Making two beers at once?

I just talked with the LHBS and got to chatting about making two beers at once. Mashing, Sparging off 13 gallons and then steeping some grains to make a different style.

My question is twofold here.

1. Should I batch sparge the first 6.5 gallons to get the highest gravity?
2. Should I fly sparge the entire thing out, get the same beer with the same gravity and then flavor them seperately?

I am thinking that I want two seperate gravities, though I am not sure if it would be easier or not. I really need a fresh beer in two weeks, so maybe a 3.5% would be great alongside a 6.5%. I will be doing this at work, so won't be "paying attention" as closely as if it were a day off.

Any thoughts?

I'm not sure about steeping grains afterwards but the concept your talking about is Parti-gyle. Pretty much take your first runnings to make a Barley Wine/RIS/IIPA and take your second runnings (in a different container) to make a Bitter/Small stout/Amber or Pale ale. If you see that either your first runnings are too high in gravity or your second are too low, there are calculators that help you blend them to adjust gravity.

+1 for the parti gyle.

That's how I got a braggot out of my stout....and I'll do it every time I make that stout again for ever!

There's several threads on here about partigyle brewing including my pumpkin ale one....some people do suggest steaping some specialty grains in the separate batches for variety.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/lets-partyyyy-gyle-pumpkin-porter-ale-one-mash-74927/

It's an ancient method...in fact most beers in the 1700's were partigyle...since the water was usually bad...the third runnings were usually for the children.


Do a thread search for the rest of the threads on this topic, there was a substanital one a couple months back.

I was just at a group brew day this weekend and someone there was telling me that he does this same thing. He brews up 13 gallons of base malt, batch sparges into 2 kettles and steeps his specialty grains.

I just glanced at my old threads....there are links to a couple articles on partigyle and the link to a spreadsheat that helps make the math easier....plus if you read my thread, you'll kinda learn while you go along..because it follows my process of learning about creating the recipes for it.

Cool, I am just tired of drinking 5 gallons a month at work, and another at home, so I need to catch up and surpass the quantity intake.

I am going to read up on it, though probably will just dive in head first and really get the good knowledge by doing.

What kind of work do you do that let's you brew at the same time??? ..and are they hiring?!?

aliu630 said:

What kind of work do you do that let's you brew at the same time??? ..and are they hiring?!?

Click to expand...

+1, am willing to relocate, am willing to take a pay cut, am willing to abandon family

You can always add some portion of your first runnings to each beer. Maybe put 75% of the first runnings in one beer and 25% of the second runnings in that beer. Then put 25% of the first runnings in the second beer and 75% of your second runnings in the second beer. Then steep your grains. That way you get a moderately high gravity beer and a moderately low gravity beer. Also, if you wanted the small beer to have a less fermentable wort, you could drain its portion of the first runnings as soon as conversion takes place (maybe 30 mins). Hope that all made sense.

I make wine. So I just start up a batch and get to work, then come back and sparge, then work, then boil, work...yada yada.

Well then, maybe not a partyguile. Maybe I will just make 10 gallons of a mild and be done with it. This will make it so that I can get my numbers for 10 gallons, figure out the sparge volume and rate, and get the idea of how it will work. I figure that it will take about an hour to sparge this out. This will also let me know the gravity numbers as it comes out and I can plan my partyguile.