Second set of questions about splitting batches

I'm getting interested in the same question. I've split almost everything I've made in the past year, but staying within style for both parts.

I'm thinking about doing the Saison/APA split you mentioned above for my next batch. I would put the Saison fermentor on my main floor, and put the APA on my basement floor. Might do Belgian Wit yeast for the warmer one instead or put both in the basement.

For English IPA and American IPA, I think you need different hops during the boil. But you could certainly do two of the same style with a different dry hopping. I did that once, and the difference was as distinct as most of the yeast splits I've done.

Dry hopped amber or APA vs. bitter seems possible with a single boil.

 

I'd say you could do an American style beer and an English style beer with anything that's amber, brown or black. You just need an American yeast and an English yeast. The American beers are more often dry hopped. This is also where you get crazy with other additions to make different beer too. Vanilla, cocoa nibs, coffee, fruit and oak (and melted angels?) to name a few.

 

Start with a mash of all continental pilsner malt (any pale malt could probably work, but I think pils is both high quality and flexible. Suppose you made it lager strength for a German pils. The same mash could make a good saison, a good kolsch, a good patersbier. You might even consider doing it as a single boil and hopping the same, just changing the yeast. I plan to do a saison and either a pils or Kolsch this summer, from a single mash

You could of course, tweak that mash in the boil. Hop it American style for an APA or IPA, depending on strength. Add 1-2lbs of some dark candi syrup to make it a dubbel (I once did a dubbel and an IPA from the same mash this way). Or add a bit of extract to one half to boost the gravity.

If you want to really get flexible, you can conduct a main mash and a side mash or side steeping. You could do a mini-cereal-mash with some corn and 2-row and get an American Pils, steep carafa and caramunich and maybe produce something more alt-like. Lots of possibilities when you are just mashing the pale grains.

 

I've thought about making smaller batches in general to experiment (and because sometimes I like brewing beer more than drinking beer. Don't tell anyone.). I never thought to make radically different beers from the same mash, though. These are great ideas, keep em coming!

 

Consider making some homemade tinctures. This way you can make a base beer like a porter for example and add a tincture to only one keg to change it from the base beer. The tincture can be made by soaking ingredients in a neutral spirit for 5 - 15 days, depending on preference. Then just pitch the tincture into the keg after straining out the ingredients you soaked in it. Some possibly tincture ingredients that come to mind for a porter would be vanilla beans, cocoa nibs, ancho chillies, chipotle peppers, habanero peppers, etc. Depending on what particular ingredient you choose and base beer you choose, the spirit used to make the tincture could stray away from a neutral one and towards something like bourbon or rum for example. You could also consider adding oak chips / cubes / spirals to a keg. I'd recommend not using chips. Any of those options could be soaked in spirits as well (neutral for disinfection, non-neutral for flavor). The oak could be boiled / microwaved first to remove excess tannins before adding it to the keg.

 

P.S. I know what I recommended won't really give you two different styles of beer, but it certainly will give you two totally different tasting versions of the same base style. For two different styles off of the same batch with the same fermentation temperature, yeast will be the real key player. Although you could probably do a Hefeweizen and a Wit by using different yeast and adding the traditional wit spices via tincture.

 

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're after, but after collecting your runnings for a basic pale ale, you could split then (assuming you have two kettles/burners/stove space) and use steeping grains in one to move into the brown/porter/stout field.

 

Sounds like a long brew day. The only risk I can see is cooling then reheating batch two. That's a good amount of time spent in the 'danger zone' for bugs. The second boil would kill them, and it's unlikely in the time it takes to get to boiling that they would have a noticeable effect on flavor, but it could be a consideration.

I have no idea about utilization and such, but I guess hypothetically, batch two could be as simple as a 15 minute boil to add more hops or a 20 minute steep and another 2 hour boil if you're looking for some type of big beer.

 

I do this with 90% of my brews.Hear are a few of the things I do.
1. Make a malty Pale Ale pitch different yeast strains and dry hop one of them.
2.Make almost any kind of ale and pitch one with an English strain and one with a Belgian strain. I ferment both at 66 degrees.
3. Make a California Common ( A great summer drinker! ) and pitch one with WLP 810 and the other with WLP 830 both fermented at 66 degrees.
I do not necessarily brew to any style guide lines. I like to brew what I like to drink. Have fun!

 

While maybe not the same temperatures, english or american IIPA/IPA/APA and Brett Trois. Anything low IBU with any of the Bretts may work. I split wort between a hefe and brett c.

 

Have to ask, single mash and single boil w/ split ferment, or single mash and split boils?

Single mash/single boil:

• IPA & Black IPA (different yeasts and dry hops)*
• Pils & Saison (could do Kolsch or Blonde w/ Saison too)*
• Saison & Wild Saison (one clean, one with dregs)*
• Saison & Belgian Blonde (ferment one with Saison yeast, add sugar and Trappist to the other)
• Dry Hopped Amber & Oaked 80- (American Ale on both, one w/ big dose of Cascade DH, the other w/ Oak)
• White IPA & Brett IPA (make a tea of the spices for the White and add post ferment)**

Single mash/Split boil:

• IIRA & Oud Bruin*
• Brett Trois APA & Vienna Lager (all Vienna w/ Carafa II for color, use a hybrid yeast for the lager)*
• German Hefe & Saison*
• Gumballhead Clone & Wit beer (Pale & Flaked Wheat mash, steep Caravienne in one, add oat meal to boil on other + spices)*
• The BA Avg American Stout & Belgian Dubbel (leave the chocolate and roast out of mash & steep in stout kettle, Dark Belgian Syrup in Dubbel)*
• Classic American Pils & IPL (Old School American hops vs New School American hops)*

*Actually did these
**Done as split boils, but could've worked as a single.

 

Yup, that's all I do now. There will be an article in BYO later this year on this topic.

 

If you take your first runnings you have a heavy syrup of r a barley wine. Then you add in some crystal and dark grain. You take your second runnings and you've got a sessionable porter or stout. Parti-gyle for the win!

 

I've been doing 11 gallon batches and splitting them post boil for separate fermentations and dryhop schedules. My first was a brown that used separate yeast strains. The second batch was a wit/wild saison. The third batch is IIPA which will receive different dryhop schedules. The wit / saison was awesome, I produced 2 completely different beers with that.

 

If you are willing to split the boil you could do a hoppy american wheat, alla Little sumpin sumpin, and a more traditional german hefe.

 

Or a hoppy hefe like New Glarus Crack'd Wheat.