It's time to announce the next in the series of BYO/BBR brewing science experiments — the effect of beer glassware on the beer drinker's sensory experience. 

James Spencer (host of Basic Brewing Radio)  and I are happy to announce the fourth BYO/BBR Collaborative Brewing Experiment. This time around, we’re asking the question, “How much difference do wort clarifying fining agents such as Irish moss and whirlfloc really make?”

Here is the suggested recipe for the BYO/BBR extract method experiment. (See my previous blog entry if you don't know what I'm referring to.) It’s a double IPA that took some inspiration from a variety of hoppy beers — including Russian River’s Pliny the Elder, Stone IPA, Racer 5, AleSmith IPA and Rogue I2PA — as well as my own IPA recipe I’ve been fiddling with. This recipe is not clone of any of the commercial beers. This is intended as a light-colored, highly-attenuated, American-style IPA/double IPA. I give both 5-gallon (19-L) and 2.5-gallon (9.5-L) versions of the recipe. An advantage of the 2.5-gallon version is that stovetop brewers can perform the full boil trial. (Note: a stovetop brewer could also do the full wort boil as a 2.5 gallon batch and one or more of the other trials as a 5-gallon batch.) If you don’t like this recipe, feel free to use a Pliny clone or the IPA/dIPA recipe of your choosing.

In the instructions for these beers, I’ll point out some things to keep in mind in order to keep the experiment as tightly controlled as possible. The basic idea is to keep everything between the two or more batches (experimental trials) identical except for the experimental variable, which in this case is the wort production method. Along these lines, it would be a good idea to buy your ingredients in bulk, so you’re not just using the same recipe, but the same exact ingredients. Use the same equipment for brewing each batch, with the possible exception of using multiple fermenters. Keep the hops frozen between batches. If possible, crush the grains yourself on brewday. 

It’s time for the third experiment in the Brew Your Own (BYO)/Basic Brewing Radio (BBR) Collaborative Experiment series. Our main idea in this series is to test worthwhile questions regarding brewing at a homebrew scale. James Spencer (host of BBR) and I choose experiments — based on reader/listener input — that have the potential to yield good results and ask other homebrewers to join us in performing the experiment. Although each individual experiment is designed to be simple enough to encourage participation, the fact that multiple homebrewers perform the same experiment allows us to place more confidence in the results if all or most of the outcomes are similar. Hopefully, the things we discover will help homebrewers brew better beer.

As my last entry outlined, we (BYO and BBR) are looking for homebrewers willing to participate in our pitching rate experiment. The deadline for getting your results to us is September 30th, so you'll need to brew your beers in the next few weeks if you want to participate.

Earlier this year, I began a hop experiment. The hypothesis was that Southern US hop growers could produce better quality hops if they cut their vines back in early May.  This would delay development so that the hop cones would mature after the peak temperatures of summer. Unfortunately, the experiment is not going to yield any usable data this year.

My hop plants sprouted in late February and have been growing well ever since. This year, I am conducting an experiment in my hopyard.