As of last night, I have two empty corny kegs and two empty fermenters, no beer on the go except my bottled porter, which I'm saving for Christmas. I was thinking about replenishing stocks by brewing back-to-back batches at the weekend. Has anyone tried this?
I'm worried about not having enough hands to manage both tasks. I was trying to set up a simple time-line and it looks like I might wind up needing to sparge the second mash about the time that I'd need to be cooling the first boil and racking to the fermenter.
I can press the missus into action, so I guess I can still juggle the tasks.
Another concern is power draw...I guess I'd need to be heating the sparge water for batch two while doing the boil for batch one. That's probably an overload of my circuit since I blew the circuit once before when I ran the ice cream machine during the boil.
It would be nice to get 10 gal out of the system in one session. I've just got this annoying suspicion that I might be biting off more than I can chew. I think I mentioned before I had thought about doing an extract batch in parallel. I could do this in the kitchen and do the mash out the back.
Any thoughts or hints?
Piggy-Back Brewing
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Seveneer
Hi,
I have done two 10 gallon batches back to back using the method you suggest. I clean out the mash tun while using two elements in the copper to reach boiling point. Once the first batch is boiling I then turn one element off and start raising the temperature of the mash liquor for the second batch also with one element.
The ring main I use only has two sockets on it so I can only use two elements at a time (each vessel has two elements and if I used them all off the same ring it would overload it).
I can then cool the first batch while the second is mashing.
I don't recall the actual timings as it is a while since I've done this but I don't remember there being much dead time apart from a longer mash on the second batch while I waited for the first to cool. Probably delayed me no more than 20 minutes though.
/Phil.
I have done two 10 gallon batches back to back using the method you suggest. I clean out the mash tun while using two elements in the copper to reach boiling point. Once the first batch is boiling I then turn one element off and start raising the temperature of the mash liquor for the second batch also with one element.
The ring main I use only has two sockets on it so I can only use two elements at a time (each vessel has two elements and if I used them all off the same ring it would overload it).
I can then cool the first batch while the second is mashing.
I don't recall the actual timings as it is a while since I've done this but I don't remember there being much dead time apart from a longer mash on the second batch while I waited for the first to cool. Probably delayed me no more than 20 minutes though.
/Phil.
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Seveneer
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The Cardinal
I was just trying to see if I could get my name on the opening forum page for every single topic without disrupting any current debates. It's common practice on The Idler forum. I succeeded, and have basked in the warm glow of achievement ever since. Thanks for everyones patience, I won't do it again 
Unfortunately I didn't really have much to add, hence the rather pointless posts. Got it out of my system now though
Born of a very boring night shift
Unfortunately I didn't really have much to add, hence the rather pointless posts. Got it out of my system now though
Born of a very boring night shift
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Seadart
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steve_flack
it is, you're right, Dave Porters Brewery installations plants do this, warm/hot water from the plate chiller goes straight back into the HLT for use on subsequent brews. very green, I like it.steve_flack wrote:Yes you could - in fact I'm pretty certain that's what quite a few commercial brewers do. All that water down the drain is a waste of water and energy.Seadart wrote:I had a thought on piggy back brewing, couldn't you use the water from the cooler to start the next mash?
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SteveD
(especially now there's a counterflow on the way 
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SteveD
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Seveneer