Getting different beers from the same brew day

[shacked]

Given my newfound lack of time, I've moved from single batches to triple 20L cube (22L each) batches with a new system. I've done about 4 brews through the new system and have ended up with 16 completely different beers with cube hopping and different yeasts / bugs.

Today I made a triple batch of saison but for the third cube I steeped 250g of light crystal and 100g of carafa sp 2 on the stove and did a 15 minute boil. I filled the first two cubes and before filling the third I gently poured my steeped and boiled liquid in to the main kettle, waited 5 or so minutes, then filled the cube.

When I think about it (for example) assuming say, 20IBU from bittering, then:

1. English bitter: Maris Otter + Crystal 60L + solid cube hop
2. English brown: bitter + pale chocolate + small cube hop
3. English stout: brown + chocolate + roast barley - no cube hops

One of the concerns I had when moving to a triple system was around beers like stouts where, in reality, I will probably only drink 2 kegs per year, so not much point in doing a triple batch. Maybe the steep, boil and add to cube method might work for this.

Has anyone else done something like this for some grist variation? Any pointers/advice? Any other approaches that have worked?

 

[Markbeer]

Hi Marcus, if you batch sparge you can cap the mash, do one final run off and boil separately then add to the cube.

If you have 2 kettles then you can do a partigyle with a barleywine, then a pale ale out of the same grist.

Other examples are a triple then a golden ale, old ale then a mild, ipa then apa, dark strong then a dubbel, RIS then a standard stout, bock then a munich lager, etc.

They may be tricky to get in to style but you end up with very different beers with minimal extra effort.

 

[fdsaasdf]

I have experimented with the following techniques to create different worts from a single brew session:

• Double batch of stout, draw off one batch after 45min boil before boiling for another 15 minutes and dumping ~100gms of C hops in to whirlpool for 15 minutes - created a Black IPA
• Double batch of IPA, draw off one batch worth before steeping .5kg of dark chocolate malt in the kettle for 15min after flameout - created an American Brown Ale (which happened to win a small brew comp)
• Making a partigyle by drawing off a 'big' beer (English IPA) from the mash first runnings and 'small' beer from the later runnings (Bitter)

 

[damoninja]

I did a partigyle last time I did an imperial coffee stout, I collected wort until I'd reached my target volume/gravity and still had enough of each to run off about 10L 1.040 wort, so I used some american hops and called it a baby brown ale. Turned out pretty damn good really.

 

[bignath]

No chill, cube hopped only beers are great for this very reason, and the reason I started doing them. Too short on time, I'd make a double batch (or triple) from the same mash, and then just add different hops to each cube.
Admittedly, this works brilliantly for generic APA's (which is my preferred style anyway). Beers with variations in grain bill's are obviously a different story.

I don't brew for comps, just for my own tastes, so I can get enough variation to keep me happy with half a dozen favourite hops on hand to chuck in my cubes on a rotational basis.