2 beers from 1 mash, partial boil

shoreman · Nov 20, 2016

Posted in the general forum by mistake, not sure if can be moved but.. :mug:

I've been using this randy mosher no sparge/partial boil for a few years and have really enjoyed the ease of brew session and in general can knock out a brew in 2.5 hours. Time is a premium for me (as I'm sure you) it makes great beer and like I said it works well for me.

http://allaboutbeer.com/article/the-lazy-brewers-guide-to-mashing/

I've knocked out 10 gallon batches this way but always find it hard to get 2 different brews out of one brew session.

Yesterday's brew session I went for a somewhat partigyle style brew session and made a 1.044 Amarillo pale ale & 1.032 Belgian table beer with ommegang yeast from this recipe https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/hopiness-iii which had better efficiency than Moshers 10 gallon meathod.

So the brew session took me about 5.5 hours - not too bad. Essentially you are just doing a no sparge on the first beer, then filling tub with 5 gallons water, draining and getting 4 or so gallons, boil, chill to 100 degrees, top up with 2 gallons almost frozen water, pitch and done. I ended up with more like 4 gallons in the table beer since I didn't account for no absorption in the grain, lesson learned.

So I'm trying to wrap my head around actually planning for this brew day recipe-wise. I'd like to be able to brew say a pale ale and Porter with this method. I don't own a refractometer but think it may be a good idea to pick one up to test the second runnings.

I've looked at partigyle formulas but they are not partial boil.

Any ideas on tackling these recipes?

JohnSand · Nov 21, 2016

I got a "page not found" message from your All About Beer link, so I'm not sure what the method is.
I have brewed two different beers from a single mash and boil a couple of different ways. Simply using different yeasts will make two beers, especially if they are for different styles. Dark Candi sugar added to half of a Belgian Pale makes it a Dubbel, the pale side was dry hopped. A small separate steep of dark grains can change the style. Many things could be added to the fermenter, including boiled extract, sugar, spices, fruit, or hops to change the style. A base beer with clean bittering can produce different beers with whirlpool hops if the batch is split after flame out. There was a thread a couple of years ago that laid out several methods of making two beers from one boil.
Have fun, report your results.

shoreman · Nov 21, 2016

Fixed link for Randy's article - http://allaboutbeer.com/article/the-lazy-brewers-guide-to-mashing/

shoreman · Nov 21, 2016

Thanks for the reply JohnSand. I've been trying to make 2 different beers out of 10 gallons of wort with the methods you mention and will continue to experiment with that as well. My gear gets maxed out at a 9 gallon pot, so really the partial boil is the only way to go.

The reason I'm attracted to "partigyle" is that I can increase my efficiency at the same time as creating two distinct beers from the mash.

I may be just eyeballing these until I work up some proven recipes, but do like to nerd out on my recipes.

bobtheUKbrewer2 · Nov 21, 2016

I have had success as follows. Mash enough grain to make 9 gals of beer. First gal of runnings into 3 gal boiler, 2nd and 3rd gals of runnings into 6 gal boiler, 4 th gal into 3 gal boiler, 5th and 6th into 6 gal boiler etc etc.

From now on treat each "batch" separately eg hop variety hop quantity etc,

JohnSand · Nov 21, 2016

Thanks for fixing that link. I used partial boil for 5 gallon BIABs in a 20qt pot until I went bigger. I now have a 40qt pot, I've made up to 8 gallons in it. While not a partigyle, my method wasn't exactly Mosher's either, because I sparged the grains, and used those runnings to top off in the kettle after hot break.
You could mix your runnings to achieve the gravity you want, or plan on topping off both, even use some extract if you needed more points. I don't have a refractometer either, but find that I can chill a cup of wort to hydrometer temps by putting the measuring cup in an ice bath.
Keep us posted, I love flexible brewing.

shoreman · Dec 23, 2016

A little update on my latest adventure here - it was a pale ale then Belgian table beer. Both these beers turned out fine. I'm actually preferring the Belgian table beer, its got a lot of character and finished out at 1.008.

Next up I will be adding more base malt and specialty to the second runnings for a 15-20 min rest to up the gravity on the second beer, but will report back.

2 beers from 1 mash, partial boil

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