The wee heavy partigyle thread

[catdaddy66]

Now that I have your attention...

I have a couple​ of questions about my brewday this weekend.

First, I am brewing a wee heavy ale with 15# of grain (13.5# is two row, 1#3oz C60, 3oz aromatic malt and 2oz midnight wheat). I realize this is a small grist for a partigyle but I have space for two fermenters and need to rebuild (continually build?) the pipeline. OG is supposed to be 1.075 on the big beer.i

1) should I do a full volume/no sparge mash for the big beer? If so, should I then mash and sparge as usual for the small beer? Any other options on this process? I have been able to fit 23# of grain in my 10 gallon mashtun in the past so 15# is no issue.

2) what other grains could be added for the small beer to change it up a bit? What could I expect for the small beer, style-wise and OG?

I am using wlp028 for the big beer which is why I would like to know the style of the little beer, to know which yeast and hops to try. A Saison, maybe?

 

[Grod1]

i have found the key is just have a lot of dme around so you can allways hit the gravity you want

 

[catdaddy66]

i have found the key is just have a lot of dme around so you can allways hit the gravity you want

I have DME available, as well as more base grains (2-row, Vienna and Munich) and some Crystal 10/30/60 grains, etc.

I guess I would like to know a bit more about how to do the partigyle process to maximize the small beer and to know what type of beer it closely resembles so I can make a better call on hop/yeast choices.

I have only done a partigyle once before with an RIS (Kate the Great), and I knew the small beer would also be a stout. It actually turned out better than the big beer, btw! This big beer isn't nearly as easy to determine what my small beer may resemble though.

I am always thinking ahead but this one has me a bit kerflummoxed...

 

[catdaddy66]

Alright, I think the low OG on the small beer lends itself to an English dark mild. I can add some chocolate and black patent for color (5oz or so) and another lb or so of DME to round out the wort. Some fuggles and Notty later and Viola!!

I have never made a dark mild before. Yay!

 

[catdaddy66]

Rats... No Notty in my stash so my options are us-04 and wlp011 (European ale). Both have been used in mild recipes that I have found. Both are lower attenuating and have fairly clean profiles.

Decisions, decisions...

 

[Jtk78]

Did you find an answer to your first question? I've done a big mash / batch sparge and split my running evenly to end up with 14 gallons pre-boil before. Steep some specialty grains on the side, and had 2 different beers.

I'd like to try a partigyle as well, and never thought about the second mash. My GUESS would be you don't have to re-mash for 60mins. On the other hand, could you add some more grain to the tun, specialty or not, get it back to mash temp and hold it even for 30 mins? This would also give you the instant timing stagger for chilling purposes as well.

I'm really interested in how you go about this. Please keep me posted.

 

[catdaddy66]

Did you find an answer to your first question? I've done a big mash / batch sparge and split my running evenly to end up with 14 gallons pre-boil before. Steep some specialty grains on the side, and had 2 different beers.

I'd like to try a partigyle as well, and never thought about the second mash. My GUESS would be you don't have to re-mash for 60mins. On the other hand, could you add some more grain to the tun, specialty or not, get it back to mash temp and hold it even for 30 mins? This would also give you the instant timing stagger for chilling purposes as well.

I'm really interested in how you go about this. Please keep me posted.

I ended up doing both batches at full volume (8.5 gal for the wee, and 7 gal for the mild), drain the runnings for the mild as the big beer cooled down. Also added about .5# of grain (4oz each of C60 and black patent) at the start of the second mash/sparge or whatever the term.

Came out a bit under on my pre boil gravity for the wee heavy, coming in at 1.058 instead of 1.062. More than likely it's probably due to a drop in efficiency which can happen with bigger grain bills. My mashtun did well with the volume of water plus grain.

Oh, and I have decided to use us-04 for the mild, which came in at a pre boil gravity of 1.021. This dictates that I add two lbs of DME to reach specs for this one.

 

[catdaddy66]

Added 2.5# of DME at 30 minutes of the boil left. Should get my OG on the mild to about 1.038-40!

The day is done... I shall rest now. In a few days/weeks I will post my results on both batches. I honestly hope the wee heavy survives to bottling as the last attempt ended up infected.

 

[Jtk78]

How long solid you leave the smaller beer in the tun with the new grains, and did it hold temp pretty well? I imagine with the Green Bay Rackers calculator, you could get real close to getting it in the temp range your looking for.

 

[catdaddy66]

How long solid you leave the smaller beer in the tun with the new grains, and did it hold temp pretty well? I imagine with the Green Bay Rackers calculator, you could get real close to getting it in the temp range your looking for.

About two hours. Had to cool the bigger beer and empty then clean the kettle so I could boil the mild. Not agregious as far as time in the mashtun. Some people leave the mash for the following day.

Temps went from 154° down to 150°, but I stirred the mash three different times to eek out as much sugar as possible.

 

[catdaddy66]

Ok, a couple of things that I learned from this brewday...

1) adjust your grain bill to account for the bigger volume you will lauter thru your mashtun, and...

2) have plenty of DME on hand for mistakes you may/will make!

All in all a good session. My volumes we're spot on though my temps were a bit high on the wee heavy. I am going to bottle a couple of tasty brews in two weeks and be drinking the dark mild soon after.

Man I love this hobby!

 

[cmac62]

Often I will brew one big beer (wee heavy, or barley wine), then one smaller beer (IPA/PA or saison) and when done put all of the grain from both beers into the mashtun and sparge for beer #3, I usually just call it a small and use whatever yeast I have on hand. I don't worry about style, this is just for drinking anyway. This past weekend I brewed an Imperial Red with 18 lbs of grain and an Marzen with 11 lbs. After the marzen was out of the MT I put the Red grain back in and batch sparged all of the grain. I put the valve on a slow dribble into a second kettle. I ended up with about 6 gals of the small, boiled for 45 chilled and was a very tired brewer when that day was done. However, I started the day at around 9 a.m. and was done with brewing at about 5 p.m. I left clean up for the next day. All three are now happily fermenting away.

 

[catdaddy66]

Bottled both of my beers today. Got 52 and 53 12oz servings from the dark mild and the wee heavy, respectively. The mild came in at 1.009 from 1.043, giving 4.3% abv. The wee heavy was close with an FG of 1.010 from 1.062, making it 6.8%.

Really good colors and both with maximum malt character, though the heavy had more hop bitterness than the mild but not by a lot. Excited to try these but the heavy is going to condition for 6 weeks vs the 10 days for the mild.

 

[Jtk78]

Bottled both of my beers today. Got 52 and 53 12oz servings from the dark mild and the wee heavy, respectively. The mild came in at 1.009 from 1.043, giving 4.3% abv. The wee heavy was close with an FG of 1.010 from 1.062, making it 6.8%.

Really good colors and both with maximum malt character, though the heavy had more hop bitterness than the mild but not by a lot. Excited to try these but the heavy is going to condition for 6 weeks vs the 10 days for the mild.

Thanks for the update. Sounds like you've got two tasty brews coming up. Please post another update to let us know how they came out once they carb up and are ready. At some point in the not too distant future, I'm going to give this a shot.