I've been reading for a bit and really enjoy this group. I've been homebrewing for about a year now and have made some really good beer and I've been interested in modifying some of the batches I've made.
I was wondering if any has a way to "taste" hops for different properties or specific tastes or aromas. I've heard of people tasting the hops themselves but mostly whole hops, I assume, not the pellets. It is possible to make an herb "tea" of the herbs or would that give you any idea of what favour it has in the beer. I know a number of books have descriptions of "spicy", "fruity" or something general but that doesn't really give me what I'm looking for. Any ideas or experience on those lines?
Also, is there a good procedure to use, other than just scaling down a standard 5 gallon recipe, to make smaller batches of say a gallon or less each?
So far I've only done extract brewing with steeped grains and have done only ales as that is the only temperature range I can maintain at this point.
Thanks for any input.
PopeCoyote