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Parti-gyle Brewing

Having recently built a monster mashtun (volume 120 quarts) I have been having a ball playing with big grain bills. The last four beers that I have made have been either yeast/hop experiments or multiwort batches, known as "parti-gyle" brewing. I will discuss my experiences and some ideas you can use to try the same thing with your system.

Introduction

I think it would be safe to say that most homebrewers would like to maximize their product yields for the time they spend brewing. If you have a large brewing system that is capable of producing 10 to 25 gallons of beer at a time then you probably take advantage of your brew session by making as much as you can. The upside of this is that after one brew session you can have a large amount of beer on hand after fermentation runs its' course. The downside is that you can have a large amount of the same beer on hand. I like a variety of beer and the extra effort needed to make multiple beers from the same grain bill or wort is really quite minimal. It is possible to make a high gravity/low gravity combination, single or double variable beers from identical wort, or combinations of the two. Certainly the luxury of two burners and brew kettles is optimal, but not necessary. You can collect one wort in your brew kettle and one wort in your fermenter and boil it later. All you add in time is that is needed to boil two batches. Here are a few strategies for achieving some variability and adding a little more fun to your hobby.

Experimenting with Similar Worts

This is a pretty straightforward way to get very different beers from a single mash. Simply drain your wort into two separate vessels. Check the gravity to determine if they are similar. If the runoff was uneven and there is a discrepency in the worts, you can easily rectified it by exchanging a gallon or so of wort several times between the two vessels. A couple of minutes of work should do the trick. Even out the volumes and begin your boil. You are ready to begin your experiment. Use different hop schedules and/or pitch different yeasts to get totally separate beers. My last batch using this strategy produced two pale ales, one distinctively American, one distinctively British. I simply put a hose "Y" on the faucet of my 30 gallon igloo mash tun, and drained the wort concurrently into two kettles. Here is the recipe:

Mash the following grain bill at 152 degrees for about an hour with a single step infusion:

2# caramunich malt
2# carapils malt
44# pale ale malt

Collect 14 gallons of wort in two separate 15-gallon kettles and even out the gravity by exchanging between the two vessels. The yield is 12 gallon per kettle.

To make two different beers follow these guidelines with regard to hops, and shoot for gravities in the low to mid fifties (specific gravity).

American Pale Ale ( Sierra Nevada Type )

2.5 oz Perle, aa 7.5, 60 minutes
2.0 oz Cascade, aa 5.2, 20 minutes
2.0 oz Cascade at knockout
Ferment with Wyeast 1056

English Pale Ale ( Bass Type )

3.5 oz East Kent Goldings, aa 5.2, 60 minutes
2.0 oz EKG, 20 minutes
2.0 oz EKG, knockout
Ferment with Wyeast 1098
Water hardened with 3 tsp. gypsum

If you have some homegrown hops, this may be the perfect experiment to determine future hop rates. Hop one kettle at the assumed rate within a range, and then 20% more or less as an experiment. Because the differences are not too drastic the two beers should be reasonably well balanced and undoubtedly very drinkable.

Splitting Worts

Noted beer writer Randy Mosher has an informative article in Brewing Techniques (March/April 1994) on parti-gyle brewing. By using the malt requirements recommended below, you can expect the following extraction. Assuming that you are using a single runoff, a 1/3, 2/3 split on the runoff will yield worts that are roughly a ratio of 2:1 in gravity. By splitting the runoff equally between two vessels, the extract will be 58% in one vessel and 42% in the second vessel. Confused?

Here's an example:

For 15 gallons of beer, use 40 lbs of malt and assume 1000 gravity pts at 25 pts / lb / gallon of wort. A 1/3 and 2/3 split will give you 500 points for 5 gallons in one kettle, and 500 points for 10 gallons in the second kettle, for a barley wine and a pale ale. A 1/2 and 1/2 split in the wort will give 580 points for 7.5 gallons and 420 points for 7.5 gallons, a 1.077 Bock and a 1.056 Dortmunder. You get the idea?

You can split the runoff in any ratio, for any kind of beer you want. Just about any second runnings if hopped for balance will produce a decent beer.

Calculating Malt Requirements for Recipes

Assuming you get an extraction rate of 25 gravity points per gallon of wort per pound of grain, here is how you can calculate your requirements:

Assume you need 4lbs of grain per gallon of beer with a target gravity of 1.090 - 1.100, such as barley wines, tripels, and strong bocks. Assume you need 3 lbs of grain for a beer with a gravity of 1.070 - 1.075, such as bocks, and old ales. Assume you need 2 lbs of grain per gallon of beer with a gravity of 1.045 - 1.050, such as bitters, pale ales, pilsners, brown ales, and pale lagers.

Besides the pale ales mentioned above, my last three big beer/little beer sessions have produced a BarleyWine/Ordinary Bitter, a Scottish Wee Heavy/Scottish Export, and a Helles Bock/Munich Helles, respectively.

Once you play with the concept a little bit, you should be able to come up with some fun ideas. Worts can be segregated just about any way you choose. These recipes will put you in the ballpark for a strong beer and a lighter beer by using one mash, but just about any second running hopped for balance or augmented with extract should produce a decent beer. It's best to monitor your gravities as you arerunning into the kettle, or when you reach your target volume.

Another strategy is to produce two worts from one mash tun for a medium gravity beer and then add extract to one wort for a barley wine.

