I brew 5 gallon batches. I feel like I usually decide against brewing strange or experimental beers because I'm afraid of getting stuck with 5 gallons of something that didn't work. I could brew smaller batches for those ones, but then I feel like I wasted my efforts ending up with so little, and what if its amazing? Because of this, I'm basically a boring brewer doing the safe thing all the time. Anyone feel this way or have good ways to overcome it?
You might be interested in knowing that Denny Conn brews 2.5 gallon batches for his experiments. On a related matter, have you read: http://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Homebrewing-Science-Pursuit-Great/dp/0760345384 Cheers!
Split batches 1) two yeasts, same grain bill is an easy variation. This is how I discovered that if I had to I would be happy only brewing with 3724 for the rest of my life 2) dry hop with different hops is also easy. 3) have just started down this route, but half the batch stays "clean" and half gets brett or even go lacto/pedio
I'm the same way. when I go out on a limb, I'm either doing a split batch or a pati-gyle. If I line up all my ducks correctly, a second mash and second boil adds about 90 min to an otherwise 4 hour brew day. If you brew half of something amazing, you're rebrweing a 5 gal batch down the road.
Try 1 gallon recipes. 8-10 bottles is plenty for me when it comes to a single style/recipe. If something turns out fantastic, go ahead an do a full 5 gallon batch.
If your all-grain brewday is 5+ hours and you have 3 vessels, a plate chiller, pumps and so on to clean, I can understand why you wouldn't want to make less than 5 gallons. On the other hand, if you BIAB (or no sparge or extract) and your brew day is 3-4 hours and you only have one kettle to clean, making small batches is much more feasible. Personally, the recipe making and experimenting is why I love brewing, so small batches make a lot of sense for me. My standard batch size is 11 liters (3 gallons). I have no plans to go bigger or to switch from BIAB.
I do this with every batch, three different treatments for 15 gallons total. Other ideas I've used: - Different ferm temps - Different pitch rates - Fruiting/Oaking/other additives
Nothing wrong with being a "boring" brewer. I tend to like "boring" beers, so I am a boring brewer too. I only recently brewed my first beer above ~1.070. I almost exclusively brew pale ales, IPAs, brown ales, milds, and blondes. If I'm feeling frisky I use a hop variety I'm not familiar with. On the rare occasion I go really crazy and add tinctures to kegs that have 1 or 2 gallons left. If I'm having a craving for a different style, I just buy a commercial example. It's more economical for me that way.
Have you come to any conclusions about different pitch rates? Does it matter for the beers you have done this with? I like the different temps idea, I've never experimented with those.
Unless I'm brewing with my Zymatic, I rarely brew a straight all the same batch. Let's say I'm brewing 10 gallons - almost without exception 5 gallons will be one thing and the other 5 will be something entirely different! Denny and I are going to be covering a lot of this sort of stuff on the podcast and thanks to Jack for promoting the book! (Our website: http://www.experimentalbrew.com/)
I just recently started homebrewing, and thus far I've just followed kit recipes. Once I start to experiment, my plan is to just take existing recipes that I know work, then altering them just slightly (tweak the specialty grain bill slightly, or change the timing or type of one of the hop additions, etc.) This way I figure that even if something doesn't turn out for the better, by starting with something that I know works, the beer should at least still turn out drinkable. I figure I can just continue to get more adventurous from there.
