Anyone tried partigyle brewing method?

jceg316 · May 28, 2016

Hey everyone, was reading about partigyle brewing and it looks like a good way to get 3 or so beers from one mash. I really want to try this, but was wondering if anyone here has tried it before and has any handy hints to offer from experience?

Was thinking of making an American barleywine from the first runnings, and mixing the second and third runnings to make 2 different types of brown ales.

Thanks.

jceg316 · May 30, 2016

I guess not then.

GlentoranMark · May 30, 2016

You'll struggle getting 3 brews out of a mash but 2 is possible. I've done it several times, using the spent grains from my first mash and adding other sugars to make a few extra pints but I've found that the extra sugar makes the beer taste nutty and so I stopped doing it. It's also extra work for low reward. Grains are so cheap I just wouldn't bother.

brumbrew · May 30, 2016

I often take a demi worth of extra wort to play around with. Apart from being low abv never really had any troubles. You can use a refractometer to monitor the wort coming out on the last run. Stop around 5% sugar. ,

jceg316 · May 30, 2016

GlentoranMark said:
You'll struggle getting 3 brews out of a mash but 2 is possible. I've done it several times, using the spent grains from my first mash and adding other sugars to make a few extra pints but I've found that the extra sugar makes the beer taste nutty and so I stopped doing it. It's also extra work for low reward. Grains are so cheap I just wouldn't bother.

What was the gravity of your two brews and what is your efficiency? Thanks is for the reply as well.

GlentoranMark · May 30, 2016

IIRC my first brew was 3.1% and I made 8 pints in a demijohn. I beefed up my 2nd with sugar to 4.1% by adding sugar but it had the nutty flavours.

I still don't know how to work out efficiency

didinho · May 31, 2016

I always do that for Barley Wine. But from a 25 liters pot I get 11 liters of Barley Wine at the planned OG and 5 liters of 1020-1030 OG for a light and watery beer

jceg316 · May 31, 2016

@glentoranmark there are some resources out there which say how to calculate brewhouse efficiency, and if you can just plug your numbers into a calculator. OR, what I do is I put a recipe into Brewtoad (or recipe calculator of choice) and it says what the OG is at a given efficiency, usually 75% is the default as that's average for homebrewers. I normally adjust the efficiency to match what my OG was for a brew and after about 4 or 5 brews with the same efficiency coming up I knew what it was and worked off that.

@didinho, thanks for the reply, that's really useful. Do you know what your efficiency is? and what's your water to grain ratio?

rodwha · May 31, 2016

I've also been curious about this. I've talked to a friend that has a larger mash tun who said he'd lend it to me. Considering some sort of strong ale but don't want the second one to be too light. I'd be looking for the second one to be about 4.5% or so.

But it is a lot of work and would require me to have twice as much ice and chilled water to operate my wort chiller. I recirculate as I hate wasting so much water. I usually get started around 10 in the morning and finish up around 5 or 6. Another boil and cool down would add another 2 hours or so.

Another thing, besides the ABV, that concerns me is that my fermentation chamber has the one temperature probe. I'd assume the second beer would be close enough to the same but I just don't know. I don't have any form of heat in it as I keep it indoors, but did find it well below the set temp one day while it had no beer in it (I keep opened grains, cigars, opened DME, and whiskey in it).

boozy_shoes · May 31, 2016

I do this for all my strong beers. On my system 9kg grain bill get me 3ish gallons of barley wine/ imperial stout first runnings and 4gallons of 1.040ish second runnings. Not done it in a while but next time I may "cap the mash" and add 1kg of grain in with my sparge water to make the second beer have more body and be less dry.

It's a longer brew day but well worth it when you get two good beers in the end. Its also interesting to taste them both side by side.

jceg316 · May 31, 2016

Here's what I'm thinking so far:

I have a 50L mash tun which I've never properly filled before, but now is a good time. I reckon 10KG grain bill with a water ratio of 3.1L/KG will leave enough headroom.

Will drain the first runnings after 90 mins (I have to do 90 min mashes) and let boil in another kettle I have. Long story but I have 2 brew kettles.

Meanwhile, I'll add another load of water to the grains and circulate in my HERMS for 15-20 mins, drain, and boil.

First batch will be an American barleywine and the second I might cap with darker malts and make a brown ale, jury's still out on that one though. I was thinking as it's my first time doing this I'll stick to 2 batches and see how they come out, then decide what's needed to get 3 batches or if it's even possible. It will be a long day so will wait until I have some holiday at the end of June, plus there's a couple of other brews I need to do first.

Once recipes are formulated I'll post them here.

boozy_shoes · May 31, 2016

You want to mash thicker than 3L/kg I think, mine were done at 2.5L/kg and I've read in some places that this is considered thin for a barley wine. You'll have lots of space in a 50L mash tun, my 9kg ones have been done on something around 30L.

didinho · Jul 10, 2016

jceg316 said:
@didinho, thanks for the reply, that's really useful. Do you know what your efficiency is? and what's your water to grain ratio?

usually for high gravity batches my efficiency is 75%. I use 3 liters/kg ratio for the mash.
I just stop sparging the first beer at calculated liters, then use the leftover for a light beer. no complicated calculation

jceg316 · Jul 13, 2016

Finally got round to doing this partigyle brew and I wrote it up here: http://www.honestbeerguide.com/homebrew-log/partigyle-brewing/

TL;DR - over thought the whole process and ended up using way less sparge water than I should have. I have small volumes of strong beers.

YeastFace · Jul 13, 2016

I intend to do a Wee Heavy and a 60 or 70/- partigyle. Have knocked up a spreadsheet for calculations, but will read your blog post first.

jceg316 · Jul 13, 2016

Nice, that's a good way of making those styles. Do let me know how it goes.

BeerCat · Jul 13, 2016

jceg316 said:
Finally got round to doing this partigyle brew and I wrote it up here: http://www.honestbeerguide.com/homebrew-log/partigyle-brewing/

TL;DR - over thought the whole process and ended up using way less sparge water than I should have. I have small volumes of strong beers.

How was the beer? My attempts ended up down the sink but i made up my own recipe. In hindsight wasn't a good idea as had(and still) have little clue what i am doing. :)

Anyone tried partigyle brewing method?

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