Helles Bock / Pilsner or Munich Helles or Dortmunder

Yields 5 gallons of Helles Bock and 5 gallons of Pale Lager

2# carapils malt
3# munich malt
20 - 22# pilsner malt

Original gravity of Helles Bock:1.065 - 1.070, IBU: 25 - 30
Original gravity of the Munich Helles: 1.045 -1.050, IBU: 25
Original gravity of the Pilsner: 1.050, IBU: 35 - 40

Original gravity of the Dortmunder: 1.055, IBU: 30

Comments: Use German or Czech hops, or American Mt. Hood, Liberty, or Crystal. Use your favorite lager yeast. Use a low-attenuater for the Bock and Helles, and a medium to high-attenuator for the Dortmunder and Pilsner.

Traditional Bock / Vienna Lager or Steam beer

Yields 5 gallons of Traditional Bock and 5 gallons of Vienna Lager

2# Caravienne malt
2# Carapils malt
6# Vienna or Munich malt
16# Pilsner malt

Original gravity of Bock: 1.070, IBU: 25
Original gravity of Vienna: 1.055, IBU 30

Original gravity of Steam beer: 1.052, IBU 35

Comments: Hop the bock and Vienna with German hops and the Steam beer with Northern Brewer, with some for aroma. Use a lager yeast for the bock or Vienna and Wyeast 2112 for the Steam.

Doppelbock / Munich Dunkel or Altbier

Yields 5 gallons of Doppelbock and 5 gallons of Dunkel

2# caramunich malt
0.5# chocolate malt
0.5# special B malt
10# munich malt
1# carapils malt
14# Pilsner malt

Original gravity of the Doppelbock: 1.075, IBU: 25
Original gravity of the Dunkel: 1.050 -1.055, IBU 27 IBU
Original gravity of the Altbier: 1050, IBU 35

Comments: Hop the all of the worts with German hops, use spalt in the Altbier if they are available. Use a lager yeast for the Doppelbock and Dunkel, and Wyeast 1007, 1338 or 1056 for the Altbier.

Eisbock / Oktoberfest

Yields 5 gallons of Eisbock and 5 gallons of Oktoberfest

10# munich malt
2# carapils malt
2# caravienne malt
18# pilsner malt

Original gravity of the eisbock: 1.090 - 1.100, IBU: 40
Original gravity of the oktoberfest: 1.055 - 1.060, IBU 25

Comments: Use German hops and lager yeast for both beers.

Barley Wine / Pale Ale or Bitter

Yields 5 gallons of Barley Wine and 5 gallons of Pale Ale

2# caramunich malt
2# carapils malt
26# pale ale malt

Original gravity of the barley wine: 1.090 - 1.100, IBU: 60 -100
Original gravity of the pale ale: 1.050 - 1.053, IBU: 35 - 40
Original gravity of the bitter: 1.040 - 1.050, IBU: 30 - 35

Comments: This recipe allows an opportunity to be a bit creative with fermentation and hops. You can make one batch English, one American, or make both the same. For English style, use Fuggles or East Kent Goldings hops and an English yeast such as Wyeast 1028 or 1098 or Wyeast Scottish ale yeast 1728. For American style, use Cascades, Centennial, Crystal or Chinook hops, and Wyeast 1056.

Old Ale / Brown Ale or Mild

Yields 5 gallons of Old Ale and 5 gallons of Brown ale or Mild

1# dark crystal or special B malt
1# crystal 40L
0.5# chocolate malt
21# pale ale malt

Original gravity of the Old Ale: 1.065 - 1.070, IBU: 30
Original gravity of the Brown Ale: 1.045, IBU 25
Original gravity of the Mild: 1.040, IBU: 25

Comments: Use the same hopping strategy as for the Barley Wine / Pale Ale and your favorite ale yeast.

Belgian Tripel / Belgian Pale Ale

Yields 5 gallons of Tripel and 5 gallons of Pale Ale

2# caravienne malt 2# vienna malt 23# Belgian pilsner or pale ale malt

Orginal gravity of the Tripel: 1.090, IBU 35
Original gravity of the Pale Ale, 1.050, IBU 30

Comments: Shoot for a gravity of about 1.080 in the tripel, then add a pound of candy sugar, turbinado sugar, or dextrose to the kettle, which should raise the gravity of the batch about 8 points. Add no sugar to the Pale Ale. Hop choices include Czech Saaz, East Kent Goldings, and Styrian Goldings.

Scotch Ale / Scottish Export

Yields 5 gallons of Scotch Ale and 5 gallons of Export

3# caramunich
0.25# roasted unmalted barley
22# pale ale malt

Original gravity of the Scotch Ale: 1.070 - 1.075, IBU: 30
Original gravity of the Scottish Export: 1.045 - 1.050, IBU: 25

Comments:Recommended hops are Kent Goldings. Wyeast 1728 is a Scottish yeast and produces very clean ales. It works well down to 55 degrees.

Imperial Stout / Dry Stout

3# roasted, unmalted barley
5# flaked barley
3# caramunich malt
19# pale ale malt

Original gravity of the Imperial Stout: 1.090 - 1.100, IBU: 60 - 70
Original gravity of the Dry Stout: 1.045, IBU: 40

Comments: Any decent ale yeast will work. I would recommend using an alchohol tolerant yeast like Wyeast 1056 or 1728 for the Imperial Stout. For an authentic Irish style dry stout, hop with East Kent Goldings and ferment with Wyeast 1084.