Hooked on double brew days

[Lodovico]

Just wanted to share this with people that understand our addiction The last three times I've brewed, I've done two beers at the same time. I'm not talking about a Parti-gyle, I mean two totally different beers at once.

I'm writing this to let you know how convinced I am that this is a great time saver if you are very well organized and you have the right type of setup. I'm married with two small kids, so every hour I can shave off is great.

A regular all grain brew day usually takes me just under 6 hours so to brew two beers on two different days takes at least 12 hours. That's a lot of time when you have a family. My new double brew day setup had me totally finished and cleaned up with 2 beers (and not basic beers either- get to that in a minute) in 7.5 hours.

Today I brewed a Belgian Amber Ale and a Biere de Garde. Both 90 minute boils and the Biere de Garde was a 90 minute mash. The trick to doing this is just staggering the brews so that one's boiling when one's mashing and one's chilling while one's boiling and etc.....

It's great to not have to get everything out two weekends in a row even though I love brewing, I just don't have the time to do it every weekend. The keys are the setup and being REALLY organized.

I have everything done the night before:
-Water Pulled with adjustments salts measured out
-Hops weighed and separated
-All calculations and numbers organized and both brews are totally separated down the middle of a big table

The equipment I need to pull this off is:
-Kitchen Stove
-Turkey Fryer
-2 Kettles big enough to do 6 gallons all grain batches
-2 other kettles to do sparge water
-Utility sink for fast chilling

I started the amber ale first and just used my stove the whole time for sparge water. I'm sure you can figure out how the timing works if you're an all grain brewer. I did the beer that required the 60 minute mash first and went from there. I can chill quickly (15 min) with immersion chiller and kettle in an ice bath. Really not stressful if you know where everything you need is and you know your system well.

Sorry this is really long but I just had to tell someone how much I enjoy busting out two different beers in one session. It certainly gets rid of the standing around and lag times of a normal brew day but it makes it pretty intense and fun. I still had time to clean in between all of my other tasks and was pretty much done cleaning when I pitched the yeast for the Biere de Garde. Just thought I'd share!

 

[devilishprune]

I second that my friend. Nothing like having 2 separate batches during the course of one day! I usually run about 8-9 hours on a double day, which isn't THAT bad I guess.

 

[Sdragon980]

I know the feeling. My last two brews were double brew days. It makes for a busy day.

 

[TheBroonery]

I did that about a year ago on a day that we got 2 feet of snow. Then I had a friend help me bottle them on the same evening. Between waiting for the dishwasher to sanitize more bottles, beatles rock band on the wii, and a case of noble pils, bottling the second batch that night is kind of blurry...

 

[Coffeetester]

Yea well my Friend and I did a double (Stout and Red) and finished in about 11 hours. Wasted a lot of time since this was our first All Grain and testing out a new Mash tun. We defiantly could cut down time with better mashing technique and with a new 185K Bayou Classic SP10 coming we should be more efficient. My friend is hesitant but I like have 10 gallons of beer stored at my house and 10 at his. Since I want to make sure we have a good balance between aging and drinking we might have to do this every other time.

 

[beeboy]

I typically do this, but with one all grain and the other extract. I fire them up at the same time. Usually the extract is boiling while the AG mashes, and is cooling while the AG sparges.

 

[JonW]

I do dual 10G batches sometimes. Before I did it the first time, I did an estimate of how long it would take. I hold prety close to this schedule.

 

[northernlad]

I use the same theory to brew and bottle 10gallon batches on the same day. I was not able to do that today and I found myself enjoying the easy brew day. Back to back batches and brew/bottle days sure feel a lot like work...

 

[bruin_ale]

I talked to a guy recently that did 4 beers in one day (or at least he said that was his plan for the day). I think he must have two boil kettles - so he'd mash enough for 10 gallons then split the runnings and change the hops/yeast. The most difficult one was a red ale and a stout using the same mash plus a mini-mash for the dark grains for the stout. Sounded interesting. I could fill up my entire kegerator with one long brew day I guess.

 

[northernlad]

I talked to a guy recently that did 4 beers in one day (or at least he said that was his plan for the day). I think he must have two boil kettles - so he'd mash enough for 10 gallons then split the runnings and change the hops/yeast. The most difficult one was a red ale and a stout using the same mash plus a mini-mash for the dark grains for the stout. Sounded interesting. I could fill up my entire kegerator with one long brew day I guess.

When I started doing 10 gallon batches I split many of them to try different yeasts.
I brewed a batch of cream ale and made half a Stout by steeping the dark grains in 2 gallons of runnings. It turned out very good.
I did a partigyle of an IIPA and a Wheat.

