On Monday, I’m brewing my partigyle ABW/ESB. What I’d planned on doing was using all first runnings for the BW, and using the sparge (plus an extra 2lbs of MO and 1/2lb of crystal 60) for the ESB.
Was discussing this with a brewclub friend, and he mentioned partitioning the main mash, rather than doing all first/all second.
So assuming an 8.0gal boil volume for each, perhaps take 2.5gal from the first runnings for the small beer, and 5.5gal of the first runnings for the ABW, then vice versa with the sparge/second runnings.
I’ve had a first runnings only ABW before and it is insane, but I also want to avoid having a ‘thin’ ‘lifeless’ small beer.
If you know that ALL first runnings makes an insane BW then I would probably stick with that if it were me and experiment a little with the smaller beer. Maybe do as you said or collect more runnings and boil down a little.? (Not gonna bring up caramelization).
if I do it that way, the “extra” grain will be thrown into the mash after the first runnings are run out. then add the sparge water, and hold for 45min or so, then run out into the second kettle for the small beer.
Have you done a parti-gyle before? I love them for big beers. I just use the first runnings for the big beer and the second runnings for the other. My main interest is in the big beer, so the 2nd beer is just gravy.
If you haven’t done a parti-gyle before I would simplify it as much as possible.
If you batch sparge, start checking the gravity of the first runnings and second runnings vs the mash ratio for future use in parti-gyles. Thicker mashes will give you higher o.g., but lower efficiency. For example, mashing at 1.25 qt will get you first runnings wort gravity in the 1.090’s, but you will only get 0.75 qt/lb because the grain absorbs ~ 0.5 qt/lb. There was a good chart in one of this summer’s zymurgies which had the gravity of the first runnings vs mash ratio (and % efficiency). You can plug them into a homebrew computer program to get your total amount of grain necessary.
For the second batch I just sparge with the same volume as the first runnings and I usually get about half the gravity of the first. If you have a 2nd boil kettle you can have your 2nd beer boiling within 15 minutes of the big beer.
thanks for the advice tom - this will be my first gyle - I have done an all first runnings BW before and the richness of the malt is jawdropping.
I plan on doing exactly as you suggest and see where the gravity for the first runnings is and then make a judgement call. Reason being, I don’t necessarily want my BW to be over 1.100 - so if its coming out 1.090 preboil, I might do a little mixing to get it down to mid 70s and shoot to end up there.
I borrowed a second BK from a friend so I’m all set.
And right after I get these two in the fermentor, I’ll be making my Old Ale. Don’t know if I’ll p-g that one too though, that might break my back for the day, but I think I can handle the three.
Not exactly, at least how I’ve done it in the past. I’ll get the first boil going & then add the strike water for the second mash (which you’re calling a sparge) and mash it until the 1st boil is done & the BK is free. Some folks have left the hops in the BK from the first boil and used them for the second boil. I’ve never tried that and would be concerned about the IBU’s it would contribute. I just like to have more control I guess??
Don’t know, that’s just how I’ve always done it. Sometimes I’ll cap the mash with more grain and definitely want to mash them.
I should add. I only have one high output burner to get water up to temp quickly so while the 1st mash is mashing I heat the 2nd mash’s water. Once the 1st mash is run off into my BK & that boil is going I can’t use it to heat the water for the 2nd mash. Since I usually do a 1/3-2/3 partigyle the 2nd runnings are about 12 gallons.
If you want a lower pre-boil gravity you can mash a little thinner. Here are some numbers from Steve Holle’s article in the August Zymurgy.
Mash at 1.14 qt/lb, 1st runnings are 24degPlato and efficiency is 45%. Mash at 1.28 qt/lb and 1st runnings are 22 degP and efficiency is 48%. Mash at 1.54 qt/lb, 1st runnings are 19degP and efficiency is 53%. For my Wee Heavies I mash at 1.7 qt/lb because I boil off more.
I’ve gone to partigyle brewing on my big beers 1.070+ and have done it a number of ways.
As previously stated, by main objective is the first beer. I more or less consider the second runnings a bonus.
Several variations I’ve done.
One fresh & tun hopped IIPA had the second runnings turned into a hoppy red. I pulverized some roast barley in a coffee grinder (cheap blade type not my good Maestro) and stirred it into the mash while the first runnings were boiling. I use a 5 gal hop bag and just reused the hops, pitching in more for aroma. SRM primary 4 ish, the seconds 15 ish.
Last year’s Samiclaus clone (thanks Drew) seconds were altered with a pumpkin spice. I actually set the proper IBUs for the recipe. It turned out wonderful.
This year’s Samiclaus seconds were modified with English hops, and I only had US-05 yeast. I also had to throw in some Magnum for bittering. I called it a Mongrel ESB. That was 12 gal of 1.076 wort. We ran out of time. There was a third beer in there. Perhaps next year a mild third.
The guy I brew with refers to this as my Cheap Bastard Series since I hate throwing away sugar. I just call it almost free beer.
For example, I want to partigyle my oatmeal stout - obviously I want it full-bodied, so the mash temp will a touch higher. The second runnings I plan to make an English Brown Ale (probably a Southern Brown or a Mild) and want it light to medium bodied. If I aim for 150F for the second mash, am I going to get a more fermentable wort? Does it even make a difference (are the startches already converted)?
Do you think I should add corn sugar to ensure the second runnings finish dryer? Don’t add anything and see how it turns out (and tinker next time around)?
from what I understand, you aren’t going to have a problem with the small beer being light to medium bodied - they can be “thin” as many folks have described.
if you aren’t topping off, there is no need to “mash” the second beer - you can just run the sparge, just like you would do in a batch sparge, just into a second kettle. however, if you want to top off the second beer with additional base malt or specialty grains, you may want to let it sit - especially if they are grains that need to be mashed.
that table was calculated incorrectly. For one the efficiency was based on total grain weight and not extract potential. Secondly it assumed an incorrect grain absorption.
I have been thinking about brewing a imperial Pilsner as batch #100. My plan is to use only the first runnings for that beer. Here is how I plan to go about figuring out how much grain to use:
To get to 1.100 and 15% boil-off I’ll need a pre-boil of about 1.085. Using this table and assumoing that I’ll get ~100% connversion in the mash:
I need a mash thickness of about 3 l/kg or 1.44 qt/lb.
To end up with 5 gal post boil I’ll need 5.9 gal pre-boil. I expect the grain absorption to be 0.12 gal/lb. After putting all this in a spreadsheet and trying a few grain bill sizes I found that I need about 24-25lb of grain and 8.6 gal of strike water. That’s quite a bit and I’ll have to find a large enough mash tun for that.
An Other option is to mash thicker. But I may have problems hitting the 100% coversion with a thick mash which means that I may need more grain if I can’t make up for that loss in efficiency by sparging more efficiently.
I’ve never made a beer that big and I don’t want to boil down a lot of wort to hit the targeted 1.100 since it should become a light beer.
All the theory is there but nothing that ties it all together. But I think it would make a really useful article. The topic would be “how to figure out partygyle sparging”. One point of interest would be how to determine a sweet spot where you get the target gravity and volume you want with the best efficiency.
Thanks blatz! I think I may have to top up for the small beer - maybe the best bet would be to have some malt on hand and if the OG of the big beer is higher than expected, don’t worry about the extra malt for the second beer and do a little mixing to get the preboil gravities I’m aiming for.
For that chart w/ the mash thickness and resulting gravity, how much grain is that for? Is that assuming you have enough grain in the mash tun to reach that target SG?
