Split Batch Brewing

I don't think I'm alone in liking fresh beer, a variety of beer, but also lots of beer. I started brewing 2.5 gallon batches because I could do it on my stove, and get a good variety, but a whole AG brew day for one case of beer is not worth it. Partigyles get you two beers for one slightly longer day, but they have to be a bit extreme: really high gravity for the first runnings or really low for the second.

Then it came to me: make 5 gallons average gravity wort, and dilute one half for a slightly smaller beer and use sugar (if needed) to boost OG/dry out the second half. You can also steep some specialty grains for either to change the malt character some.

So far I've done a 1045 bitter and a 1058 IPA and a Pils/Tripel. But I think you might be able to do an amber/brown with steeping the chocolate. Has anyone else tried this? What might make some good combinations?

If an AG batch is to much work (and I agree) why not do partial mash or extract and specialty grain?

AG is cheaper and I like the recipe control you get (using mash-only ingredients and setting fermentability with mash temp). Buy doing one mash and two boils, I only increase my brew time by 2 hours or so, but get 5-7 gallons of two distinct beers.

Cool idea. I did a 10 gallon split batch of identical pale ale wort. I used 2 fermenters, one with American ale and one with Belgian saison. You couldn't tell they were the same! It's a little different than you are saying but your idea will be an awesome way to learn twice as much out of each brew. Have fun!

You could just do a partigyle to get multiple beers from the same batch of grain.

Yeah, you can differentiate the beers at any step in the process. I think it's common to just split the wort post-boil to use two different yeasts. You can take it a step back and do two different boils so you can vary the hops (I plan on make an APA wort and do half with Nugget and have with Columbus), or you can take it a step back and alter the wort before the split by dilution, addition of steeping grain, sugar, &c. The further back in the process you go, the greater difference you get in the finished beers, which helps you diversify your pipeline. I hardly ever like drinking two of the same beers in a row, so this is a major incentive for me.

You can vary any one ingredient/step in the process (just yeast, just hops, just one steeped malt) to help you learn what it adds, or you can vary several at once to get more radically different beers.

corwin3083 said:

You could just do a partigyle to get multiple beers from the same batch of grain.

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The problem is that you can't get two fairly avergae gravity brews that way. You get a big imperial or a really small session beer, at least according to the calculators/charts I've seen. If I want a little lighter pale ale (1045) and an IPA (1060) I can't do that.

I've done this with BIAB.

I was making a porter, pulled the bag and didn't try to drain or squeeze every last drop out of the bag. Put it in a bucket off to the side.

I boiled and hopped the porter, gave the equipment a quick wash/rinse, added half as much water as the original full batch and heated up to mash-out temp. Put the grains back in and circulated for about 10 minutes.

I then boiled that down to make a half-batch of mild. This is basically just a batch sparge and making a "big" beer with the first runnings and a "small" beer with the second runnings.

OG of the porter came out 1.058 for about 21L
OG of the mild came out 1.035 for about 12L

The porter is good... haven't tried the mild yet.

Edit: I guess this is a partygyle and you discussed not wanting to do it. Sorry... didn't know that terminology.

I've got a lot of the same motives as you for not making 5 gallons of the same thing. If you're partigyling, you can blend until you have two beers at an enjoyable strength, or top the second gyle with some fresh grain and let it mash for 30 minutes or however long it takes to boil the first beer. I've pulled half the wort off as soon as it started to boil to make an unhopped Berliner Weisse (along with a hefe). I add most of my late hops as a post-boil steep, so it's pretty easy to split the batch into two pots and use two separate sets of hops. You can add sugar or candy syrup to half a batch to get two very different gravities. You can add fruit/coffee/oak/chocolate/etc... to half a batch. Of course there's the split yeasting you mentioned. If you use multiple techniques, it's pretty easy to get very different beers.

I've done or will do:
Mild/Wild
Quad/Oud Bruin
Barleywine and UK IPA
Saison split with multiple yeasts
West Coast DIPA and Belgian DIPA
Hefe/Berliner
Saison/Gose
Rye-IPA/Saison partigyle
Saison/Blackberry Saison/Spiced Saison

I think I'm going to brew tomorrow: October Ale and Dubbel. Using the Bee Cave OFest grainbill, Mt. Hood hops, then capping half of it with some steeped Spec B and a little D2 sugar. Ofest gets a little extra water and a healthy pitch of Notty to ferment really cool and Dubbel gets some t-58.

The October Ale/Dubbel sounds like a great split!

It was a good one. I actually just did one boil, then split after that. I steeped the Special B and then brought the water to a boil and added the D2 so that it was sanitary to add. Since I boil on stove, it added virtually no time to my brew day and I got two different batches of beer!

Possibilities are endless here. This is a great way to save time and money as well. It might stretch the brew day a little, but you get two batches!! I love the idea of blending some of the first runnings into the smaller beer so it isn't too small. Instead of a 1.080 and 1.035 beer, you can do a 1.065 and a 1.050. Add some cold steeped roasted grain from the night before to one of the boils, ferment with different yeast, different hops and schedules; I'm inspired!!

I did a more clear and thorough write-up on this and submitted it as an article. I have not heard if it will be accepted or not yet, but if it is rejected, I'll post it and hopefully just get a sticky or at least link it in my sig.

Good work!

Has anybody been using this method recently? I am about to do it again this Saturday

I have been using it. I did a write-up on it which is in my signature. What are you brewing?

I'm thinking about a split between a big amber and diluting that wort down with some dark grains steeped for a brown porter tomorrow.

Doing an ESB and a stout.

I decided to just post the write-up without waiting for approval. You can find it here.

I have made a double strength batch and split into two identical batches with the exception of the yeast.

My purpose was to have a comparison in the flavor from ONLY the yeast as a variable... very instructive, as I did end up with two very different beers! (Dark Lager and Mid-gravity Belgian Single).

Full disclosure-I did 'lager' the Lager too, but the principle stands.

So I just discovered a problem with this technique (avoidable, I just need to figure out how for my system). When I was splitting my batches of wort, I mixed the wort back and forth between my two boil kettles to ensure an even mix of sugars in the batches. I oxidized the wort during this process. I did not know at the time that oxygen shouldn't get to hot wort preboil. So that I know, how have I *accurately* evenly split the wort between my 2 boils without oxidizing?
Thanks

Reviving this thread. I am planning on doing a 10 gallon batch. After the boil split in half and add additional steeped grains to one half. Question is this, do I need to boil the additional steeped grains? Or can I add to the pot and blend together?

Yes you should boil the wort for 15 mins or so after steeping. This will kill any bacteria that made their home on the grain.


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shtoive87 said:

Yes you should boil the wort for 15 mins or so after steeping. This will kill any bacteria that made their home on the grain.


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Ok, that makes sense. Brewing tomorrow. Doing a partial mash instead of all grain. Mash pot not big enough for 35 pounds of grain