 

[ksbrain]

I love double brew days. I always do it, plus make Apfelwein, plus package last month's brews. It's the best. Fifteen gallons kegged, and fifteen new ones fermenting!

I've got it down to six hours. This weekend only took 5:50. I mash for 45 minutes, and boil for 60.

It's a lot easier with someone helping, but it can be done alone if you're organized and on-task the whole time.

 

[hoppysailor]

Double brew days are definitely the way to go. My wife and I will each pick and brew a beer, taking turns at cleaning and sanitizing. We do the double brew days throughout the winter and then just do singles after work during the summer.

 

[kpr121]

My last three brewdays have been double 5 gallon batches. One AG and one Extract. We have two burners so it makes it pretty easy to stay under 5 hours. The extract batch is chilled and in the fermentor with around 30 minutes left in the AG batch boil.

Next week we are trying a 10 gallon Partial Mash (I only have a 5 gallon MLT) and 5 gallon extract.

I really like the chart that JonW posted. That makes me think that we should maybe just go to two AG batches, keep the price down. I hate paying all that money for extract!

 

[JonW]

I just updated the chart I posted. Based on the last few brews, I had shaved about 30 minutes out of the brew day. Single batch days are about 5 hours and double batch days are about 7.75 hours.

All I can say is be organized and focused as doing simultaneous brews is a lot more than just doing two brews in a single day. I'm usually pretty whooped at the end of a double day.

 

[Lodovico]

I do dual 10G batches sometimes. Before I did it the first time, I did an estimate of how long it would take. I hold prety close to this schedule.

Wow you even have it charted. Now that's getting dorky. I love it.

 

[JonW]

Wow you even have it charted. Now that's getting dorky. I love it.

Thanks. It just helped me visualize what parts could be done simultaneously.

A few weeks back I did a double brew day where I also had to clean cornies, keg 20 gallons and clean the fermenters to be ready for that days brews. Holy crap was I tired....

 

[kpr121]

Thanks. It just helped me visualize what parts could be done simultaneously.

A few weeks back I did a double brew day where I also had to clean cornies, keg 20 gallons and clean the fermenters to be ready for that days brews. Holy crap was I tired....

This is what gets us into trouble. We usually have a batch or two that needs either bottled, kegged, or racked, and we try to squeeze it in during the day. That leads us to forget about starting sparge water heating, or we end up needing to chill at the same time with one IC.

I think I am going to bite off your chart, and create one for my situation (batch sparge, no chill recirc, etc). It would be nice to create a few situations, one for bottling, one for kegging, one for racking, etc. I think that by having this schedule printed on brew day, it could make the process much more efficient.

 

[chapa]

A double brew day sounds awesome! I've scaled back to 5g for now, just to perfect my method and get some solid brews down, and I feel like my brew days are getting smoother (compared to 10g) but I'll have to try doing a few 5g double brew days, then moving up to 10g! 20g in one day would really be making the best out of your time/brewday...but man that would be a LOT of base malt!! Better stack up some sacks!!

 

[Bokonon]

Now that I've got kids running around I don't get as many brew days as I used to, so lately most have been double brew days.

It really cuts down on the time required in cleaning, since I only do a quick rinse between batches and a normal good cleaning at the end.

As soon as one vessel is empty and rinsed something should be ready to go in it.

After putting strike water in while it's preheating the MLT, my sparge water is heating. After sparge water (I batch sparge for time savings now) goes in my 2nd batches strike water is heating.

As soon as the MLT is empty the 2nd mash goes in. When the boil kettle is empty of the first batch the 2nd batch should be ready to move in. If I used another pump and a holding vessel for the 2nd batches 1st runnings I could probably cut out another 20 minutes.

 

[hikertrash]

I'm going about it the hard way, Last friday I did two all-grain BIAB brews. Due to my small kitchen and lack of supplies I mash, boil, and chill in my 5 gallon kettle so I have to have batch one in the fermentor before I start heating mash water for batch two. I did 2X 3 gallon batches and bottled 10 gallons in 11 hours. Whooped.

 

[jwible204]

My double brew days are about 7 hours. It's without a doubt the easiest way to cut serious time off of your brewing. There's so much down-time when doing a single batch.

 

[tekknoschtev]

Double days are about as far as I like to go. We did three once, and in the winter especially its just too much work. The danged hose for my chiller keeps freezing up and causing problems. Once summer rolls around, it'll be better - last time I did a 3-brew day it took me more than 11 hours.

But doing a double batch seems almost logical since both my brother and I enjoy brewing. I've started doing some 10 gallon batches, and I think doing a double 10 gallon batch is going to be where we're at, especially with the kegging setup.

 

[estoppel]

I bottled 150 beer and then pulled a double brewday in my kitchen. It was actually only about an 11 hour day.