I’m planning my next couple brews right now. I’ve put together an Imperial Stout recipe with a repitch of some WLP-001 that I have in a fermenter. With winter break coming and having days off from teaching, as well as needing to get my homebrew supply back up, instead of just doing an imperial stout, why not do a parti gyle and get two beers out of it? It’s been years since I’ve done one, so I figured I’d bounce this off you guys.
Here’s the original imperial stout recipe. My batch size is 5.5 gallons. For normal beers I collect 7 gallons of wort after fly sparging and end up with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter after an hour boil. Originally, I was going to collect much more than the 7 gallons and just boil longer, but now I’m throwing that all out. Here’s the original grain bill:
5.5 US Gallons
80% efficiency 1.102 OG
15 lbs pale malt (75%)
1.5 lbs flaked barley (7.5%)
12 oz roasted barley (3.8%)
12 oz chocolate malt (3.8%)
8 oz black patent malt (2.5%)
4 oz pale chocolate malt (1.3%)
12 oz crystal 80 (3.8%)
8 oz crystal 120 (2.5%)
Now to make this a parti gyle, I’m considering scaling this up by 50%, and then collecting the first 7 gallons of runoff for the imperial stout and then the next 7 gallons for the other beer. Style-wise it’s going to be somewhere between a dark mild and an English porter. I’m going to use WLP-002 on the second runnings.
The entire grain bill for the total of an 11 gallon batch would be:
21.5 lbs pale malt
2.25 lbs flaked barley
1.125 lbs roasted barley
1.125 lbs chocolate malt
0.75 lb black patent
6 oz pale chocolate
1.125 lbs crystal 80
0.75 lb crystal 120
My question is this: does this seem reasonable? My mash tun is a 10 gallon cooler and this is going to max it out. I already fly sparge, and if I batch sparged, I would need to do several batches to make this work. I’d rather just collect the wort like I normally would, just more of it.
To answer a few possible questions already, I plan on taking gravity readings pre-boil for both to adjust the hop schedule. I didn’t post the hops because it could be a little variable, and I can make those adjustments the day of.
I’m not trying to get completely hung up on numbers. I know there’s a way calculate first runnings gravity based on mash water and grain bill. I’m mostly looking for some parti gyle experts to say I’m at least pointed in the right direction, or steer me away from something I’m overlooking.
Cheers everyone. It’s been good to be more of a regular around here again.
Some random thoughts having finally done my first partigyle (BIAB) just this week :
You know your system, but don't assume you'll get your normal efficiency - partly because efficiency always goes down with higher OGs, but also when you're absolutely brim-full it just gets harder to mix things, eliminate doughballs etc.
Especially if it's your first time, it's probably worth just dialling back the target volumes by 10% or so, just to give yourself a bit of room to manoeuvre. Effectively you have the grist for two beers in one mash and...it's a lot.
Consensus seems to be that you should expect second runnings somewhere in the region of 30% of the gravity of the first, but I was more like 50% -I was aware of not being terribly efficient in extracting the first runnings and that's OK, I was just trying to get a feel for the process and not spill the grist from my bag...
All the credible sources on partigyling (ie not the US ones) are insistent that you should always blend the two gyles and not simply make beer from 100% first runnings and 100% second runnings - too much of the good flavour comes in the first runnings so you should always blend even if it is just 10%. I did 3:1 and 1:3.
Arguably roast barley is taking the small beer away from mild or porter and more into simple "stout" in the modern sense. Mine was a more Belgian-inspired grist, going heavy on Simpsons DRC.
Personally I find WLP002 possibly the least interesting of all the British homebrew yeasts. Having enjoyed WLP540 and harvested Rochefort yeast (similar, but quite a lot more complex than 540) in a pale beer, I'm looking forward to what they can do in something that should be more of a natural home for them, despite the name they're more British than Belgian in style.
I tried several partigyle beers and decided the best way to handle it is to focus on the first (bigger) beer and treat the second (small) beer as a side project. Trying to hit numbers on two independent variables is more work than just making two beers. Gravity, mash pH, flavors just get wonky with that much sparging.
Last partigyle, I focused on the first beer and brewed it normally. Then my buddy took the spent grains and made a second beer off it, tossing in some extra base malt to bulk up the mash. The first beer was great, the second beer okay (but effectively free). The best way to describe the flavors was "muddy". The grains give up their best flavors on the first runnings, then things get progressively worse.
One thing to note: You're pushing 30 lbs of grain with that recipe. I have a 12 gal mash tun and 30 lbs is my absolute max. My friend uses a 10 gal mash tun and his max is 25 lbs. Also, your calculations may be based on 80% efficiency, which you won't get with a 1.102 beer. But I think you took that into account.
Your recipe looks good. When you say pale malt do you mean 2-row (i.e. Briess) or a mild or Maris Otter malt? I personally don't like 2-row and have moved away from it in everything but IPAs. It's the vast majority of your grain bill, so use a base malt with great flavor.
Also, use caution with crystal malts in the 80-150 range. They are what's called the "harsh zone" where flavors can be bitter and unpleasant. I've used crystal 80 and 120 in beers and was unhappy with it; I've moved to Munich, Melanoidin, and Pale Chocolate to approximate those flavors instead.
Good luck!
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I’m going to mash thick to save space. I’m aware I’m pushing the limitations, and I’m prepared to make the mash water adjustments.
On the efficiency, that was mostly a default from how I design my standard recipes and my system. I’m not so worried at exactly what the actual gravity is, but I will measure it before the boil.
I’m using US 2 row malt.
I’ve used the darker crystals in my recipes, including stouts, before and have not had a problem with harsh flavors. Here I definitely want some of the deep caramel, to plummy flavors they bring. I’m a big fan of crystal 120 and 150, but you do need to know how to use them.
If you can find it there is a great book called Guile Brews by Peter Symon which goes into great detail on the partigyle method and includes some formulas for figuring things out... as well as some recipes to try.
Post time 2022-12-11 02:47:51
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