2 brews 1 day

[bryanjints]

Next Sunday is my birthday. My wife asked what I wanted to do for my birthday and my response was to brew a batch of beer. I got to thinking about this and decided 1 batch on my birthday was just not enough I better make it 2.

So I am looking for some suggestions on how I should go about it.


Equipment

9 gallon pot
2 5 gallon pots
3 gallon pot
immersion wort chiller
5 gallon cooler MLT
digital thermometer
dairy thermometer
2 hydrometers

I have 1 burner but a friend will lend me his turkey fryer burner. If I need to I can also borrow another friends kettle although I don't know what size he has, he is still brewing extract.

I do not have a brew stand. I just set everything up outside and utilize a pair of saw horses and old counter top as a table. The MLT sits on there and the burner normally on the ground next to it.

 

[NoNothing]

so I just got done with my first 2 brews 1 day trip.

My gear is a 15 gal kettle/HLT
7.5gal HLT
10gal cooler MLT
only 1 turkey fryer

So Im thinking that the 2..5 pots is 2 5 gallon pots? or is it two half gal pots, or 1 2.5gal pot?

Anyway, here's how my day went.

I started with 11 gal water in my brew kettle, brought it up to 165, my dough in temp.

Poured the rest of the water into my 7.5 HLT and threw that on the stove to get it to 202, my mash out water temp.

Grains in MLT, wait an hour.

Use some of the water from the HLT to mash out.

Now things get interesting.

I have about 3 gal left in my HLT, and my fryer should be used to boil my beer. So I fill up my 7.5 gal HLT to the brim with water, which ends up being about 120, fry that on FULL on the burner until I get to 165, or my other dough in temp. Then put my wort back on the fryer and brought that to a boil while I was mashing in my second batch. Then a few more gallons go into the HLT and that goes on the stove to get up to 201.

THEN, after an hour I cool down my wort and rack into my fermenter. and finally mash out on the mash tun and bring that to a boil while Im dealing with my fermenter. Then its single batch issues from there on out for the last batch.

You will need 2 burners, definitely.

My suggestion for you is:
-start with the heavy beer.
-Boil 8.5 gallons of water in your kettle.
-Mash in the heavy beer with some of that water, put the rest in the 3 gallon (now HLT) and top that off, throw it on the stove (or your friend's turkey fryer) and bring it to temp for mash out.
-Mash out into your kettle, set that aside, covered, for about 20 minutes.
-In that 20 minutes you will be bringing the 3 gallon pot and a 2.5 gallon pot up to temp for your dough in on your second batch (take the time they're warming to clean up the MLT)
-Now mash in your second batch and put your first batch on the fryer.
-The second batch will probably be in the MLT about 90 minutes, so drop your temps a bit, or wait a while to dough in, but remember to hit the right temp.
-Heat up your 3 gal pot on the spare burner/stove so you can mash out the second batch
-Cool your first batch in the kettle and put it in your first fermenter, that batch is DONE.
-Rinse out your kettle and mash out your second batch.
-Now take care of this last batch like you would any other batch, the juggle part is over.

Worked for me, hopefully its the same for you!

 

[bryanjints]

Your suggestions is what I had in mind. Although thinking about it and doing it are two different animals.

I fixed the original post. I have two 5 gallon pots. The brewing outside is in the driveway right out the back door. The stove is less than 10 feet from the back door so I can use the spare burner and stove to heat water.

 

[bryanjints]

How long was your brew day?

 

[NoNothing]

Mine was about 8 hours, but I was pretty inefficient. And I had to clean and sanitize before I started, that added lots of time.

Ok, well if you have 2 5 gallon pots, swap out all my talks about the 3 gallon pot and use the 5, you should definitely be good from there on out. And you wont need the 2 pots for the last mash out, just the 1 5 gallon.

Definitely a great brew day if you ask me

 

[bryanjints]

8 hours seems like a great day. All of my stuff is clean. I will get everything ready the night before and include in that 5 gallons of sanitizer.

I am brewing a Pale Ale and a Blue Moon clone. This warm weather has given me the urge for some clean refreshing beer. The extra chocolate stout and thick as molasses almost 10 percent porter doesn't cut it when you are tired and sweating after a hard days work.

