2 recipes makes 6 different beers to style!

[ACBEV]

I love brewing beer and drinking some! (not too much, honest)

My problem is consuming the beer I make. 20L (40 x 500ml bottles) is a lot of beer to drink. Even when sharing the stuff. I limit my beer consumption to 7 bottles per week, plus a few or so pints each week in the pub. It can take me 4-5 weeks to get through 40 bottles of whatever beer I have. Also I would like more variety. So...

My plan is to brew 2 different beers at the same time, then scientifically (HaHa) mix them into 6 batches (six beers) that meet style guidelines (probably / almost / nearly!). I've spent days sweating blood and tears (a few minutes really) getting the 2 base recipes right.

Beer Recipe One: American Blonde Ale (Ferment for 5 days)
ABV: 4.3%
IBU: 21
SRM: 3.8
Mash: 67c
Ferment: 19c
Hops Willamette 60/30/15
Yeast: American Ale II 1272
Pale Ale Malt Low Colour: 81%
Pale Ale Malt: 8%
CaraMalt: 7%
Wheat Malt: 4%

Beer Recipe Two: English IPA (Ferment for 5 days)
ABV: 5.8%
IBU: 50
SRM: 7.8
Mash: 67c
Ferment: 19c
Hops Northern Brewer 60 Goldings 30/15
Yeast: London Ale 1028
Pale Ale Malt Low Colour: 44%
Pale Ale Malt: 44%
CaraMalt: 5%
Crystal 90: 3%
Wheat Malt: 4%

Now for the mixing of beers into 6 secondary vessels... Dry hop maybe! (2 weeks, then rack)

Vessel 1. 100% Beer One - American Blonde Ale (not blended) - ABV 4.3 - IBU 21 - SRM 3.8
Vessel 2. 100% Beer Two - English IPA (not blended) - ABV 5.8 - IBU 50 - SRM 7.8
Vessel 3. 80% Beer One / 20% Beer Two - American Blonde Ale - ABV 4.6 - IBU 27 - SRM 4.6
Vessel 4. 60% Beer One / 40% Beer Two - British Golden Ale - ABV 4.9 - IBU 32 - SRM 5.4
Vessel 5. 40% Beer One / 60% Beer Two - American Pale Ale - ABV 5.2 - IBU 38 - SRM 6.2
Vessel 6. 20% Beer One / 80% Beer Two - English IPA - ABV 5.5 - IBU 44 - SRM 7

This gives me 6L (10 pints) approx of each beer.

Do you guys think my plan is any good?

 

[jmcnamara]

it will certainly be interesting! definitely worthy of some tasting notes and reporting back

sorry to be that guy, but couldn't you just make smaller batches to get more variety? or do split batches? or cap the mash for second runnings?

 

[ACBEV]

sorry to be that guy, but couldn't you just make smaller batches to get more variety? or do split batches? or cap the mash for second runnings?

Yes I could, but thats a lot of brewing, don't think I'm allowed more than a couple or three brews each month. Something about the mess and inconvenience caused! Not that I think it's an issue...

I'm quite interested in the taste profile, especially blended hop character...

I've also got a cunning plan for my next experiment... If this one goes to plan. Doing the same with dark beers, me thinks that might be a little more tricky getting 6 dark beers to style by blending two into 6.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Mate you are one crafty Brewer! Necessity is the mother of all inventions. I feel this may be stemming from someone that is down with your brewing side. Anyhow I'm sure the outcome will be drinkable beer. maybe first attempt at these different blended beers won't be perfect but hay you gotta start somewhere.

 

[jmcnamara]

Yes I could, but thats a lot of brewing, don't think I'm allowed more than a couple or three brews each month. Something about the mess and inconvenience caused! Not that I think it's an issue...

haha, i know what you mean

 

[J A]

The post-boil blending is interesting, but I've often thought about blending pre-boil wort from different mashes for the same sort of multi-batching. By being able to vary hop additions in the different blends, you could go from light lager to amber ale or IPA. Throw in a little adjunct sugar here and there and you could easily do five or six 2 1/2 gallon batches out of two 7.5-8 gallon mashes.

 

[jmcnamara]

this isn't directly related to your question, but i love going back to this as a reference for the simplicity of styles. it's from palmer's how to brew, the online version

 

[ACBEV]

Ooh ^^^^^^ That is a gem... Thank you.... Got me grey matter working now... Might as well try to them too... Might end up with 12 beers done in one go... Oh I do hope something drinkable pops out.

 

[jmcnamara]

you're very welcome.

just remember, if it all works out you can give me credit. and if it goes horribly awry, you can blame me too

 

[ACBEV]

I think traditionally UK breweries mixed all sorts of beer together to complete a range of beers. Also add Partigyle to the mix. I've read on the interweb in several places that some quite large breweries only brewed 4 or so beers, but magically had a large array of beer for sale.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Also first and second runnings from the mash