Lazy-gyle brewing

[fofusak]

Greetings, fellow fermentation tricksters.
I brought my brewing habits to a halt due to lack of time, as I saw spending 5-6 hours on brew day for 5 gals of beer to be not worth it. On one hand I love sharing my beer, but on the other I also love to drink beer.

An epiphany came by and I realized: You can brew 10 gallon batches! So I did "upgrade" my kettle, and my first 10 gals are on two fermenters. Now, 10 gallon of the same thing feels like too much, so obviously the laziest way to have 2 different batches was to pitch different yeasts, and to dry hop one of them. So I'm fermenting one with a Kviek and the other one with an Abbey train and will dry hop it (I know it doesn't seem like very conventional but I don't care)

So I came up with the idea of Parti-gyle brewing. But really....? 2 separate boils!?! And I'd have this huge 20 gal kettle boiling ~6.5 gals of wort and the other 10 gal boiling the same?
Cooling them separately? No no no, it seems like too much work for a lazy guy on a Saturday morning!

Alas my head whispered (the voices!!!) upon itself "Steeping grains..."
Now, I started brewing with a gift of one of those all grain 1 gal kit, so I've never done an extract. I've vaguely skipped through grain steeping and mini mashes. So I'm aware I might be talking nonsense?

Anyway, I thought that maaaaybe, if I do brew my 10 gal batch, and in a little bit of water (.5 gal?) I steeped some specialty malt, perhaps I could just add that "malt tea" into one of the fermenters and have a different beer?
I then thought about the hot break, so I'd have to boil it (not to mention to kill anything in there) But skipping the hopping altogether then I could probably get away with a 15 minute steep and a 3 minute boil?

I guess I could add some hops, but that feels as getting too close to full parti-gyle, I'd just boil 2 worts then. (Unless I with a no-boil version, or boil for 5 minutes for aroma?)

I also worry about possible starches being in these grains and needing some conversion, so maybe I'd need to mash them (do a mini mash?). I don't think that'd be the case with black patent, chocolate malts, but maybe with the less kilned (70°L crystals) malts?

What are some concerns that you might think of?

Is anybody as lazy as me out there who figured this out?

Thanks in advance for your comments and for reading through my laziness-filled story.

 

[FatDragon]

Seems like a sound plan to me. You shouldn't need to worry about conversion with any crystal or roasted malts. I do something like this most brew days, though I've been too lazy to even bother with extra steeping grains. I differentiate by splitting the wort unevenly and topping off to make batches with varying gravity and IBUs, varying the yeast and dry hops or lack thereof, and so on. I've thought about using steeping grains or even a separate mini-mash for more significant differentiation, but haven't felt the need to do so yet.

 

[applescrap]

Man, I am so amazed. When I joined, whoa you would have been roasted for this thinking. I know because i am right with you. I love drinking beer, but long brews etc. not so much. I can hear it, why dont you just buy it, and on and on. Sry I just saying what's in my heart.

I brew quick, that's my thing, but doesn't really answer your question. I like your thinking and the malt tea would work. I like the ideas of making different gravities. That seems easy enough. Yes, heat the malt tea to at least 180. There are lots of other simple flavor options at kegging or bottling. Tinctures, keg hopping, flavor additions, coffee, fruit, syrups, oak, zest, and more. I feel the same and am always talking about switching stuff up, but dont and usually just drink ten gallons. More cornies with different flavors could work.

I love the idea of the party girl. Two beers for one. You could do ten gallons of hg stout and 10 of a light porter or brown. 10 of a golden strong and ten of a blonde. Not really sure exactly but yeah two boils but two distinct different.

Side note, my new lazy plan is dme. Dont even need to boil it. There are plenty here making neipas by throwing dme, hops and yeast in bucket, but price goes up. I no boil a lot now. Super lazy action there, after boil, boom, lid on and done. But need to rack later. If you brew in house, ferment in kettle. Cider is super chill brewing, consider it! I can help with any or all above, best of luck and hope to see what you come up with, cheers.

 

[madscientist451]

I'm skeptical the "malt tea" idea is going to work like you want it to.
If the goal is to brew two different beers in the same amount of time as one, just do one brew BIAB and the other one using your existing mash setup. You'll need another burner or other heat source. Even easier is to do two BIAB brews at the same time.
I've been playing around with "short and shoddy" brews with a 30-40 minute BIAB mash and a 30 minute boil. I can get the whole thing done in less than 2 hours. Beer comes out pretty good, but I haven't done a full side by side comparison of short and shoddy and conventional brews.

 

[Gonefishin]

I have been using a similar technique for a while now (although I don't get to brew very often). I do a base mash and while sparging, I collect 25% in one BK and raise the temp to approx. 150-deg. and steep my specialty grains while sparging the next 50% to my second BK. Then I bring BK2 to a boil and finish sparging to BK1 and raise it to boiling. I cool BK2 and transfer to a fermenter then do the same with BK1. I got a pump and a counterflow chiller before my last brew session and finished in 6-hours. I got 5-gal. of a pale ale and 5-gal. of a hoppy brown IPA. I wish I could brew again.

 

[fofusak]

Cider is super chill brewing, consider it!

I'm skeptical the "malt tea" idea is going to work like you want it to.

I'm curious, what do you think might go wrong? I'm asking so I can take care of those concerns


Yeah, I guess I could have two boils going at the same time. I really wanted to avoid that. I do have the 2nd burner, but I liked the idea of having a full gas tank as a backup in case the current one kicked (happens very often!) and I've avoided getting a 3rd one because I don't have more space for it :/

Now, my new kettle is 20 gal big, boiling only ~6 gals in it feels strange? Maybe there's nothing wrong with it?

 

[lump42]

I think the malt teas would word similarly to steeping grains. Since you are using a smaller volume and adding it back in, you might have to steep more grains in the tea to compensate for less extraction.

Other thought would be to look into no-chill methods. You would still have two boils, but none of the chilling time. Once one is done boiling straight to the HDPE jerry can. The second batch could go right in. You could even have one boil and just run off a portion into the jerry with flame out hops. Hop teas could be added at that time too.

 

[cmac62]

I regularly brew three beers in a day, but it is a loooong day. I will usually brew a big beer (15 to 20 lbs of grain), a medium beer (8 to 10 lbs) and then rinse all of the grain together one time for a small beer, but occasionally these come out at 6% or a little higher. I get 15 gals for my time. I do have two burners running as soon as I can get about a gal in the pot for the small I light it up.