Thinking about 2 brews back to back

I need to do 2 brews in early May and at first I was thinking about doing them on 2 consecutive days but I got to thinking that it would be easier to do them both on the same day. One right after the other. I've got 2 burners so I could mash my second brew while the first is cooling. I will only have to clean the equipment once.
I figure I'll grind the grains and measure the hops the day before to save time. I've done 10 gallon batches before but never back to back brews.
Think I can knock out 2 AG brews in less than 7 or 8 hours?

maybe, depends how efficient you are good luck

i have personally done two brews at the same time, with extract of course.

I just got done doing two 12 gallon batches one was a pale ale all grain and the other was a really heavy 1.084 all grain ale. I have built a system that will allow me to have both of them in prosess at the same time. I started with one in the mash and ran it through about 20 min before I was done sparging (not a batch sparge) I started heating up my mash water for my 2nd brew I dumped spent grains and while my first brew was in the boil kettel I mashed in the 2nd. My system I designed is somewhat automated to the point of I can set my electric hot liquor tank at any temp and maintain it. I can set my sparge rate and forget it. The system takes care of maintaining proper tank levels and water levels. I can just set it and forget it. It gives me the freedom to focus on other things like hitting target gravity and IBU levels. any how the entire day from rinceing the system to brewing to clean up 24 gallons in 10 hours. I am sure I can cut 2 hours off this. but this was the first brew on this new system. all in all it was a loooong day to say the least.
Good luck and take good notes
one peice of advice I would wait till the second batch is well under way before jumpung into the insperation beer.
Cheers
JJ

Rich, I did somethign like this not too long ago.....

Are you planning on doing 2 entirely different brews? Could the styles work together if you pulled enough of a base wort for 10 gallons and then steeped some specialty grains to give the other beer the character it needs?

What I did was take the second runnings of one beer and did it on the stove in the house at the same time....it was a busy day but it worked nicely. If I did it again I'd just hold the wort from the second runnings until I was done with the first one....but you have 2 burners you could do them both right outside next to each other.

Just thinking aloud here...don't mind me.

Yeah thats a good point Dude...

could you uses the second runnings in any way Rich? Like adding some specialty grains as Dude said?


I've thought of this but haven't done it....I was thinking of doing 1 AG and a second PM

Dude said:

Rich, I did somethign like this not too long ago.....

Are you planning on doing 2 entirely different brews? Could the styles work together if you pulled enough of a base wort for 10 gallons and then steeped some specialty grains to give the other beer the character it needs?

What I did was take the second runnings of one beer and did it on the stove in the house at the same time....it was a busy day but it worked nicely. If I did it again I'd just hold the wort from the second runnings until I was done with the first one....but you have 2 burners you could do them both right outside next to each other.

Just thinking aloud here...don't mind me.

Click to expand...

I'm brewing the 777 and I think an ESB so they will be quite a bit different but now that I think about it you might be on to something. I could base the mash on ten gallons of 777 then steep some specialty grains to make the second brew an ESB. Can I have rye in an ESB? I've got to give this some thought.

sounds like a great day to me! Good Luck!!!

I'd make the two separate batches, but I've never done anything like that before. The last time I brewed, though, I was thinking about how easy it would be just to make another batch. While you're boiling the first batch, it'd be easy to mash the other. While you're cooling the first one, you could be boiling the other. I think it'd be easier than doing it on two separate days, since you have the equipment out anyway and the day to do it.

Why not? Then, let us know how it went so we can see if we were right!

Mash the second batch in anydamncooler, then transfer to your reaL MLT after starting the first's boil?

I guess the timing between batchs would be set by the first's sparge time?

Could you do an extra sparge of the first batch? It would be weak, but then use it for the sparge water for the second batch? Any sugars gained would be free. We don't normally do that because it wouldn't be worth boiling off 3 extra gallon, but if you could use it as sparging for the next batch, why not?

On the last brew day I did 3 batches in a row. The first thing in the morning I heated my water up and while that was heating I crushed my grains. Then I started the mash and went for breakfast, came back 2 hours later drained the MT and started the boil. As I was boiling I heated more water crushed more grains and started that mash. By the time my wort was cooled and in the fermenter and the kettle was washed out of all the trub it was time to drain the mash and start my second batch and I repeated the steps. My first batch was a Barleywine, then Denny's Rye IPA, then a American Wheat IPA. It wasnt to buizy of a brewday. I started at 7 am and was all done and cleaned up by 4:30 pm, that was with being gone for 2 hours too.

I look at it this way, I could do one batch and take 4 or 5 hours, or I could do two batches and only take one extra hour. Or I could do 10 gallon batches, but I like my 5 gallon batches for a variaty.

casebrew
I really like the idea of useing the extra water from the first batch to sparge the second. if doing like beers that is a GREAT idea.
thanks
JJ

Here's what I'm thinking of doing.
I want to make the 777 so I was thinking about brewing a 10 gallon batch of the recipe, cool it, split it into 2 carboys, and add Belgium Candi Syrup that has been boiled in a bit of water to one of the carboys. Ferment them with the same yeast and compare when complete. I think I've got 3/4 pounds of the syrup left over. I'm guessing it will bump the gravity up from 1.071 to about 1.076 and the color from 5.9 to a SRM of 11.
Thoughts?

EDIT: I just ran it through ProMash and my Keggle isn't big enough! I would end up with more than 16 gallons of wort!

RichBrewer said:

Here's what I'm thinking of doing.
I want to make the 777 so I was thinking about brewing a 10 gallon batch of the recipe, cool it, split it into 2 carboys, and add Belgium Candi Syrup that has been boiled in a bit of water to one of the carboys. Ferment them with the same yeast and compare when complete. I think I've got 3/4 pounds of the syrup left over. I'm guessing it will bump the gravity up from 1.071 to about 1.076 and the color from 5.9 to a SRM of 11.
Thoughts?

EDIT: I just ran it through ProMash and my Keggle isn't big enough! I would end up with more than 16 gallons of wort!

Click to expand...

Boil as much as you can, and dilute if necessary after the wort is cooled.

Honestly though, do two 4.5 gallon batches then...I've boiled 14+ gallons. You have to babysit it more but it is do-able.