Yeast Experiment Recipe.

[ClownPrince]

Hi All,

Planning on doing a split batch to test out the affect different yeasts have on IPAs (and also to nail down my house IPA). Just want to do a quick recipe check. Plan on brewing the same recipe twice splitting 20 litres between 4 demijohns with one batch and putting the other into my fermenter with temp control with the other. So I'll end up with about 40l of beer. I plan on trying the Verdant IPA yeast, US-05 (which i normally use for IPAS), Nottingham and S-04 for the Demijohns and some kind of Kviek yeast for the fermenter.
Just wanted a little recipe critique before I put an order in for ingredients.

Recipe for 20l:
Malt:
2kg - Maris Otter
2kg - Extra Pale Malt
200g - Crystal 150
200g - Pale Crystal

Hops:
60mins - 5g Summit
10mins - 20g Amarillo
10mins - 10g Galaxy
10mins - 5g Summit
Flameout/Whirlpool - 30g Galaxy
Flameout/Whirlpool - 10g Amarillo

Should end up (according to brewer's friend) at about 5% and 45IBUs.

 

[An Ankoù]

Not sure VIPA is suited to demijohns as it has a really big head. I tend to crop the head and then it throws another head.
You should akso think about how much headspace you're going to leave for all the yeasts.
Apart from that, it's a great idea. We're looking forward to your results.
Do you need to use 10% crystal? Doesn't crystal promote oxidation?

 

[ClownPrince]

Not sure VIPA is suited to demijohns as it has a really big head. I tend to crop the head and then it throws another head.
You should akso think about how much headspace you're going to leave for all the yeasts.
Apart from that, it's a great idea. We're looking forward to your results.
Do you need to use 10% crystal? Doesn't crystal promote oxidation?

I've never used Verdant before, and honestly it's the one I'm most excited to try. Could bob that in a 20l (is too much headspace a problem). The 10% Crystal probably isn't necessary in all honesty, I'm still chasing a blend I got when I was extract brewing, something similar to 2kg Light DME and 1KG Amber DME.
I could reduce the recipe down to a 16l version and a 20l version, that should give me more headspace in each demijohn.

 

[Twostage]

Must ask. What are you looking to find out ? Any main objectives or is this a see what happens?

Like @An Ankoù i wonder about the crystal. I’d worry that it adds too much colour.

You’re going to like verdant IPA. I’ve used it a few times and the results were good.

 

[ClownPrince]

Must ask. What are you looking to find out ? Any main objectives or is this a see what happens?

Like @An Ankoù i wonder about the crystal. I’d worry that it adds too much colour.

You’re going to like verdant IPA. I’ve used it a few times and the results were good.

So you think drop the crystal completely or half it? Or replace it? Nothing ordered so everything is in flux.
Just looking for a) a nice beer that's pretty straightforward to brew and b) interested in the affects of different yeast. Never done much in the way of split batches so not really had a chance to compare different yeasts side by side.

 

[An Ankoù]

I don't like crystal as a matter of personal taste and I think I'm in a minority so don't take what I say as gospel. But I much prefer to add a bit of amber or melanoidin malt to my bitters and pale ales. But that's just me. As for VIPA, it's quite a yeast. A modern IPA is supposed to showcase the hops so you need a decent malt profile for body and mouthfeel, but you don't want the malt overwhelming the beer.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Recipe for 20l:
Malt:
2kg - Maris Otter
2kg - Extra Pale Malt
200g - Crystal 150
200g - Pale Crystal

Hops:
60mins - 5g Summit
10mins - 20g Amarillo
10mins - 10g Galaxy
10mins - 5g Summit
Flameout/Whirlpool - 30g Galaxy
Flameout/Whirlpool - 10g Amarillo

So you think drop the crystal completely or half it?

A lot depends on what you're aiming for - but 10% crystal is a lot, and in general even West Coast IPAs have been using a lot less than they used to, and hazies tend not to use any. If you're comparing to amber extract, remember that the Otter will be bringing a lot more flavour than simple pale extract - and you could use Otter extra pale as a bit of a twist. I'd certainly ditch the 150, and maybe even reduce the pale crystal - for comparison Fuller's Pride/ESB use 7.2% pale crystal. And it will only get in the way of your yeast comparisons, the less that's going on in the background the easier it will be to distinguish the yeasts.

I'm not a big fan of Summit, your bittering addition at 60 min could be anything which means that 5g of Summit at 10min could be dropped or switched for something else.

And although recent vintages of Galaxy have been better the quality in general is still some way from what it used to be, and it's better as a dry hop than as a hot side addition. Since you're not dry hopping, I'd suggest replacing it with something like Idaho7 which brings lots of survivables to the party.

Also Notty tends to dull hop flavour, I might try T-58 instead - it has less attenuation but is quite biotransformative.

 

[ClownPrince]

A lot depends on what you're aiming for - but 10% crystal is a lot, and in general even West Coast IPAs have been using a lot less than they used to, and hazies tend not to use any. If you're comparing to amber extract, remember that the Otter will be bringing a lot more flavour than simple pale extract - and you could use Otter extra pale as a bit of a twist. I'd certainly ditch the 150, and maybe even reduce the pale crystal - for comparison Fuller's Pride/ESB use 7.2% pale crystal. And it will only get in the way of your yeast comparisons, the less that's going on in the background the easier it will be to distinguish the yeasts.

I'm not a big fan of Summit, your bittering addition at 60 min could be anything which means that 5g of Summit at 10min could be dropped or switched for something else.

And although recent vintages of Galaxy have been better the quality in general is still some way from what it used to be, and it's better as a dry hop than as a hot side addition. Since you're not dry hopping, I'd suggest replacing it with something like Idaho7 which brings lots of survivables to the party.

So drop the Crystal completely? Trade Summit at bittering for any other high AA hop and trade the later summit for more amarillo maybe? Galaxy isn't great at the moment so perhaps go with Idaho instead?

 

[Twostage]

If you want to simplify you could go for a SMASH, single malt and single hop.

 

[Nicks90]

As others have said, probably too much crystal in there. Id drop the 150 ebc crystal entirely .
Id also not bother with S-04, pretty pointless yeast for an IPA, especially if you are using notty in another batch.

Personally I'd use the VIPA in the fermenter for the big batch, the kviek in a DJ and replace the s-04 with a saison yeast.
That would give you a huge broad spread of flavour profiles - IPA - ale - kviek - saison