Sunday Success double BIAB brew Day

General Homebrew Discussion
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As my first post, I’d like to quick thank everyone for their insightful contributions.  I use a lot of information from these forums in my brew day, so thanks.  Secondly, I love to share with the community a success story.  I’ve been homebrewing for a little over a year.  It didn’t take me long to switch to all grain, and then discover BIAB.

The Things I Brew by: Small batches, Variety, and Cheap!  So with two pots at 4+ gallons, and two cheap home depot paint-strainer bags I figured why not…? I brewed an ALT and an OktoberALT simultaneously.  I made two small batches (2.5 gallons) in the time of one typical 5 gallon brew day. I purchased one vial of yeast, two oz of hop pellets, and about 5 lbs for each grain bill. (cheap shopping list…)  I split my 1 gallon wlp036 starter and 1 oz of Perle/ 1oz of Hallertau between the two.  I had both pots on an electric stove at the same time.  One took a little longer than the other to heat up to strike temperature, which worked out perfectly.  It gave me just enough time to mash in, cover, rest, pull grains, boil, additions, etc… and then switch over to the other and do the same thing. I kept a wrist watch on for one pot and my microwave timer for the other and a big sticky note for both boils. Also, cooling down 2.5 gallons of wort takes me about 10mins, whereas, a 5 gallon batch ice bath will take me about 30mins.  I’d really encourage anyone who likes small batches and BIAB to give this a shot.  As long as you brew something that will take the same yeast and hops (depending on how frugal you are…) it can easily be done… this is going to be my new typical brew day! (aha Moment)

here are a few questions/interesting points to be made.  I got 1 wort up to boil very quickly with a beautiful hot break (small pot) and then the next wort (bigger pot) took me about 30mins to get to a boil…  What will come of this?

I made a 3L starter,planned to give each batch of wort about 1.5L (according to mr. malty), however, how do I measure this?? I measured my 3L starter out, then decanted, saved a little liquid, swooshed it around really well, and measured it out.  It came out to be 1.5 cups each?  Anyone have experience with this?  I worry about this splitting and pitching.

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Sounds like you are doing everything just fine!

I like the idea of doing two different batches at one time. A variety helps on the experience level and keeps boredom at bay. :wink:

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I have been developing small batches myself, mostly for experimentation at this point.  I’ve had mixed results since I’m trying different pitching practices and fermentation temps…I have been using dry yeast for my 2 gallon batches…last one I did, I used 1/2 a pack and I don’t think it’s enough.

What kind of mash temps do you use for brew in a bag?  Are they the same as a regular all-grain brew, or do you make adjustments?  Also, I’m wondering if pitching a whole pack of dry yeast is too much.
I’m also thinking of doing a 2 gallon batch as a lager starter for a Baltic Porter or MaiBock and just pitching a smack pack in the wort…does a small batch lager ferment out quicker than a 5 gallon batch?

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Congrats on what sounds like a great brew day. I had a brewday not too long ago where I brewed 7 one-gallon extract batches one after another. It’s challenging to have a bunch of stuff going on simultaneously, but it makes for a really fun and rewarding experience.

I don’t think you’ll see much of a difference in the batch that took longer to come up to a boil. At most, it may end up fermenting a point or so dryer depending on how much longer it took to get above mash-temp range.

As far as how you handled the yeast, it sounds like a good plan. For my 7-batch day, I just made a big starter, crash-cooled, and pitched a measured amount of slurry into each fermenter based on Mr Malty’s calculator.