This goes down as one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen in some time.

Peter of Simply Beer had this awesome brainstorm:

Get a bunch of people together, give them the same basic recipe and allow them to change ONE thing about it. Make it at the same time with the same basic conditions, ship bottles of it around, and then we all get to taste. Being that we’re all bloggers, I’m gonna bet we’re all going to taste pretty publicly.

The following people (other than me) have signed up for the good cause:

Aaron – Captain’s Chair(@captainschair)
Derek – Luther Public House(@LutherHaus)
Ethan – Geek Beer (@geekbeer)
Joseph – Hopfentreader (@hopfentreader)
Michael – Thank Heaven For Beer (@heavenlybrew)
Nate – Thank Heaven For Beer (@THFBeer_nate)
Peter – Simply Beer (@simplybeer)
Thomas – Beer Genome Progect (@TomBGP)

The recipe looks like this:

9 lbs. Domestic 2-Row barley
16 oz. Chocolate Malt
16 oz. Roasted Barley
4 oz. Flaked Barley
4 oz. Caramel 60°L

1 oz Williamette hops (60min)
1 oz tettnang (2 minutes)

60 min mash @ 152
~75 min sparge @170

60 minute boil.

American Ale Yeast (wyeast 1056)
base recipe has estimated gravity of ~1.046 and finish around 1.014.

Here’s what I love about this – one ingredient can totally change a beer. I think we’re going to see some radically different beers from one small ingredient change, and it should be a pretty fantastic learning experience, as well as a great chance to sample some great homebrew.

The tasting is currently scheduled for February 12th. Brew day was today – and unfortunately I’m a week behind schedule from everybody else (though I will hit ship schedule and not delay the tasting). However, I have settled on what I’m going to change about the beer — mine’s going for the exact grist and hop schedule, but with Abbey Ale yeast. It’s my opinion that yeast is… well.. maybe not the soul of the beer, but it sure is the soul’s wrapper. As far as I’m concerned, we’re looking at a dry dubbel instead of a stout.

Aaron of Captain’s Chair has already written up a report about his brew day, and I’ll do the same when I brew next weekend. In the meantime, keep an eye on Twitter, hash tag #brewoff for updates from all the brewing bloggers over the next month or two, and keep an eye out for an announcement of the live tasting on the 12th.

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