3 Beers 1 Boil!

[Donasay]

So I was thinking of a way to make 15 gallons of beer, 5 gallons of different kinds all at the same time, and aside from the hop schedule I think I have a solution. If my thinking is correct I can make a golden ale, a brown ale, and a porter all at the same time.

Here is my plan, let me know what you think.

I will start the brew day off by mashing 6lbs of 2 row and 1 lb of crystal 60 and 1/2 lb of chocolate malt.

In my brewpot I will steep 2 lb of crystal 60 in 10 gallons of water, then add 18lbs of extract and boil for 30 minutes after 30 minutes I will remove 1/3 of the wort and dilute it up to 5 gallons to have lightly hopped golden ale.

I will then drain my mash tun into the brew kettle to bring the volume back up and darken the color, boil for another 30 minutes and remove ½ of the liquid for a nut brown.

The remaining liquid will have the other 1/2 lb of chocolate and a 1/4 lb of roasted barley steeped in it as it cools and will become a porter.

I know all of the beers will be similar, and I was going to dry hop the Golden Ale to differentiate it a bit.

The main problem I am having is figuring out a hop schedule. I want to use something that will taste good in all of the beers and be able to have a presence after boiling for 30 minutes for the golden ale but won’t get to bitter for the brown ale or porter.

Any suggestions, I know the math on this one is really messed up, and IBU calculations are going to be very hard…

 

[Baumgartner]

"In my brewpot I will steep 2 lb of crystal 60 in 10 gallons of water, then add 18lbs of extract and boil for 30 minutes"

That is going to be on hellof a boil. 18# of extract?? how much water and how big of a pot? this sounds like it might be syrup or burnt

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

I think this is encroaching on the point where a larger batch becomes significantly more work than multiple batches.

Unless you're interested in this primarily as an experiment, in which case... neat!

You could reserve some of the extract and brew it separate as a small batch with some hops to change the variety/bittering. I don't know if this would ruin the concept of the experiment, but it's one way to go... how to calculate the IBUs for that, well... I have no idea!

 

[Donasay]

"In my brewpot I will steep 2 lb of crystal 60 in 10 gallons of water, then add 18lbs of extract and boil for 30 minutes"

That is going to be on hellof a boil. 18# of extract?? how much water and how big of a pot? this sounds like it might be syrup or burnt

it is a 15 gallon pot and once I drain out some of the wort it will be diluted to proper OG.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I have done similar.

Brew a big batch of high OG, high hopped wort. Steep specialty grains on the side in separate pots.

Break down the main batch into multiple files in your calculator and treat the steeped grain mixture as a dilution.

OG, IBU, and SRM become pretty easy to calcuate in the software treating the additions as dilutions. Example: Break out the batch and adjust the grains to match OG and IBU. The scale conversion tool will do this for you, IIRC. Then add the amount of grains to the schedule and the software will calulate the effects. Test the gravity of the side steeped liquid and run that volume through the dilution calculator to see how the addition will effect the batch. Keep in mind that you'll have to plan the base wort volumes and the specialty steep volumes accordingly to get to the target volume.

Add the specialty mixture to the fermenter as a top off water dilution.

This way you can definitively determine the style and dilute to a desired OG, IBU, and SRM and effectively create 3 beers from 1 mash and 1 boil with minimal fuss.

 

[madewithchicken]

Is your wife going out of town and this will be the only chance you have to brew for the next few months?

 

[Bobby1579]

I have thought about doing something similar. I don't have room for five gallon batches at my house. We brew them at my buddy's house. I brew one gallon batches at my house. My thought is that I could boil up a gallon and a half of wort. Pour half a gallon of it in one jug and a gallon in the other. Then add water to the half gallon up to a gallon making a porter and a stout. I haven't done the math on any of it though. I'm gonna try it next month i think.

 

[Arneba28]

Hops, I think something english and slightly floral or earthy would be good. It will be covered by the heavier tastes in the porter but will still be there in the golden and brown I would think.