How to make 2 beers with one batch of wort?

[Brewslikeaking]

I want to make 2x 5gallon batches. How should I go about it? I have heard about making a session beer with the first run off of the mash? Or should I split the wort in half and boil with diff hops etc. Any tips and tricks are appreciated? I want 2 diff iPas to start for my first time trying this.

 

[bilder]

I brew half batches and sometimes make 5 gallons of wort and then put it into two fermenters and use different yeasts or add fruit to one, etc..

Lets me see what the same batch with various yeasts or other additives do to the flavor.

 

[brewbama]

https://www.morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.2/mosher.html

 

[KevinMcN]

I was doing exactly what your asking about this past winter since it was too cold to brew outside. With my setup I can do 5 and 10 gallon batches. I would mash like I was doing a 10 gallon batch, collect all the wort into one pot, make sure my wort was well mixed, then split into two 5 gallon boils. This means the grain bill is the same for both boils but using different hops, yeast, and extra additions can make two completely different beers. I also considered steeping some grains in one batch (similar to steeping grains in extract brewing) to slightly change the grain profile, but I never did do it.

 

[oceanic_brew]

Parti-gyle brewing is something to read up on.

A way to do it and get two equal volumes is to mash big enough so that your first runnings are enough to get 5 gallons after boil down.

Then you Sparge into a different vessel and it's a lower gravity beer.

You multiple options to differentiate the two. For example,

Use low amounts of roasted/crystal grains in first mash, while sparging add some.

Do a Berliner weisse with second runnings

Different hops In each boil.

Different yeast, temps, carb levels.

In my opinion it's much more interesting to keep a lot of the variables the same and then change two big things like yeast and hops. It really will blow your mind when you get a completely different beee with just that.. and you can.

 

[Brewslikeaking]

I like idea of making 2 iPas with the same grain bill, splitting a 10gallon batch in 2 and doing 2 different boils and changing the hops. I'm going to do that. But in regards to Parti-gyle brewing; what would you suggest when brewing with a recirculating mash? I have an electric brew in a bag system and the wort recirculated with a pump and re-enters at the top of the kettle so you see the thing is I don't sparge? Should I just remove all the wort from the first mash? Add in another 5-6gal of water and do another mash with the same bag of grain in there? Will that make for a weaker 2nd beer?

 

[tennesseean_87]

See my signature for some ideas (Increasing...Diversity). I do this for most of my brews, targeting 5-8 gallon batches split in two. You can actually brew an Oktoberfest and a Dubbel with one boil.

 

[JohnSand]

I often brew two styles with one mash, one boil.
The simplest is using two yeasts. An ESB, Amber Lager, and a Belgian Pale all overlap, the primary difference being yeast. Friut, spices, dry hops will all change your brew. A Belgian Pale and Dubbel have about the same wort, the Dubbel just gets dark candi syrup.
I've done all of this, it works well, and produces two different beers with little more effort.
Tell us what you try, and how well it works.

 

[Jtk78]

I've also done this a few times. I do a mash with a grist large enough for 11 gallons. I may steep some specialty grains on the side. I've only split my runnings to 2 separate boil kettles with very close to equal gravity readings (Not partigyle). I've done a blond ale/amber ale, 2 different wheat beers using hops and yeast to change them up, and a NEIPA/nut brown. It's worked well for me, and will continue to do it in the future.

 

[FatDragon]

I'll be doing this this weekend and have done it once before as well:

I mash a large grain bill and end up with maybe nine gallons of strong pre-boil wort (BIAB with a bucket sparge). Split it according to the OG I intend for the individual beers (in this case, a 6% IPA and a 4% kettle-soured pale ale), top off as necessary, then do two separate boils. This time as last time, I'll kettle sour one of the beers so the boils will end up being a couple days apart.

There are many other ways to split a batch (@tennesseean_87's guide is quite good, as I recall) from mash to boil to fermentation or even post-fermentation, but if your goal is a pair of IPAs, I'd say a high-gravity mash with a split boil would be an easy option. If you've got a big enough kettle and heat source, you could even boil it all together and then split it for whirlpool or even do all the hot side as one batch and get your main differentiation from big, distinct dry hops, but you'll get more distinction if you boil them separately with different hops, even if you don't fiddle with different OGs, steeped grains, or different yeast strains.