Small batch, split experiments

Getting back into brewing after 16 years. Looking to do a smaller batch to split into multiple growlers to vary hops and yeasts. Using the Northern Brewer Chinook IPA recipe as a starting point, bought ingredients at LHBS with a bump up in the malt and hops.

2.5 gallon boil to produce 2 gallons wort, split to two 5 gallon carboys for primary, split each to two 1/2 gallon growlers for secondary.

4.00 lb. Amber DME
1.00 lb. Crystal Malt (120 Lovibond) grain to steep
0.50 oz. Chinook [11.1%] 60 min
0.25 oz. Chinook [11.1%] 10 min
0.25 oz. Chinook [11.1%] 1 min
0.50 oz. Chinook [11.1%] dry hop in each A growler
0.50 oz. Mosaic [12.7%] dry hop in each B growler
Carboy 1: Safale US-05 American Ale (half pack)
Carboy 2: Safale S-04 English Ale (half pack)
Ferment at 65F

I could vary the hop schedule in a couple ways
1. Move 0.25 oz. from 60 to 1 min to increase Chinook flavor at the expense of bitterness
2. Move 0.25 oz. of Chinook from dry hopping to 10 and another 0.25 to 1 min, and reduce dry hopping in all growlers to 0.25 oz.

Goal is to learn about the Chinook hop, especially it's flavor and aroma while also varying against the Mosaic hop which I know I love from Alchemy Hour. Varying the yeasts was a more recent idea I came up with in this plan, but I think it will create an interesting comparison.

Comments welcome. And yes, I do know I am a little crazy to simplify with extract and small batch but complicate with all this splitting.

 

I was thinking to go straight from the growlers to the bottles and use carbonation tablets in each bottle. I have plenty of time to decide on this though. I may very well find that the growlers are too much of a pain too, but going in my priority is on the experimentation vs. the quantity of beer.

However I do want to fill the growlers completely, so thinking to boil 3 gallons to 2.5 of wort. Also, changing the hop schedule to 0.50 at 60 min and 0.50 at flameout with half hour hopstand. Will be starting in about two or three hours.

 

Thanks pweis, that sounds like good advice. I had found I'd get darker than ideal with the 120, but didn't really think about the flavor impact. I like the idea of getting more body in the beer from crystal, but would go with a much lighter color next time.

Further online research since brewing has shown that transfer to secondary is pretty old school. So I can stick to plan and differentiate with the Mosiac and Chinook dry hopping, or dry hop in primary and make both batches single hop Chinook. The 120 flavor impact would seem to favor the latter choice, but I would still like to play with the Mosaic with these batches.

The yeast aspect of the experiment has already been revealing (though consistent with what I have read). The S-04 has been extremely fast, and the krausen has already fallen on it. The US-05 still has a full krausen and is cloudy from yeast in suspension.

Soon after pitching:


~38 hours after, the S-04 is cloudy and both showing krausen


~60 hours after, the US-05 is cloudy, the S-04 has darkened and krausen has fallen

 

Repeating this experiment with a few adjustments today:
- Briess Pilsen Light DME instead of Amber DME
- Half pound 40L caramel instead of full pound 120L
- Mosaic hops instead of Chinook
- More hops in the kettle - adding 0.5 oz at 10 min, and increasing flameout from 0.5 to 1 oz.
- Primary fermentation only, no split to growlers.
- Will still split to two carbons to try out two different dry hops. One will be Mosaic, and the other will be Chinook or Citra.
- I might reduce the dry hops from 1oz per gallon to 0.5