Beer Forum

OK - A local Brewery is doing us a solid and brewing a batch for my homebrew club so that we can do a yeast experiment. We have 20 members that are all choosing different yeasts and will pitch into this batch that the brewery will brew for us. Allows us to hold constant the variable of too many brewers trying to make similar batches.

So.........my question is, I want feedback from all of you on what kind of recipe to use to highlight or allow to be highlighted the yeast strain as they will vary per the focus of this experiment.

Thanks in advance all!

Are you testing for a certain purpose or just to compare/contrast the strains?

If it's the latter, something simple & balanced so it can't hide things or give a strain an unfair advantage over the others. 100% base-malt or something with low amounts of specialty grains in the 1.050-1.060 range. Perhaps a blend of 2 row & pilsner with just a touch of a lower crystal in there. Same with the hops, neutral or noble and 30-40 IBUs.

Yes, compare and contrast the strains. Thanks Oz.

I recently brewed a blonde based on an article Jamil wrote in BYO. It was super clean, no real hop flavor. I think the yeast character would have a good chance of standing out.

Blondinebier
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.049 (12.2 °P)
FG = 1.011 (2.8 °P)
IBU = 20 SRM = 5 ABV = 5.0%

Ingredients
10 lb. (4.53 kg) Great Western North American 2-row malt (2 °L)
0.50 lb. (227 g) Great Western crystal malt (15 °L)
4.1 AAU Willamette hops (60 min) (0.82 oz./23 g of 5% alpha acids) or
substitute with Willamette, Glacier, U.S. Fuggle, U.S. Tettnang or
Styrian Golding hops. (I used Mt Hood)


https://byo.com/stories/item/128-americ ... le-profile

Kbar wrote:Yes, compare and contrast the strains. Thanks Oz.

No worries. Since it's a general comparison & each yeast is going to shine for a different style, I would aim for that middle of the road recipe & keep it simple. Too low of OG or IBU is going to have the same problems as too high.

I would do something like:

1.052 OG
48% Pilsner
48% Great Western 2 Row
4% Crystal 20 or 40

30 IBUs of Magnum, NB or a noble hop, focused at the beginning of the boil.

I totally concur with the blonde ale recipe notion.
The only thing I'd add is an oz of flavor/aroma hops at 10 mins.
Cascade would be perfect imo, because its a known quantity -- everybody already knows what to expect from it. It will round out the beer and present a balanced wort containing all the parts.

Man if homebrew clubs are doing cool stuff like this, i really need to find the time to join one.

Bad-Goat - if you are ever up in Portland any 3rd Monday of the month, these are the things we do. PM your email address and I can send you some of our presentations from our meetings, and of course, clubs are a big gathering of like minded, beer loving people.