Parti-Gyle Part One

This is one of the most confusing subjects I have tackled in brewing so far. I searched high and low on the web and just confused myself more and more. It didn’t click for me until I spoke with a guy in my homebrew club who exclusively uses the parti-gyle technique. The quick and dirty is you make one large mash and get two beers out of it. Usually one high gravity and one low. I’m going to break this technique down in a few posts. It's way too much to write all at once.

First step- Make the recipes.

I am usually looking to brew a certain style of beer. So if I want to make an IIPA I will start by making up a 6 gallon recipe in Beer Smith. After I have something that I want to brew it’s time to do some math. With the recipe done I know that the OG of the IIPA should be 1.090. Using the parti-gyle calculator (http://www.astrocaver.com/java/Parti-Gyle.html) I can see what the base recipe OG will need to be for a 1.090 brew. For my IIPA I needed a base recipe of 1.053 to equal first runnings of 1.079. Since I am adding sugar to the IIPA the gravity will reach what I’m looking for.

Now I can take the grain percentages in the IIPA recipe to make a 12 gallon base recipe that will have an OG of 1.053. No hops or adjuncts are needed in the base recipe.

Amount Item Type % or IBU 16 lbs Maris Otter (3.5 SRM) Grain 69.57 % 5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 21.74 % 1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 % 1 lbs Simpson Cara Malt "Carastan" (3.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG

The first beer will get 66% of the fermentable and the second 33%. I’m going to do a IIPA/Scotch ale. Start by making a 6 gallon IIPA recipe with 66% of the fermentables. Hops and everything else is added now.

IIPA-Parti-Gyle

Imperial IPA

Type: All Grain	Date: 10/25/2010
Batch Size: 5.00 gal	Brewer:
Boil Size: 5.72 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0	Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 10.7 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4.12 % 10.7 oz Simpson Cara Malt "Carastan" (3.0 SRM) Grain 4.12 % 13.6 oz Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 5.23 % 1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale 1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (10 min) Hops 8.2 IBU 1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 8 days) Hops - 1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 11.2 IBU 1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] (45 min) Hops 31.6 IBU 1.60 oz Galena [13.00 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 60.6 IBU 2.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (30 min) Hops 57.0 IBU 2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 8 days) Hops - 2.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] (Dry Hop 8 days) Hops - 3.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 8 days) Hops - 3 lbs 5.6 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 20.60 % 4.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 11.6 IBU 10 lbs 11.5 oz Maris Otter (3.5 SRM) Grain 65.93 %
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.091 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.090 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.021 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.023 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.11 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 8.79 %
Bitterness: 180.1 IBU	Calories: 419 cal/pint
Est Color: 9.4 SRM	Color: Color

The Scotch will be capped with more grains to boost the gravity. What this means is that after the first runnings are taken, I will add more grains to the mash tun and sparge again. 33% of the fermentable base recipe grains are included with the capping grains to make a 6 gallon recipe.

Scotch Ale-Parti Gyle

Scottish Heavy 70/-

Type: All Grain	Date: 10/25/2010
Batch Size: 5.00 gal	Brewer:
Boil Size: 5.72 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0	Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 2.7 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2.04 % 3.2 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.40 % 5.4 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4.09 % 5.4 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4.09 % 5.4 oz Simpson Cara Malt "Carastan" (3.0 SRM) Grain 4.09 % 1 Pkgs British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098) Yeast-Ale 1.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 21.0 IBU 1 lbs 10.4 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 19.83 % 5 lbs 4.5 oz Maris Otter (3.5 SRM) Grain 63.46 %
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.044 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.037 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.32 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 3.64 %
Bitterness: 21.0 IBU	Calories: 161 cal/pint
Est Color: 13.1 SRM	Color: Color

Figuring out how to divide the recipes was one of my biggest hurdles. Now creating the recipes is part of the fun. As you can see you can mix and match completely different styles with good results. The only hard fast rule is that you cannot go dark to light. So an imperial stout and a pale ale would not work. Other than that let your imagination run wild.

Next up-Sparge water ratios.

Back to blogging! It’s been way too long since my last post. Since going all grain I have never brewed more and my beer has never been better. I can’t even fathom going back to extract now. Over the past few months I have brewed an Amarillo pale, a all Cascade wet hopped Black IPA, 10 gallons of Bitter for ribfest, a pumpkin ale, a milk stout, my first parti-gyle, and a few others. So I have been a busy man. I’m in the mental planning stages of my next parti-gyle brew. So far I’m thinking an Imperial stout/Milk stout. There will be a detailed post on how to do a parti-gyle after the next session. I can’t wait to brew again!

