2 Brews - 1 day! A lot of work it is!

[bmckee56]

I ran low on kegged beer because of my schedule so I bit the bullet and made 2 - 5 gallon batches yesterday. I started at 7:15am and finished up (clean up too) by 3:45pm. I did not have my water filtered, grain crushed or equipment set up prior, so I hustled the entire day.

1 - 5 gallon batch was a Belgian Wit
1 - 5 gallon batch was a DFH 60 Minute IPA Clone.

The only mistake I made during the entire brew day was to combine my hop additions for the Belgian Wit. I was to add .75 oz @ 60 minutes and .50 oz at 30 minutes, they were different hops, so I just threw them both in @ 60 minutes. According to BeerSmith the mixup should only change the IBU's by about 1 or 2 points.

Both are showing activity in the airlock this morning, so I must have done something right.

Salute!

 

[azscoob]

A double batch day is always a chore, I just got a second fryer burner and already have 2 keggles, this should drastically reduce my brew time when doing double batches. Mashing batch 2 while boiling batch 1, chilling batch 1 while boiling batch 2 etc.
Congrats on a successful couple batches! And that Wit should be tasty at any rate.

 

[deezy]

Congrats on the 2 brew day, gonna tackle this one soon.

 

[ksbrain]

+1 two burners and two kettles are essential for a double brew day. One mash tun and sparge water tank is adqeuate. I normally do two five gallon batches in six hours.

 

[steveo929]

I did a double about a month ago...never again. Like someone said, it makes brewing more of a chore than a hobby. It took me about 10 hours with cleanup, prep, recipe formulating, etc.

Glad I did it though, I had to make sure all my beers were ready for this weekend...vacation starts this Saturday and I'm taking 4 kegs of beer to my beach house!!! Woohoo

 

[bmckee56]

Yeah it was indeed a chore. I heated water for batch #1 while filtering water for batch number 2. Mashed batch 1, then into the boiler. Had to clean out mash tun for batch #2, then cool batch one and boil batch 2. Then........ well the routine continued to the end.

I have a keg (recent aquisition :rockin which I am going to convert to a keggle for use with my propane burner. I have a ten gallon brew kettle which I am setting up for electric to use as my HLT and I have a 48 qt. cooler to convert for 10 gallon batch production. All I need now is more time to get it all done.

I just completed my PID controller (check my gallery for pictures) and I am still waiting on my 4-20ma to variable output SSR to control my HLT and double for a smoker controller.

Salute!

 

[avidhomebrewer]

Yeah, you almost need two burners and an extra kettles around for heating up the strike water. I make 2x5 gallons each brew day and found that the easiest method for me is to mash overnight. It cuts about 3 hours off the next day and you don't have to sit around stirring occasionally.

Anyways, glad to hear it worked for you and you will probably continue to make 10 gallons in a brew session here on out. More beer is always better.

 

[goose1873]

i prefer doubles...mash one while i boil the other...which makes more sense 1 in 5hrs or 2 in 6...

my .02

 

[whatsleftofyou]

I agree. I don't get to brew too often, so I'd rather do two batches in a day. Takes me 4 hours to do one batch, or 6 hours to do two. After you do it a few times there's a lot less running around, just like switching to AG.

 

[evanmars]

I just did my first double a couple of weeks ago. An oatmeal stout and an ordinary bitter. It was a pretty relaxing day, all-in-all

 

[hal2814]

I just run in parallel. Start Mash 1, start mash 2. Sparge Mash 1, sparge mash 2. And so on. By the boil, there are two pots running side by side with one 5-10 minutes off the other. I have to do a lot more prep work, pre-measure EVERYTHING beforehand, and write down hop addition times as soon as I see a boil, but I can squeeze out two batches in 4-5 hours. My general rule is that at least one batch is something I know by heart so I can pretty much auto-pilot one half. In theory it should only add a few minutes if you run them completely in lock-step but in reality it doesn't work that way. From the sparge-to-boil I can never get the timing quite right.

 

[ksbrain]

I don't find it a chore at all to do the double. I have a streamlined process, with an Excel sheet and all, which helps a lot. I even keg the previous two batches on brew day. This keeps me busy most of the 6 hours, but I still find some down time during the second boil and while chilling the second wort.

 

[PGHBrew]

I go with mashing the second while the first is boiling. Once you get your timing down, double batch days aren't bad at all. Usually about 6 hours for me. The extra 5 gallons is worth every minute.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I did this once and it only added about 1.5 hours to the day. I only have one burner, One direct flammable pot and a cooler mash tun and spare 10 Cooler. My full water volume heated up while I drained All my runnings for my first batch. Then I transferred my full batch 2 water volume to the spare cooler and started Batch 1 boil. Cleaned Mash tuna and tarted Batch 2 mash. It's nice to get a double batch. Last time I did though me and a friend both brewed separate 10G batches, then just split the final products

 

[Julohan]

Two batches for me, is fine with me. I did do five batches in one day. I was over it after the third batch.

-Not trying to 1up you or anything along those lines.

 

[skawars1]

Anyone do a parti-gyle to cut down on time? I've been reading a ton about it lately and looks like the way to go.