Dual batch blend???

[ChadChaney]

OK, so I have a small kettle for partial extract brewing, and the option to use another one. I have a BIG DIPA planned and I was wondering if it would be better for the beer and the hop utilization to do a modified full boil in 2 kettles simultaneously? Can I split the ingredients 50/50 and essentially make 2 batches of the same wort and the combine into the same fermentor? Anyone try this or have any ideas?

 

[windbreaker123]

My understanding is to want to do a 5 gal batch between 2 kettles. Correct ? What does the recipe call for ? Full or a partial boil ? You have to adjust hops accordingly.

 

[ChadChaney]

I made the recipe myself, with the help of a pal on HBT, so designed for partial I think, I just I would get better hop utilization with a full boil. In my understanding, you get better hop flavor and utilization when you do a full boil. And yes, a 5 gallon batch between 2 kettles. Why would I have to adjust the hops?

 

[thebluewaffle]

http://***********/stories/techniqu...ct-brewing/619-extract-method-to-your-madness

Good article on exactly what your asking.

 

[ChadChaney]

Cool, thanks, only difference is I am doing a simultaneous boil of 2 batches.

 

[NeedsMoreHops]

Hi Chad, I'm pretty much doing the same thing...but I just bottled so I can't tell you how it turned out yet. When I started last winter, I had a 3.5 gallon brewpot and did partial boils. Now that the weather has cooled off and I'm starting up again, I bought a 5 gallon brewpot and I'm splitting a full boil between the two. 3 gallons in the big one, 2 gallons in the other and then a little top off for the boil off in the fermenter. I combine them for cool down and I want to believe everything will work out fine...we'll see.

 

[ChadChaney]

NeedsmoreHops, I just did the same thing last night, hit my OG perfectly, actually, a tiny tiny bit high, better than short right! Pitched 2 1Ltr starters of Pacman yeast and had activity an hour later. When i checked it this am, it was cruising along really nice, nice high krausen already! Keep me posted, and Ill do the same!

 

[thebluewaffle]

Cool, thanks, only difference is I am doing a simultaneous boil of 2 batches.

It says you need to have two consecutive days, but if your stove is big enough to accommodate two pots at once I don't see why you wouldn't be able to.

 

[zeekage]

Why would I have to adjust the hops?

beacause of

In my understanding, you get better hop flavor and utilization when you do a full boil.

If you design a recipe for a partial boil, and get your IBUs in the range you want, and then do a full boil you'll end up with a lot more bitter beer than you planned on. Try it in beersmith or one of the online recipe designers. I jsut did a quick test and IBUs for one recipe i have in beersmith goes from 19 with a 3 gallon brew pot, up to 41 with a full boil. You need to account for that. Late extract addition can help alleviate that problem though, as it's the gravity of the wort and not the volume so much that affects the hop utilization.

So just be wary of that fact and account for it so you end up with the beer you planned on. Nothing worse than putting in hours of effort and not getting your desired final product.

 

[ChadChaney]

Good points, didn't even think about that, thanks! Already brewed the DIPA, so hope it comes out ok, I did do a large late addition of DME so hopefully that will correct that issue!

As for the 2 separate days of making wort, no thanks, I do not want unfermenting wort sitting around for a day, and my stove was big enough.

 

[NeedsMoreHops]

I agree, the "texas 2-step" method of waiting til the next day does not seem ideal. Couldn't it introduce potential oxidation issues? I'm feeling good about my "simultaneous" texas 2-step method, though I understand how that will increase bitterness. In my case, that probably won't be an issue though because I'm moving towards less early hop additions and more late additions that will result in final product that may not be bitter enough anyway for a hophead like myself (at least on my pale ales).

I'll keep you posted Chad. BTW, I was mistaken in my last post, I actually did the split boil on a porter that's still in primary (my 2nd batch of this season, not the first). I took the summer off, then 3 or 4 weeks ago did a fairly hoppy pale ale as a partial boil. During its second week, I dryhopped 1 oz in the primary. I moved it to a secondary/bottling bucket, removed the dryhops and used them in my boil for the porter in the larger brew pot with 3 gallons of water and 3lb of LME plus an extra 1 pound of DME. In the smaller brew pot, I had 2 gallons of water with 3lb LME and then threw in 1oz of pellets. At about 10 minutes to go, I took another 1 oz of pellets and split it between the 2 pots. At cooldown, I had about 4.5 gallons left, combined into the big pot and did an ice bath in the sink. I added a 1/2 gallon of refrigerated, filtered, preboiled water (refrigerated the night before in a growler) to the fermenter, dropped the cooled wort on that, aerated (rock that mutha for 5 minutes), and pitched yeast. Its going to secondary this weekend for at a least week, bottles for at least 3, so I'll let you know the results in 4 weeks.

