Re-invented the wheel? I think not.

Just wanted to share my very first all-grain experience. Few new tools were in the mix...

converted 5 gal rubbermaid mash tun, nice new barley crusher & finally a valve on my 7.5gal aluminum kettle...

so all was well, the recipe was an english bitter, about 10 lbs marris otter & 2 lb crystal, and .25 roasted barley for a bit of colour.

Anyways, for the interesting part...

When sparging was complete, I had my kettle full, about 6.25gal worth for a 5gal complete batch. With not much to do while the boil was on, I figured, why not fired up some more water and sparge once more (I have a second 7gal kettle i got with a turkey fryer). So, I go thru the same routine, the runnings were far from clear. So in the end, the first batch ended with a gravity of 1.059, and the 2nd batch, 1.032.

Sounds like a perfect low alcohol session beer to me. I hopped them differently, the original batch having 3 oz of kent goldings, and the 2nd with 1.5 oz of cascade.

And, as a conclusion, they are about 10 days in the primary, and ive just sampled both.. both are at an identical 1.011, and taste fantastic for a non-carbonated beer. I will give them another few days to mellow out, and then off to the keg for secondary and then carbonation.

Apparently this is something they did quite often with english beers, first runnings being the special bitter, then ordinary bitter,etcc..

do many homebrewers employ this tatic? sounds like an easy way to make 10gallons of different beer in one brewday

EDIT: sorry after reading the 3rd post done I noticed I forgot a key point, 2nd "batch" was roughly 3 gallons..

I've seen write-ups on this technique before in Brew Your Own, and a few other places. While I haven't done it yet, it's an excellent way to go about doing things and getting more for your money.

BTW- Welcome to the forum, you should pop into the introductions section and tell us more about yourself.

Some of the things we like to know are: Location (Street Address, City, State), Income Level, Inventory of your brewing equipment and approximate value, any cool vehicles, motorcycles, jewelry, or other high value items you might have.

Seriously though, if you aren't afraid to post a general location, chances are you'll find some HBT members in your area and they can provide some assistance as well as a good source for trading brews.

Not sure how you managed to get that much extract out of only 12lbs of grain, but kudos for managing it!

as per yer suggestion, I wrote up a quite intro


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=640574#post640574

I went to brew session at my LHBS a few weekends ago and they did this. They took the first runnings and made a American Strong / Barleywine and then made a session ale with the second runnings.

The idea being there is a much higher concentration of fermentable sugars in the first runnings, thus a high alcohol beer. And the second runnings are more diluted with sparge water therefore a lower alcohol beer.

Hey fellow Canuck! I'm just up the Grand River in Guelph!

You should add your location to your profile, we Canadians have to stick together.