Yesterday I did my first partigyle brew, and figured i'd share a couple of things I learned about it.
The plan:
Mash in to hit 152 with 19# 2 row, 2# munich, 2# caramel 30, 60 minutes
Drain the first runnings to collect appx 6 gallons of wort.
Boil that (Simcoe and Citra hops).
Add 2# rye malt and 1# flaked rye to the grist
Mash in again to hit 152 again, another 60 minutes.
How it actually worked:
1. I dont know if I measured too much grain or miscalculated my water volumes. My initial mash temp was about 150-151, and my cooler tun was FULL. seriously, wort dripping down the side, can't quite close the lid full. My thinking: Its an IIPA up first, so 150 is ok. LESSON LEARNED: Partigyle takes up a LOT of volume!
2. While draining the first wort, i realized i needed to start heating up the second mash water. But my Boil Kettle was filling up with wort! Thankfully, i do a lot of cooking and have an assortment of large pots. It took 3 of them, and every inch of space on my stove to get the volume of water heated. LESSON LEARNED: Even though i'll be able to do the actual boil in the same kettle, I still need some way of heating up 6-7 gallons of water at once! borrow a buddy's boil kettle!
3. Mashing in for the weaker beer. As it turns out, that 3 pounds of grain actually takes up EVEN MORE ROOM in the mash tun. I wasnt able to fit all of my second strike water, which left me with another completely full mash tun and a temp of 144. After a bit of thinking, i decided to drain about a gallon or so of wort and bring it to a boil for a bit to lose some volume, and then add it back, kind of like an ultra thin decoction. I ended up having to do this twice, first jumped it to 150, then another to jump it to 152. LESSON LEARNED: Next time, increase strike temp by about 10 degrees!
4. At this point, I decided to glance at beersmith again. Low and behold, i undershot the hops on the first beer, which pretty much crushed my spirits. Instead of 2oz of Simcoe @ 60 minutes, i'd only added 1oz. Dang. Recalculated, and found that it'll only give me about 60 ibus instead of the 90 planned. LESSON LEARNED: read your recipe sheet!
5. After that, everything was pretty much smooth sailing. Pitched yeast in both and relaxed. I awoke this morning to a mess in my pantry, however, as the big beer had errupted through/past the airlock! Thankfully, i'd been careful about sanitizing it, so i'm not too worried about an infection. However, i did have to fashion a blow off tube for it this morning. LESSON LEARNED: its not over until i'm drinking the beer.
Anyways, i figured i'd post about the things I'd learned from this, in case anyone else was thinking about doing a partigyle brew. It was kinda fun, in the same way that your first decoction mash is 'fun.'
The plan:
Mash in to hit 152 with 19# 2 row, 2# munich, 2# caramel 30, 60 minutes
Drain the first runnings to collect appx 6 gallons of wort.
Boil that (Simcoe and Citra hops).
Add 2# rye malt and 1# flaked rye to the grist
Mash in again to hit 152 again, another 60 minutes.
How it actually worked:
1. I dont know if I measured too much grain or miscalculated my water volumes. My initial mash temp was about 150-151, and my cooler tun was FULL. seriously, wort dripping down the side, can't quite close the lid full. My thinking: Its an IIPA up first, so 150 is ok. LESSON LEARNED: Partigyle takes up a LOT of volume!
2. While draining the first wort, i realized i needed to start heating up the second mash water. But my Boil Kettle was filling up with wort! Thankfully, i do a lot of cooking and have an assortment of large pots. It took 3 of them, and every inch of space on my stove to get the volume of water heated. LESSON LEARNED: Even though i'll be able to do the actual boil in the same kettle, I still need some way of heating up 6-7 gallons of water at once! borrow a buddy's boil kettle!
3. Mashing in for the weaker beer. As it turns out, that 3 pounds of grain actually takes up EVEN MORE ROOM in the mash tun. I wasnt able to fit all of my second strike water, which left me with another completely full mash tun and a temp of 144. After a bit of thinking, i decided to drain about a gallon or so of wort and bring it to a boil for a bit to lose some volume, and then add it back, kind of like an ultra thin decoction. I ended up having to do this twice, first jumped it to 150, then another to jump it to 152. LESSON LEARNED: Next time, increase strike temp by about 10 degrees!
4. At this point, I decided to glance at beersmith again. Low and behold, i undershot the hops on the first beer, which pretty much crushed my spirits. Instead of 2oz of Simcoe @ 60 minutes, i'd only added 1oz. Dang. Recalculated, and found that it'll only give me about 60 ibus instead of the 90 planned. LESSON LEARNED: read your recipe sheet!
5. After that, everything was pretty much smooth sailing. Pitched yeast in both and relaxed. I awoke this morning to a mess in my pantry, however, as the big beer had errupted through/past the airlock! Thankfully, i'd been careful about sanitizing it, so i'm not too worried about an infection. However, i did have to fashion a blow off tube for it this morning. LESSON LEARNED: its not over until i'm drinking the beer.
Anyways, i figured i'd post about the things I'd learned from this, in case anyone else was thinking about doing a partigyle brew. It was kinda fun, in the same way that your first decoction mash is 'fun.'
. Regarding point 1, I don't think you explicitly mention what type of cooler you're using, but if it's a 10 gallon round cooler, that certainly makes sense. With 25# of grains in there, that thing's pretty stuffed as it is; when you compound that with planning to get 6 gallons out of your first runnings, that means you'll be dumping upwards of 9 gallons of liquid *in addition* to the grain capacity.
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