Two Brews?

[Martin the fish]

By the time i get my grain and have some time to do another brew i'll have all my FV's empty.

So i'd like to do a double brew. Only trouble is i haven't tried either of my AG's yet. So i have no idea what they are like. I'm sure they will be fine but i'd be gutted if i was to do a 50ltr brew of the worst one

I'll just have to wait i guess, till i've sampled both. Not too good at waiting me.

[MightyMouth]

Martin,

You seem to drink a phenomenal amount of beer, I know its hot down there but ....

[Gurgeh]

You could tread the path of the cornelius...

what i mean is that you brew your standard length of 23 or 25 Litres. your cornie takes 19L and the rest you bottle and set aside - just forget about them.

3 cornies seems to be working well for me Martin - I've got two tapped and in the fridge, with the third used for conditioning. I always have two beers on tap, and i'm building up my bottlebank at the same time. When a drinking cornie empties I have the third cornie ready to replace it and then do a brew again. You get into a rhythm

A couple of brewers i know do this and it's great popping around for a pint and whilst they've only got 2 or 3 on tap, there's a range of other beers bottled up and ready for 'discussion'

I don't know if that schedule would keep up with your prodigious requirements though

[Martin the fish]

I only drink about 6 bottles a day? Thats not a lot. I do give a few away too.
Plus i'm trying to 'stockpile' for my wedding. Which is arriving alarmingly quickly. I have about 120 x 750ml PET's full all the time. I would like 300 for the wedding.
Also when i run out i can't buy english beer. So i drink red wine and lots of rum. Both are quite expensive here. I like a drink.

[Martin the fish]

Gurgeh, my problem is i don't ever 'just forget about them'. For me it's impossible. They call me, beconing me to try them. Even when i'm no-where near them.

[incapete]

When you do a double brew like that (two batches into one FV) are you using a huge 50l FV?

I do like the idea of doing successional mashes to get a strong and a standard brew so you'd be fermenting in 2 FVs anyway for that.

[Martin the fish]

I have a 50ltr FV so yes. But i haven't done it yet.

[incapete]

That explains it then....

[Martin the fish]

The car was due a service yesterday so i had to go to town for the day. Nice day so i wandered around a bit, looking for potential brew equipment. Does anyone else do this? Everything i look at now i seem to be looking for potential stuff to utilise and/or help improve my brewing. Did find some food grade 300 ltr barrels v cheap. Don't think i'm quite ready to do a 300 ltr brew quite yet.
But my HBS had new 75ltr FV's that looked very nice indeed. Reasonably priced too at NZ$65, with molded guage up the side, stick on thermometer, good strong lid and fitted tap. Which made me think about what aleman has said about german lager breweries. Could i do a three day stint and pitch a good amount of yeast on day one's 25ltr brew. Followed by adding another 25ltr brew on day two and day three. Would this work with an Ale? I suppose it would?

[Martin the fish]

Does anyone else do this?

Nope, never

Phew.

[Aleman]

Could i do a three day stint and pitch a good amount of yeast on day one's 25ltr brew. Followed by adding another 25ltr brew on day two and day three. Would this work with an Ale?

I think 24 hours is the maximum you can get away with, due to the issue of adding oxgenated wort to a fermenting/fermented beer. With the German breweries its added before the magic 18 hour period while the yeast are still in 'reproductive' phase so doesn't cause issues (Similar to dropping an ale )

[mysterio]

Why not just get a bigger mash tun (or even two small ones) and do a larger batch in one go? Or have I missed something?