7 replies to this topic

[Finnbrewer]

Well I would like to try an experiment for a big beer I can put down for a year or so. I have all my kegs full with tasty brew, so I want to try something different. My mash tun (batch sparging) Maxes out at about 13 lbs of grain, and Ive never been able to get 5 gallons of wort higher than the mid seventies without cheating with malt additions or longer boil periods. I was thinking about doing some form of bastardized parti-gyle brew. What if I mash two batches back to back, and take the first runnings from both mashes and combine them, and then take the second runnings from both batches and combine them. I would then boil them separately, and have one monster of a beer, and one mild session beer. Has anyone done this? or have experience with this type of brewing? would it be possible to leave the second runnings over night and boil them the next day. I like sour beers, so that wouldn’t be the end of the world for me if it got a little lacto in the mix. I would be using Belgian yeast for this so it would fit the profile.

[BarefootBrews]

Yes, this is one way to approach making a high gravity beer with limited mashing capacity. I did this same procedure a couple of years ago with success. I made a small 3 gallon american barleywine from the first runnings of each mash and a 5 gallon brown ale from the second runnings of each mash. Since I do continuous sparging, I was able to cap the mash with biscuit and chocolate malt after my first runnings to get my second runnings closer to a brown ale. At the time I did quite a bit of research on parti-gyle mashing, and with the help of ProMash was able to hit my target gravity on both beers within +/- 2 points. This split parti-gyle method did make for a long brewday of 10+ hours, so I understand your thought process to boil the second runnings the next day. I do predict that you will end up with something sour. The level of tartness will obviously depend on how long the wort sits prior to boiling.

[MakeMeHoppy]

I'll have to get out my old issues of BYO. This was covered some time ago. The idea in that issue was to take the first running from your first mash and put in the kettle. Then take the second runnings and use that as your mash water for the second mash. That article was to make a single beer not a big/small like you are doing. I think that you have planned is good. Try to work out a time line that maybe you can use two kettles and start the second batch boil while you are chilling the first batch. Still likely a long brew day.

[ChefLamont]

13# seems kinda small. What size tun are you using and what is your grist to water ratio?The answers to the above questions aside, I might also suggest for that kind of effort it's maybe time to build a bigger tun.

[orudis]

13# seems kinda small. What size tun are you using and what is your grist to water ratio?The answers to the above questions aside, I might also suggest for that kind of effort it's maybe time to build a bigger tun.

Yep. If you are already batch sparging, you can use a braid and put it into any cooler. Here's my braid in my monster 120 qt cooler, holds a full sack of grain:

[Finnbrewer]

The problem is I am using the biggesst cooler I can find in Finland. Apperently (big shocker) cooler boxes arnt that popular in finland, so there is really only one brand, and I got the biggest one I could find. Its tall and narrow. My water to grist is about 1.25-1.3. The brewing scene is REALLY small here so I have to fabricate everything or import from Belgium. It was much easier when I was in the U.S.

[gnef]

Can you find a big pot (or three)? You could try to find a 10-15g pot at a restaurant supply shop, insulate it, drill a hole for a valve, and use that as your mash tun, and that would be significantly larger than what you have now. You could actually use one for your HLT, MLT, and your BK.

[MakeMeHoppy]

Can you find a big pot (or three)? You could try to find a 10-15g pot at a restaurant supply shop, insulate it, drill a hole for a valve, and use that as your mash tun, and that would be significantly larger than what you have now. You could actually use one for your HLT, MLT, and your BK.

I was going to suggest this. I've used an uninsulated mash tun and used an old quilt wrapped completely around it duing the mash time. Worked very well.