 

[Beerbuck]

I did 2 brew in a day with only 1 set of equipment and only 1 burner, Did 1 by one and didnt overlapse both brew and it took me 10 hours, In between this,I did lots of stuff, im sure I could make it in less than this

 

[Schalk79]

We normally make a double batch on a brew day... doing the following.
Heat water & do a normal mash.
While the first mash is standing for an hour we heat another batch of water and decant into a large cooler.
After draining the first mash and starting its boil we add a second lot of hot water to the same grain... effectively making a small beer...
So far it works pretty well

 

[manticle]

I have done three batches in one day before. It was exhausting and I ran out of gas during the third (refilling station nearby) but I would suggest:

1. PREPARE THE DAY BEFORE:

-Weigh and crack grain the day before. Make sure each grist is easily identified (can be as easy as a small piece of paper inside the container you're holding your grain in with whatever brew it's going to be put in)

-weigh and label hops additions and make sue it's clear which goes with which brew. A tupperware container with a piece of masking tape is enough. Eg - one says APA 60, APA 30 ESB 45, etc

-write out your brewing schedule clearly and run through it to see if it makes sense. Include things like gravity readings where you would normally take them (1st runnings, pre-boil, post boil etc)

-make sure all necessary equipment is cleaned and ready and where necessary sanitised to the point where some no rinse is all else that's needed just prior to filling/chilling/whatever.

2. ON THE DAY:

-Start early. Heat your 1st brew's strike water at the same time you make your morning coffee. Don't get up at 1 pm and think 'yeah double brewday'.

-Organise which mash goes first. If one is 60 minutes and one is 90 minutes, do the 90 minute second - gives you a chance if anything goes tits up with the first boil.

-Do everything you can to avoid a stuck sparge (rice hulls, lessen stirring etc)

-Clean the tun and get the second mash on as on as soon as the first is on the boiler

-Tick off the stages you're at with the first while mashing and make sure you record times of each. I use an alarm but if I have 2 things going does the alarm mmean add hops@60 or does it mean mash out? Notes help distinguish these. Pen and paper is a must.

-Drink beer very slowly and not until after first brew is on the boil.

3. Following the brewday, clean as much as you can be stuffed (and follow up the next day what you don't get done), relax and have a brew or 6.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH GAS.

 

[zuesy]

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH GAS.

This. Few things can derail a brewday like a lack of propane. Not that I would know anything about that...

 

[hal2814]

Like a home improvement job, this is easy with the right tools. Without them, it will be a longer and maybe even more frustrating process than it has to be. You can easily share some items like paddles, thermometers, scales, etc. But it's far easier a job if you have two kettles, MLTs, and burners. I personally brew 2 x 5 gallon batches every brew day since I fixed my old burner. One is a tried-and-true recipe I can pretty much do on autopilot (lately it's been either my pils smash or my Vienna smash). The other is more experimental in nature. With two burners, two kettles and two mash tuns, it takes me half an hour to an hour longer to do two batches than it does to do one (grand total of 3.5 - 4 hours but with equipment prepped the night before). If you're not interested in doing this as more than a one-time thing, obviously it's not worth it. But if you think you may end up regularly doing multiple batches on a single day, it's worth investing in a parallel system. Here's how my parallel system usually operates:

Mash 1
Mash 2
Sparge 1 and set 1 to boil on weaker burner
Sparge 2 while keeping an eye on 1
Stagger boil on 2 so that I have time to get 1 situated before 2 is done (15 mins usually works)
Track times and hop schedules on 1 and 2
Rack 1 into fermenter
Rack 2 into fermenter

I no chill so you'd have to work chilling into your equation if you're into that sort of thing.

 

[bryanjints]

Thanks for the help fellas. But unfortunately SWMBO had other plans for my birthday.

2 batch brew day will have to wait.

 

[Special Hops]

Thanks for the help fellas. But unfortunately SWMBO had other plans for my birthday.

2 batch brew day will have to wait.

It's your B-day, not hers. Just saying....

 

[bryanjints]

It's your B-day, not hers. Just saying....

No kidding.