the 2 or 3 batch suggestion, that way you actually get more than 12 beers from each batch which will allow you to see how the beers change over time. This also lets you be a little more specific with you recipe so you end up brewing decent beer.

So do a basic pale ale, but half gets an english yeast and half an american yeast. This increases the probability that you get 2 good beers that are similar but different.