Two boils, one mash.

I'm planning to do two identical IPAs with different hop schedules. They'll both be 5.5 gallon batches.

If I have the ability to mash both at once, is there any reason not to do one big mash, then split into two boils? I.e. will leaving one batch of wort just sitting around for an hour or so have any effect on it?

I know it will still make beer, but I thought I'd run it by y'all and see if anyone's done this - I want the two beers to be as similar as possible with exception of the hops, so if it'll change the character of the beer at all I'd like to know.

Thanks,

-Joe

I can't see any reason they would be different at all as long as you stir the full amount of wort together before splitting it up. Otherwise, you might have a bit of a gravity issue between the two.

Yeah, that was my plan: mash and sparge together, then drain from one kettle into a backup kettle.

-Joe

This doesn't seem like it would affect the beer at all. I say go for it

nostalgia said:

If I have the ability to mash both at once, is there any reason not to do one big mash, then split into two boils? I.e. will leaving one batch of wort just sitting around for an hour or so have any effect on it?

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The only way I could see this affecting things is if you didn't raise your temps at the end (mash out) to stop enzyme activity. Otherwise, any difference should be undetectable.

There's a lot of people -- myself included -- that do single mash/two boils because of kettle limitations. You definitely want to mix your mash and sparge and carefully stir it so you don't have hot aeration but you definitely want an even mix of the denser mas runnings and the less dense sparge runnings.

I agree with an above poster regarding mash out. I would say as long as you mash out it should be no issue.

Don't you have two burners? I use my HLT as a boil kettle for these types of things. Shaves an hour off brew day at least.