14 replies to this topic

[Brian72]

Ok, this sounds crazy but stay with me on this one.I've recently gone back to brewing AG and doing full boils and had planned on brewing a Chocolate stout this saturday, even got my starter going, thank you very much. I just looked at the weather report for saturday, my only free day to brew, and they are calling for rain. RAGE! I do my mashing and sparging in the kitchen with the help of my stove to heat the water then when I'm ready to boil I haul it out the back door to my trusty turkey fryer. Not this saturday...I have 2 options:1. brew a half batch on the stove top and then bottle after fermentation is finished, by the way I'd rather take a leak on an electric fence than bottle.2. brew a half batch on the stove top, chill the wort, transfer to fermentor, cover with foil or airlock. Brew another identical half batch on the stovetop immediately after that one, chill, transfer, then pitch. What would you do? if you chose option 2 would you do anything different? Perhaps pitch between batches?

[djinkc]

Brew 1, chill and pitch. Brew 2 chill and add.Shred mancard Is it really going to be that bad? Somebody should make something that keeps rain off of you. It would be really cool if it was collapsible for storage......... I know, if it's a bad storm it can't be done. If that's your only brew time try to make the best of it.Or, build a basement brewery tonight

[Brian72]

Brew 1, chill and pitch. Brew 2 chill and add.Shred mancard Is it really going to be that bad? Somebody should make something that keeps rain off of you. It would be really cool if it was collapsible for storage......... I know, if it's a bad storm it can't be done. If that's your only brew time try to make the best of it.Or, build a basement brewery tonight

Ha, I would do it in my garage if I had a garage. I'd love to have a basement brewery but I have a feeling if I brought any more stuff home for my brewing hobby losing my man card would be the least of my concerns...

[BarefootBrews]

Brew 1, chill and pitch. Brew 2 chill and add.

Ever been on a brewery tour and noticed the capacity of the fermenters are usually much larger than the capacity of the brew kettles? Many of those guys have to brew 2-3 times to fill up their fermenter. We as homebrewers should count ourselves lucky to be able to fill our fermenters with a single brew session.

[Brian72]

Ever been on a brewery tour and noticed the capacity of the fermenters are usually much larger than the capacity of the brew kettles? Many of those guys have to brew 2-3 times to fill up their fermenter. We as homebrewers should count ourselves lucky to be able to fill our fermenters with a single brew session.

Hmmm, I didnt think about that. Good point!

[BarefootBrews]

Perhaps some of our professional brewers could chime in here on their brewhouse specifics. At the last brewery I visited, I inquired about their brewdays. It would take them 3 brews to fill up a fermenter. They would pitch yeast after the 2nd brew was in the fermenter. The 3rd brew was almost always in the fermenter after active fermentation had begun.

[Deerslyr]

I have 2 options:1. brew a half batch on the stove top and then bottle after fermentation is finished, by the way I'd rather take a leak on an electric fence than bottle.2. brew a half batch on the stove top, chill the wort, transfer to fermentor, cover with foil or airlock. Brew another identical half batch on the stovetop immediately after that one, chill, transfer, then pitch. What would you do? if you chose option 2 would you do anything different? Perhaps pitch between batches?

I say go with No. 2. You know, there are plenty of guys who let their wort chill overnight in the fermenter before pitching. Look, if your process is streamlined, the longest peiod of time your wort will be sitting and waiting for the 2nd half is what? 2 hours??? Put the first batch in the fermenter, do not pitch, but cover it and let it sit while you finish out the 2nd half. Besides, does your stove have only one burner? Can you at least get the 2nd half heated and close to boil while you are still working on the 1st batch?Either that, or get one of these things... Brewing in crappy weather sucks! How bad is the forecast?

[DaBearSox]

you can go with number 2, orgoto walmart and get a canopy. I think i got one there for camping that was like 30 bucks and it takes about 5 minutes to set up and take down...I have used it a ton of times for various different reasons...

[Brian72]

Good points here.Let me push this a little further and say, what if I were to brew the first batch, pitch and wait a day or 2 and brew again and top up that fermentor with fresh wort? I'm certain this has been done before, but by anyone on the board? results?

[BrewerGeorge]

...2. brew a half batch on the stove top, chill the wort, transfer to fermentor, cover with foil or airlock. Brew another identical half batch on the stovetop immediately after that one, chill, transfer, then pitch. What would you do? if you chose option 2 would you do anything different? Perhaps pitch between batches?

This. There's actually a name for this. It's called the Texas Two-Step.

[MakeMeHoppy]

Ok, this sounds crazy but stay with me on this one.I've recently gone back to brewing AG and doing full boils and had planned on brewing a Chocolate stout this saturday, even got my starter going, thank you very much. I just looked at the weather report for saturday, my only free day to brew, and they are calling for rain. RAGE! I do my mashing and sparging in the kitchen with the help of my stove to heat the water then when I'm ready to boil I haul it out the back door to my trusty turkey fryer. Not this saturday...I have 2 options:1. brew a half batch on the stove top and then bottle after fermentation is finished, by the way I'd rather take a leak on an electric fence than bottle.2. brew a half batch on the stove top, chill the wort, transfer to fermentor, cover with foil or airlock. Brew another identical half batch on the stovetop immediately after that one, chill, transfer, then pitch. What would you do? if you chose option 2 would you do anything different? Perhaps pitch between batches?

Can you just do the boil in two seperate pots? Collect 1/2 the wort and get that boiling on your largest burner while you are completing the sparge. Once boiling, your next largest burner can likely maintain the boil while you bring your second runnings up to boil. Splits all the hop additions and your brew day will only be slightly longer.

[Brian72]

This. There's actually a name for this. It's called the Texas Two-Step.

Seriously?

[Brian72]

Can you just do the boil in two seperate pots? Collect 1/2 the wort and get that boiling on your largest burner while you are completing the sparge. Once boiling, your next largest burner can likely maintain the boil while you bring your second runnings up to boil. Splits all the hop additions and your brew day will only be slightly longer.

I really only have the one pot for boiling. It would actually be easier for me to do it shifts, if I can. Believe me I'm liable to screw something up if I have 2 batches going simultaniously.

[BrewerGeorge]

Seriously?

Yep. It's from an article by Chris Colby in BYO.

The Texas 2-step was developed to address space issues many homebrewers have on their stoves by boiling normal strength wort (as opposed to low volume, high strength followed by dilution) in two 2.5-gallon (9.5-L) batches over two days to end up with 5 gallons (19 L) of wort. As Chris Colby mentioned in his article in October 2003 most medium and large commercial brewers add more than one batch of wort to a fermenter for economic reasons . . . not too different than homebrewing...

[Source]

[Brian72]

Yep. It's from an article by Chris Colby in BYO.[Source]

Cool article, thanks!