Split Batch Brewing

[herv]

I have started to do a biab 10gal recipe mash then split into 2 - 5 gal recipes. ie.. pils/amber, APA/porter, porter/amber. I try to mash all common grains and then do a 2nd mash and boil on the stove with steeping grains and after the split add to one of the fermentors. OR mash all together and split immediately post boil and hop stand with diff hops and DH with diff hops. most of my best beers have come from the 2nd boil method. and I have made my best amber to date that stems from a oatmeal porter recipe ( so oats in the mash and thus in the amber) very smooth mouthfeel, as I would not have made an amber with oats otherwise. I am just not always wanting 2 apa's with diff hops /yeast. but two totally different styles of beer. cheers!

My questions are
1.have you tried this?
2.and with what success?
3.what are your favorite recipes to do this technique with?
4. favorite base recipes that could be the starting point for many different beer styles.

attached file for reference of my last brewday split batch

 

[tracer bullet]

Not sure I follow. You do a big mash for common grains, then a 2nd mash for beer #1, then a 3rd mash for beer #2? Wouldn't it be easier to mash twice total, once for each beer? You could do an IPA then a porter next and have 2 beers with little in common. I must be misunderstanding the question.

 

[herv]

Not sure I follow. You do a big mash for common grains, then a 2nd mash for beer #1, then a 3rd mash for beer #2? Wouldn't it be easier to mash twice total, once for each beer? You could do an IPA then a porter next and have 2 beers with little in common. I must be misunderstanding the question.

1 mash with all common grains of 2 beers then make mods following the mash as needed for 2 distinct beers.

 

[mashpaddled]

This is fine if you don't care about water chemistry or how it's going to affect the beer. The water profile that makes a great pale ale isn't necessarily going to make a great porter. I could see this working making two similar beers like amber/brown or stout/porter (don't @ me on that one you know what I mean).

 

[Sammy86]

I've been using my Brewzilla 65L for double batches recently.

Base Recipe Helles/Kölsch

11 gal batch. 1/2 34/70 1/2 Lallemeland Koln Kölsch yeast. Both came out fantastic with RO water adjusted for Yellow Balanced in Bru'n Water.

 

[mattdee1]

I've experimented with this kind of split batch technique through the years. Here is one where I attempted to make an amber/porter combo. I did an amber "base" then steeped some dark grains on the side to add to one of the fermentors prior to yeast pitching.



It turned out "OK."

By far, the best results I got from using this sort of technique was when I made a wheat/dunkel combo and a kolsch/alt combo. In each of those cases I used the same yeast for both fermentors (WLP300 and WLP029, respectively) but I just added some steeped grains to one of the halves to get a darker color and some sweetness. They worked quite well and all resulting beers were swiftly demolished by family and friends.

After multiple attempts at this technique, my feeling is that it's a viable way to get some variety from a single brew session with little extra effort, but on the other hand, you don't get a free lunch either. What I mean by that is, it's tough to get both "versions" of the beer to live up to the standard that I would be able to meet if I targeted either/or from the ground up. Ultimately, it amounts to compromising the end result for the sake of time savings.

Now, perhaps that compromise could be reduced or eliminated with further experimentation, but these days I prefer to stick with more simple/reliable ways of getting variety from split batches. For me, that means the only variables I change between the two halves are yeast choice and dry hops. It's actually pretty crazy how different you can make a beer just by playing with these two things. For example, a few months ago I made a base batch with an American wheat beer type grain bill. I fermented half with WLP300 for a nice wheat beer, and then fermented the other half with S-05 and threw in a bunch of fruity dry hops. Those beers were completely different from one another and I really enjoyed both.

 

[pvpeacock]

I have not tried making two different styles of beer, but will make a 10 gallon batch, split it into two 5 gallon fermenters and use different yeasts, temperatures and dry hops. As a result, the craziest I have gotten was splitting two Pale Ale/IPA worts, fermenting one at 95 F using Kviek yeast and the other at 66 F using a British Ale yeast. I dry hopped the heck out of the former and even keg hopped it. The two beers were like night and day: the former a fruity, juicy IPA and the latter a clean, dry, crisp pale ale.

 

[HB_ATL73]

Ive done this before with hefe base beer with appropriate yeast then heavily dry hopped the second 5 gal and pitched something like an S04 for a NEIPAish style and both turned out great. I also do this often to experiment with different combos of dry hops as well

I honestly do this as a time saver because I dont have as much time to brew now so a 10 gal batch keeps my kegs full