Parti-Gyle

[jdulle]

Hey Beer nuts! I was wondering if anyone has done a parti-gyle method brew? That is making two beers from one mash. I was reading a bit about it, sounds like it has been around for a long time. Olde tyme brewers would make a high gravity beer first for the nobles then use the same mash and make a second weaker beer for the rest of the riff-raff. So does it go something like this:
Heat water - mash in sit for an hour - sparge - drain into brew kettle boil etc
then heat water - mash in (sit for an hour?) - sparge? -drain into brew kettle etc?

I am curious if anyone has done it. Are you doing the whole process including letting it sit in the mash tun and sparging again? Would it be better to throw at least a little fresh grain on top again?

[Matt F]

I have made a small beer when I make a big beer. I fly sparge. I take first runnings to make an imperial stout. Then I continue to sparge to a bucket until the runnoff hits 1.008 OG. Any lower than that and you are pulling off too many tannins from the grain. It is often less than 5 gallons and I can start the boil in my mash tun once it is cleaned out so I am doing two boils at once. Works well as long as you don't over sparge.

This is not really parti-gyle that I am doing though. That method is set up so you can run off the mash to multiple beers of similar strengths. You can even steep some specialty grains after the initial mash to make say a pale ale and stout from the some initial mash. Also could add extract to bump up gravity of one of the beers. This is not something I have tried.

[whitedj]

never done one, but thought about it awhile back. Probably the most popular example is Fullers ESB and London Pride. Check for a how to on this parti-gyle.

A couple things I seem to remember is that you need to blend the first and second running otherwise the 2nd runnings tend to taste bad. I do believe it is fairly common to add extra grains after the first running, although its just enough time to convert the grains, 20-30 min? and you should probably pay attention to the water chemistry to minimize the off flavors associated with a longer mash.

Also you can always steep roasted/caramel grains pre-boil if you wanted a strong stout/porter (as first) and a lighter pale ale as secondary.

Good Luck!

[terpsichoreankid]

I did a parti-gyle on a large botched grain bill from here at BIY, and the results were fantastic. Wound up making an imperial stout out of the first runnings (to be tasted--brewed in January--check my youtube for the vid on it) and did an immediate second runnings on the same grain bed. Turned out almost like a Nut Brown, but with a lighter body than expected. Wound up being right at 5%.

Definitely give it a try--especially with a larger grain bill. If you have the open fermenter, can't hurt to try. I actually used some EKG and Nottingham I had in the refrigerator for about a year, and it turned out great. I drank that keg in about 2 weeks--which is the fastest I have downed anything. Very session-able.