I brewed 2 10 gallon batches Saturday and for the first, an English Mild, I separated it into 2 5-gallon batches, each in a 6.5 gallon pail fermenter. The thought just occurred to me that In my haste to tend to my second brew, I didn’t mix the first batch, rather I ran the boil off into one bucket up to five gallons and then ran the balance off into the second bucket, then proceeded to aerate each and split a yeast slurry between them. Is this likely to produce something slightly different than if I had remixed the post boil wort back and forth between the two fermenters? My initial thought is no, but then I started to think that I am not so sure that some stratification may have occurred during the chilling process. I used a simple immersion chiller with no late swirling…
One way to find out - in a few weeks when I keg it!
You might have added more break material to one, but I really don’t see why there would be a difference in the final product. I’ve done this and didn’t think twice about it. I even did one where I added very clear wort to one fermenter and added wort plus a bunch of break material to the second. I couldn’t tell which was which in the end.
I’m curious what you discover. It seems others are saying no diff. That’s good.
I boil 10 gal batches then split to two 5 gal buckets but always use a different yeast in each so can’t really comment on taste diffs. To avoid the difference in the amount of break I aerate the two buckets back and forth about 8-10 times and that equals them out nicely. I quit using an aeration stone after the back-forth bucket dumping.
I brew 10-11 gal batches mostly and split between two 6.5 gal carboys. Sometimes I’ll try two different yeasts, but usually use just one. Never noticed any difference in the carboys when using the same yeast. I use a immersion chiller with a pump to circulate the wort [whirlpool method] and I figure by the time pitch temp is reached it’s very well mixed together. Then it’s pumped to the carboys one after the other.
Cheers, Mike
