Advice: 1 batch or 2 at once for first time?

Here's my quandary: I am getting ready to brew my first batch in the next couple of days, and I was planning to do one batch and see how it goes. However, I have all my ingredients for 2 full batches - one amber ale and one lager. (Both LME/specialty grain kits)

So I thought I would do this:
- Brew the Ale, and put it in 6gal Better-Bottle for Primary, then Brew the Lager and put it in the fermenting bucket for Primary.
- Then when the ale is all ready, transfer to bottling bucket and bottle it. I would then have the Better-Bottle available for secondary/lagering/clearing of the Lager (after cleaning/sanitizing the B.Bottle of course).

My only apprehension is that I thought it might be good to start with just one batch and make whatever mistakes, learn from my errors, etc etc - rather than risk screwing up both batches from beginner mistakes.

What says the wisdom of HBT??

i would make the single batch amber for the reasons that you stated mistakes etc. but mainly because you will finish the batch and want to brew again if you brew both at once the wait will be even more agonizing
Also do you have means to control temps i.e. lager the lager

+1 Make one batch at a time. Concentrate on the process and make the best beer you can from start to finish. You'll be surprised how frantic your first brew can get if you put too much on your plate. Afterwards sit back and evaluate what you did well, and what you would like to improve upon. It will pay dividends on your second brew.

jppostKW said:

i would make the single batch amber for the reasons that you stated mistakes etc. but mainly because you will finish the batch and want to brew again if you brew both at once the wait will be even more agonizing
Also do you have means to control temps i.e. lager the lager

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Well, if I put them in at the same time the ale should be done well before the lager, so there shouldn't be as much of an 'agonizing' wait as they bottling times will be staggered out.

Yeah, I have my spare room that stays about 52 degrees (with the heat register closed), and a enclosed porch that stays about 27-30 degrees.

Zen_Brew said:

+1 Make one batch at a time. Concentrate on the process and make the best beer you can from start to finish. You'll be surprised how frantic your first brew can get if you put too much on your plate. Afterwards sit back and evaluate what you did well, and what you would like to improve upon. It will pay dividends on your second brew.

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Thanks.

If I brew the ale first, I was a little worried about ingredients for the lager sitting for that length of time. (It's LME and specialty grains)... Is that going to be an issue??

The grains will be fine for a couple of weeks. Just keep them in a dry not to hot place.

You could brew them both the same day, just don't do it at the same time. Start early take a break for lunch look through your notes and hit it again.

I agree with all of the above. Brew one and focus on your process. Personally I wouldn't do a multiple beer brew day under I had developed a refined, repeatable brewday process. It will help reduce mistakes as well as start a pipeline.

As for your ingredients, as long as the grains are airtight and dry you will be fine for a couple of weeks.

I'm relatively new to brewing and have recently been in a similar situation. Brewing only one beer in a brewday is definitely a good idea for us beginners, but the question becomes how long to wait before brewing the next batch. There are many errors that one can learn to fix quickly and method improvements to be made right away, but you have to wait a relatively long time to see how the final product really turned out (compared to say normal meal cooking).

Brew one, wait 2 weeks, brew the other.That way, when the first batch is carbed up and ready, you have another batch getting ready for bottles. When you run out of the first batch quickly (and you will, it's just the n00b in all of us), you'll have another one just getting carbed up.

There is nothing worse than running out of your first brew, and realizing you need to wait 4-6 weeks before the next one would be ready to drink.

+1 on doing one a time. Brewing can actually be pretty tiring when you're first starting out. Trying to remember what to do, what order to do it in, how to do it, worrying about not screwing things up, double-checking your process and your numbers, etc., can be a handful.

Do one batch, take good notes to see what you need to fix in your process for the next batch. Then in a week or so (when the first one is done fermenting), do the next one and see if you can improve the process.

Bah, why wait? Get the pipeline going!

I would second the idea of not doing them on the same day, but I don't see a problem with doing them both say over a weekend. Anything that goes wrong one brewday number 1 will be pretty obvious - a pot will spill, or you will break your hydrometer... Just correct that for number 2. Get them both going and transfer as you suggested, and then you have a free ail pail for batch number 3 while the ale conditions in the bottles and the larger largers.

I decided to do the ale first (it's in primary now), and then start the lager in a couple weeks, after I bottle.

Thanks for all the advice/input.

Do one in the morning, then one in the afternoon. That should give you plenty of time to evaluate your mistakes and fix them for the 2nd batch. Just my $.02...