Two Batches at once - One AG, one Extract

[kpr121]

So my buddy is coming over on Saturday, and I'm going to help him with his first extract brewday. But I'd also like to bang out an AG recipe at the same time, since I have 3 kits sitting waiting to be brewed. Does anyone brew an extract batch at the same as AG?

I use a 2000W electric heating element in a 20 quart pot as a HLT. Then into a 5 gallon round cooler, then to my 1/4 barrel keggle where I boil using a bayou burner. My idea is to either:

A. Use the keggle for the extract batch while heating strike water/mashing. It usually takes about 20-30 minutes or so to get my mash water up to temp, so with a 60 minute mash I think I should have enough time to boil and/or cool the extract wort. With this method I will be able to do a full boil if I want (I may just do a partial so that I can use cool top off water to decrease cooling time. I use a 25 ft IC submerged in ice bath).

B. Wait until after the sparge water is drained into the MLT, and use the HLT to boil approximately 3.5 gallons of water with the 2000W element. I would imagine that this would increase the overall brew time since I would need to cool both batches at relatively the same time. That would be fine, if people think this would be the better route for me to teach my buddy the ropes.

It seems like more stuff would be going on at the same time in option B, and that theres no reason why I shouldnt be doing something during the mash time.

So what do ya think? Am I asking too much for my buddy to try to keep up with both AG and extract on his first run? We talked a little about it and we both would probably be able to do this on a regular basis if it would work out nicely.

 

[kpr121]

Does anyone else do this? I had a hard time finding good examples here. There are a few in the "similar threads" but they are very detailed. I guess theres not much to be detailed about, but I just want to know why lots of people arent doing this!

 

[bigljd]

I personally don't do this, but the brew shop in Charlotte, NC does demonstrations brews like once a month, and they will brew an extract batch in their kettle while mashing in an all grain batch in their MLT. They drain the extract batch thru a CFC into a carboy after the boil is complete, and then pump the AG batch from the MLT to the kettle and boil that up next. Didn't seem to be all that stressful to run 2 batches at the same time. I've been sticking to all grain for my batches, which is why I don't do it, but it's definitely an efficient use of time.

 

[kpr121]

Thanks for the input bigljd, I figured that this would be a great way to take advantage of the little free time I usually have. Of course theres the issue of AG is better than extract but to me, beer is beer. Its worth it to me to pay the extra for extract if I can get 10 gallons in the same time as a normal 5 (I am not upgrading equipment anytime soon). I just wonder if it makes sense to do it while I'm teaching someone else the ropes. I would almost rather try doing both batches at once by myself first. I'm more of a do-er than a teacher and if I get caught up in it I might not get all the good points across to him.

I'll let everyone know how it goes this weekend.

 

[nebelk]

The only problem i've had when doing this was my immersion chiller springing a leak and by the time it was fixed and the extract wort was chilled and in the carboy the AG had been in the MLT about 30 minutes extra.

In the end the delay didn't hurt the beer, just caused some stress. My only advice would be to allow yourself ample time. when you're in a rush little things seem to go awry and wreak havoc.

 

[kpr121]

Just want to update this thread for anyone who might be interested in the topic. We successfully brewed those two batches, an AG IPA and the extract was a Coopers Amber that he got with his brew kit. All in all it took about 7 hours from setup to cleanup. Not too bad, although we had some down time while we were waiting for water to heat up. I think we can get it down to 6 hours, which I think is pretty good for 10 gallons considering the equipment that I have. I guess it would be more efficient if we had a full size keggle and 10 gallon cooler then we can just one 10 gallon batch. But this way we can do two completely different styles in one day.

He was very interested in AG, and in fact we ordered some more recipe kits from AHS. This time, his will be the AG (Newcastle clone) and mine will be extract (simple blonde ale). Although I think we will be splitting those batches 1 case of each.

We also bought two more kits for next weekend, a Heineken Lager clone (his) and another Brown Ale (mine).