Help with split batches.

[MrMeans]

So I have decided that I want to do an experiment. I want to do a few single hop ipa's but for the different hop varieties I want to familiarize myself with I know I do not have the time now the capacity to brew a 5 gallon batch of each. Instead my plan is to start off with a pretty neutral grain bill. Some 2 row, maybe a little crystal 40, and possibly some carapils. Mash that and attempt to collect roughly 7.5 gallons of wort. I will then take this 7.5 gallons, split it into 5 equal parts, and do five separate boils. I will follow the same hop schedule and dosing on each boil. My question to the HBT community is this: WHen I boil with a full size batch I generally lose roughly a 1 gallon an hour. It is my understanding that this is fairly common normal hence why you generally pull 6-6.5 galls of wort when you mash out. A main factor of the boil off rate is the surface area of the boiling wort. I plan to do my boils in some smaller pots thus decreasing my surface area and my boil off rate. Does anyone have a good formula or rule of thumb that they use to calculate the boil off rate? Does anyone have any tips on things to watch out for doing smaller boils? Am I just wasting my time and should just scale down to 2.5 gallon batches instead of ~1.25?

 

[Hammy71]

Sounds like a whole lot of work and a long day. As far as boiling off, I would do a test run with just water. Boil for 15 minutes and see what you loose. Then multiply by 4 and you will know exactly how much the new pot burns off. But instead of spending an entire day brewing with 5 seperate, 60 minute boils, why not just try dry hopping with five diffferent hops in each fermenter?

 

[MrMeans]

Its not just about dry hopping. Its about using the hop as my bittering and aroma too. I can do four boils at once on my stove and I have the pots to do so. The only thing I see that might be a challenge logistically would be keeping my hop additions straight.