Greeting all, yesterday, for the first time, I tried out my new cooler style mash tun. After tons of good advice here, I went out and made one. It is a 6 gallon Igloo (more tall than flat) cooler, with a sparge manifold made out of PVC piping. Works fantastic.
Anyway I prepared everything I needed ahead of time and made two seperate batches in one day. I know some of you guys do this but if you don't, you should.
First, all of your stuff is clean anyway and it only adds maybe 2 hours to the day, better than 2-8 hour brew days for the same amount.
As soon as my first batch started to boil, I began mashing the second one, this way I had time between pitching the first yeast and sparging the second batch. I am planning on making two batches in one day from now on, cuts cleaning time in half ... If you conduct your brew day this fashion let me know your results OK?
What I brewed was my all grain "Special Bitters" first, then my all grain "Light House Lager"
Paul
2 batches in one day advice
Moderator: slothrob
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Doublem!
Az, two batches in a brew session is my usual MO as well, unless I am doing something with a really particular grain bill. My method is not to conduct two separate mashes, but to do one big mash with usually 20+ lbs of grain (the converted keg mash tun is great for big grain bills). This consistes of the groceries common to both of the day's beers, i.e., usually 2-row pale, a pound of flaked barley perhaps, and whatever crystal the two stules have in common. Then I batch sparge the appropriate combinations of first and second runnings to two separate converted keg kettles (Mrs. Gravity got me a killer KingKooker double propane stove that makes dualing boils a real joy). I'll steep whatever specialty grains I still need in each wort, or add the extract from a separate mini-mash if I am doing something more involved, with grains unique to one brew that require mashing. Then boil, follow each brews hopping schedule, whirlpool at the end of the boils and run each batch in turn through the chiller to the fermenter. I could cut maybe the better part of an hour off my brew day if I had two chillers, but I use the time to clean up gear so it's probably a wash.
Sometime soon, I want to try a Newcastle Brown clone recipe this way, running 100% first runnings into one pot and 100% second runnings to the other. I have read that's what Newcastle does, then they primary ferment the high grav and low grav worts separately then combine in secondary. There is a unique flavor in Newcastle that none of the attempts to replicate I have tasted has quite nailed, so that might be the missing piece of the puzzle.
Brew Straight and True
Jim
Sometime soon, I want to try a Newcastle Brown clone recipe this way, running 100% first runnings into one pot and 100% second runnings to the other. I have read that's what Newcastle does, then they primary ferment the high grav and low grav worts separately then combine in secondary. There is a unique flavor in Newcastle that none of the attempts to replicate I have tasted has quite nailed, so that might be the missing piece of the puzzle.
Brew Straight and True
Jim
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Just a thought
Jim,
You had some pretty inovative ideas, and I like what you are doing, on another note ...
Other than those days when you intentionally want your second runnings to be lower O.G. than the first (IE: Newcastle) would a "Tee" fitting on your sparge vessel work ? What this would do for you is split the first runnings into two boil vessels with the same O.g., then you just have to add you specialty grain in your two seperate batches. As I stated, Just a thought.
Paul.
You had some pretty inovative ideas, and I like what you are doing, on another note ...
Other than those days when you intentionally want your second runnings to be lower O.G. than the first (IE: Newcastle) would a "Tee" fitting on your sparge vessel work ? What this would do for you is split the first runnings into two boil vessels with the same O.g., then you just have to add you specialty grain in your two seperate batches. As I stated, Just a thought.
Paul.
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Got Tee'd off
Paul, I thought that would have been the way to go too. I tried to use a T-fitting to split my runnings a few months ago but abandoned the idea after one session. As slow as the sparge runs to begin with, putting a T into the mix really made the sparge crawl along. Moreover, while I thought this would give me a nice 50/50 split, it actually was very finicky
Double bill coming up
It is thanksgiving on Monday up here, so I have a chocolate porter (with real chocolate) and a autumn red ale to brew. Think I will start with the red, that way I can nibble on the chocolate longer. I will be pitching the choco beer straight into the secondary of the mash hopper pale I will have just bottled, so that will speed things up.
Don't have a stuck mash
Don't have a stuck mash if you want to brew 2 batches in one night. Trust me.