 

[ChadChaney]

NeedsMoreHops, yeah I liked that Texas 2 step, worked well for me. Here is my issue, I had someone on this site kindly help me out with my DIPA recipe and I am not sur eif I told them it would be a full boil! So here is what I made, in a split batch, 2gallons and 3 gallons. had planned on 6lbs of Pilsen Lt DME @ 60 min, but I think I did 3 lbs Pilsen lt and 2 lbs Amber-i bag was a lot darker than the other, had the wife grab stuff for me and she didnt notice the difference, and neither did I till it was to late, decided to roll with it anyway! Thena another 3lbs golden lt DME @ 20 min, 1 lb corn sugar(dextrose) @ 45 min. Steeped .25 lbs crystal 60 l and .50 lbs Belgian Aromatic Strong for 40 min @ 155-160. For the Hops, 3 oz Warrior pellets @ 90 min, 1 oz Falconers Flight @ 15min, and 2 oz Amarillo @ 0min. Plan to dry hop with 1 0z each Amarillo and Falconers. IBU's over 150! Had to top off about a half gallon in the carboy, shook really good for about 5 minutes, took gravity reading and hit the OG, actually over a tiny bit. Pitched 2, 1 liter starters of Pacman yeast at high krasuen. Had airlock action an hour later, albeit very minimal. That was 11 pm, woke this AM, and had full killer fermentation, had to take airlock off and replace with blowoff tube. Curious to see if this will be a hop bomb, I hope so!
On a side note, I was a few Dogfish Head 90 min's in at the end of the brew session, and had some left overs, so my mind said, hey everything is here, sanitized and ready to go, brew again... I made a small crazy experimental batch. 1.5 lbs pilsen lt DME, 1 oz Warrior leaf for 60 min, and .5 warrior at 15 min and .5 warrior at flameout, had to top off with about .25 gallons as I did not have a muslin bag for the leaf hops, still I calculate about 200 IBU's and 16% ABV... Crazy, could taste like Sh** or not, who knows, smells great! I used a small portion of Pacman starter that would not fit in my original 2 starters, and it is fermenting like crazy too, blowoff tube from the get go. I will keep you posted, do the same plz!

 

[NeedsMoreHops]

Sorry its taken so long for me to post a reply, I've been lazy and haven't logged on in awhile. The porter came out pretty good, probably the best or second best batch I've made in my year of brewing. All of my hoppy ales have had something not quite right that i believe to be extract twang...or maybe just a result of partial boils.

The porter, which I did as a split, nearly full boil has none of that off-taste. I've been drinking it, perhaps a little early since the carbonation isn't ideal, but its been enjoyable. Therefore, i conclude that the "split" boil method works.

I'm waiting to try some other batches, but I'm pretty convinced that splitting the boil between 2 small pots is worthwhile because its essentially a full boil which results in better beer than partial boils. I've also tasted a wheat that I made that has only been in bottles one week and it also has no weird extract twang/partial-boil-offtaste.

I've made a few batches since my last post and my new method (used on the wheat) is to put 3 gallons in my large pot (my stove can't seem to truly boil more than 3 gallons at a time) with about 1lb of LME, hop it up and then start steeping 1 gallon of water in the smaller pot with about 1.5 lb of specialty grains. After the 1/2 hour of steeping, the big pot has boiled off about half a gallon, so I dissolve the other 5lbs of LME into the steeped grain water, bring it to boil and pour it into the main pot. Add in my finishing hops and I end up with about 3.5 to 4 gallons after evaporation and hop removal.

Sure they're small batches, but I think I'll finally get a satisfying extract IPA out of this. We'll see in a few more weeks. Since I'm using an ice bath in the sink to cool down, its too hard to do a full 5 gallons, since i need to combine all the liquid into my 5 gallon pot. But, now that the weather has gotten down to single digits at night, I may try another split pot batch and take the 2 pots outside to cool, then combine them in the fermenter.