Homemade Malt Vinegar

After a few months of waiting the malt vinegar is done. The base of it was my Gumballhead try #1. That brew came out just OK and was around 9.5% abv. Not something that I was realy excited to drink. It was a perfect candidate for making vinegar. I started by adding around 16oz to the jar with a good 2-3 tablespoons of Bragg's vinegar. Using Bragg's is important since it contains the Mother. Every few weeks I added some more beer for the Mother to feed on. Soon enough the closet that I had the jar hiding in wreaked of vinegar. Since I wanted to keep the vinegar shelf stable it was pasteurized. The vinegar was first strained through some coffee filters. Then heated to 150 degrees and held there for 10 min. The grolsch bottles were sanitized and filled. I have really been enjoying the fruity malty flavor of the vinegar. Makes great salad dressing and I can't wait to pickle something with it.

First All Grain-The Breakfast Stout

Now that the mash tun is built its time to brew. As I told you in the last post I decided to do a clone of Founders Breakfast Stout. I knew that going all grain was the only way to make better beer. Now that I have made one batch I'm not scared by the mysteriousness that surrounds all grain brewing. It's not that hard or different than doing a partial mash batch. I was ecstatic after I realized that I hit 76% efficiency. Not bad for my first time.

Recipe
-13.2 lbs Breiss Organic Two Row
-22oz Flaked Oats
-1lb Chocolate Malt
-12oz Roasted Barley
-9oz Debittered Black Malt
-7oz Crystal Malt 120
-2oz Good Quality Ground Coffee
-3.2oz Dark Bittersweet Chocolate
-1oz Galena Hops
-0.5oz Willamette Hops (30 Min.)
-0.5oz Willamette Hops (0 Min.)
-1/2tsp Yeast Nutrient (15 Min.)
-1/2tsp Irish Moss (15 Min.)
-Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale
Mash the grains with 3.75 gallons of 172 degree of water. Mix the hell out of the mash to get rid of dough balls. Once the grain temps at 155 close the lid and hold at that temp for 60 minutes. I probably should have preheated the mash tun, but I forgot. Slowly drain the wort and sparge with 4.29 gallons of 170 degree water. This should give you 6 gallons of wort. Since I don't have two large pots yet, I used my bottling bucket to collect the wort. Everything was then poured into the pot and the boil was started.

Building the Mash Tun

So in my last post I made a oatmeal stout. It didn't turn out as well and I would have liked. Decent flavor but a little on the weak side. Since I want to add a few pounds of blueberry's in the secondary I figured I would try another stout. Like you can ever have enough stout around. This time would be my first all grain batch. I thought about using the same recipe I used before, but decided on a Founders Breakfast stout clone. This came out great for me in the past.


I first had to make a mash tun. It was quite easy. One trip to the big orange box hardware store and I had everything I needed.


Shopping list
1-1/2" Ball Valve with a 1/2" male connect on what will be the inside of the cooler
1-3/8 barb(where the hose connects to) to 1/2" male thread
1-1/2" female adapter-This will screw onto the ball valve and accept the 5/8"outside diameter copper pipe
1- long piece of copper pipe 5/8" outside diameter
5-90 degree elbows 5/8" inside diameter
3- copper t 's 5/8" inside diameter

It took me 30 or so minutes to round all of that up. I was glad that I sneakily ripped open the packages for the adapters to test that they fit right. The first ball valve I picked up would not have worked at all. After that it was time for cutting. I found a good guide on this blog. It served as a template for the manifold design. My cooler is a bit different than the one on the site so I improvised a bit. The cooler was measured and I cut the copper pipe with a pipe cutter. That made it a lot easier than a hack saw. Once the pieces were cut I dry fitted everything together. The one piece from the manifold to the ball valve had to be cut down a few times to get the correct fit. Then you can cramp the t's and elbows with a wrench just a little bit to get the pipe to fit nice and snug. I don't think solder will be necessary. t will make cleaning allot easier too.

Time to drill. A 5/64 drill bit was what I used. Small but not too small. There are a ton of different drill patters out there. Figuring I could always drill more if it doesn't work I drilled holes about 1/2" from each other just on the bottom of the manifold.


Once everything was put back together I got the cooler ready. For x-mas I received an Igloo Ice Cube cooler. The spigot was removed and saved the gasket. From there its was super easy to screw in the ball valve and female adapter with the gasket in between. The manifold hooked up to the adapter perfect and it was now time to test her out. 5 gallons was placed in the cooler and that's when I found to one and only flaw. Since the hole in the cooler is recessed my ball valve wouldn't close all the way due to the long handle. Not a big deal. the handle was removed and I used a wrench to open and close the valve until I can cut the handle shorter. Shockingly the cooler drained all but a few dribbles out the 5 gallons. I was really worried about the valve being higher than the bottom of the cooler. All and all I'm quite happy with this setup so far. It only cost me $25 and took around an hour to build.

Next post the first brew.