highgravitybacon

Recipes 

I'm pretty lazy.

In trying to think of a way to save time and effort, I have this concept, and I'm sure its been done before since just about everything has been done at this point. Stick with me here.

I don't drink beer fast enough to make it worth my while to make something like an IPA. I might drink a six pack's worth here and there, but not the 50+ bottles of a 5 gallon batch. I just get bored of the same beer. I look at the little glass soldiers and say, "men, you have served me well. But I tire of you." Then they sit until they've lost the luster.

Some beers, that's okay. Like a nice tripel or belgian strong. But lighter beers and hoppy beers don't age gracefully in my opinion.

The typical option is to make a smaller batch. But the effort to make a 1 gallon all grain batch is the same as making a 5 gallon batch. Time is the same, too.

Here's my concept, tell me if this has potential:
1.Create an all pale malt mash. 6 gallons of it. 1.060 or whatever.
2. With that wort, split it into say 3 two gallon batches. Dilute as necessary to obtain appropriate starting gravity if less than 1.060 is needed.
3. With each of those batches, add different steeping grains to create a different beer. So I might steep some crystal 60 into the stove top batch, boil and hop to create and APA. Another one I might add a bit more crystal, hop more heavily and make an IPA. Third batch might get some flaked grains, roasted grains and become a stout.

So I now have three beers from one parent mash and they can all be done on the stop top concurrently. Hop as appropriate during boil, yeast as appropriate or pick a neutral strain that works for all 3 batches.

It's the same amount of time, but more busy work. If I avoided a mashout in the parent mash, the enzymes would still be present in the wort and able to convert any loose starches, meaning I could even throw some flaked grains into the mix and have them convert in the 20 or 30 minutes for steeping.

Thoughts on this?

jcam91

Recipes 

Do it and report back results please

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kingwood-kid

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I brew mostly 2.5 gallon batches. When I brew 5 gallons, typically I split at flameout. I'll add all my finishing hops after I split, and typically use different yeasts on each batch. This method assumes you want two beers with the same grain profile, gravity and IBU. But if you top off one batch with some water to dilute, you could easily brew two very different beers. You could also look into making two different beers from the first and second runnings. If you capped the mash after the first runnings with some specialty grains, you could make, for example, an English IPA and a Mild.

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wobdee

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Sounds interesting but I'd rather just brew each 2 gal batch separately. Are you planning on doing this all in one day or braking it up and saving the wort for another day?Could be an extra long brew day unless you have 3 boil kettles.

foodplusbeer

Recipes 

you could make big batches of wort and freeze it.

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D_Nyholm

Recipes 

Find a friend who wants to brew with you and split the batches up. That way you only get a case of each beer. That is the way I started and then realized I drink it too fast. We have since gone to 10 gallon batches to get 5 gallons each

highgravitybacon

Recipes 

Does freezing denature the enzymes?

retheisen

Recipes 

The enzymes already did their job before the boil... which denatured the enzymes.

helibrewer

Recipes 

You can also add small amounts of extract to raise the base gravity...it sounds like a very plausible method to me especially if it's a process you like and the timing works for you.

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highgravitybacon

Recipes 

I want to keep the enzymes active. I want to make one big mash and split it, then adding additional grains for steeping and or mini mash. I don't want to boil it. I want to keep it unboiled since I would make vastly different beers from one main, unboiled, unhopped, wort.

If they are unaffected by freezing, then this becomes an even easier process.

Its akin to using dme or lme, with the difference of having the ability to convert adjunct grains on its own.