Two beers from one mash

[confused]

for my next brewday I intend to make two very different beers from one basic mash - any tips from people who have already tried this?

My plan is for a full mash in the mash tun, that means 9kg MO and 0.5kg torrified wheat. That is the capacity of my mash tun. I will steep two different sets of speciality malts seperately. one will be based round medium crystal and chocolate and added to the earlier runnings for a strong, dark ale hops yet to be determined and fermented with S04. The second will be a small amount of dark crystal added to the later runnings for a lighter, ruby ale hops again tbc and brewed out with Nottingham.

I plan to steep about 20% more speciality grain than I would add to a standard 5g batch, does that make sense.

Also are there any issues with the second batch standing in a spare bin whilst the first finishes the boil?

[agentgonzo]

Unless you do a mashout, enzymatic reactions will continue in the waiting batch (all your dextrins will get converted to maltose) upsetting your malt balance and leading to a crisper and less full-bodied beer (if you worry about all that). Otherwise, not a lot will happen.

There has been some chatter about hot-side aeration, but personally I wouldn't worry about it.

[awalker]

Last year I did a TRAQUAIR House Ale clone at 8% and then used the later runnings to do a 3% beer.
This was before the runnings got any where near the tanin extraction range.

I did another 8% beer last week, but did not do another beer from the mash, mainly due to time, as I only have the one boiler at the moment.

Go for it
Dont throw all that usefull sugar away in the grain, it might not be the best beer you ever made but it just might be the cheapest

[awalker]

Also are there any issues with the second batch standing in a spare bin whilst the first finishes the boil?

At the minimum keep it well covered to keep the nasties out
Ideally you would boil it straight away, but if you only have one boiler you will have to wait.

[drsmurto]

Its a good idea and what i did back in May. I didnt add anything extra in the way of steeped crystal malts tho.

Google 'partigyle' to find out more info on it.

What i did was take the first runnings after raising the temp to ~76 and used that for the strong beer (an english IIPA) and then sparged to get a second weaker beer that was an APA on the lower end of the OG and IBU scale. A fairly easy way to get 2 beers.

For 2 x 18L i used 7kg ale malt, 2 kg munich and 0.5 kg medium crystal.

OG of IIPA was 1.077
OG of APA was 1.044

Reminds me i should do that again but aim for something like an ESB/OB combo.

[confused]

thanks folks, really useful input as always.