Question about parti-gyle brewing

Ok my friends. I'm going to be brewing 2 beers tomorrow: one is going to be a Belgian Quad and the other one a Belgian Golden Strong Ale. I was reading about parti-gyle brewing and how possible would it be for my to combine the 3rd runnings from each wort and make a lower alcohol beer (parti-gyle). How big should my 3rd runnings be and what should be my hop schedule or suggestions. Thanks. Here are my 2 recipes:

Belgian Quad
malt & fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable ppg °L
85% 16 0 Belgian Pale 37 3 ~
5% 1 0 Belgian CaraMunich 33 75 ~
5% 1 0 Belgian Candy Sugar Light 36 0 ~
1% 0 4 Belgian Special B 30 220 ~
1% 0 4 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L 35 20 ~
1% 0 4 Carafa I 32 337 ~

hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 2.0 Saaz pellet 3.9
boil 60 mins 1.0 Styrian Goldings pellet 4.6
boil 30 mins 1.0 Hersbrucker pellet 2.4

yeast
White Labs Abbey Ale (WLP530)

Alcohol
10.7% ABV / 8% ABW

misc
use time amount ingredient
boil 15 min 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient

Belgian Golden Strong Ale
malt & fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable ppg °L
53% 8 0 Castle Belgian Pilsner Malt 34 2 ~
27% 4 0 Belgian Pale 37 3 ~
7% 1 0 Belgian Candy Sugar Light 36 0 ~
3% 0 8 Briess Caramel 20L 34 20 ~
3% 0 8 Belgian Aromatic 34 23 ~
3% 0 8 Belgian Caramel Pils 34 6 ~
3% 0 8 Wheat, Torrified 36 1 ~

hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 2.0 Hallertau Mittelfruh pellet 4.4
boil 1 min 0.5 Tettnang pellet 4.5

yeast
White Labs Trappist Ale (WLP500)

Alcohol
8.3% ABV / 6% ABW

misc
use time amount ingredient
boil 15 min 1 tsp Irish Moss
boil 10 min 1 ounces Orange Peel, Sweet

depends what OG/batch size you are shooting for and the size of your first two runnings. I'd play around with this spreadsheet to get an idea of what you'll need to do: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Batch_Sparge_and_Party_Gyle_Simulator

Damn, I was looking at that table and I still don't understand it ={

hmm, well let me know what size you're aiming for for the partigyled batch (OG/batch size) and ill try to work some numbers tmr. your evap rate would help too if you know it

if you want to play around with the simulator more in the meantime, personally I prefer using 2nd runnings for the small beer (like 20-25% eff) and the 1st & 3rd runnings for the main beer (~65% eff). if you do around 1.25 qt/lb for the mash and make up the missing volume in the 2nd sparge it should get you close.

Well I'm not really aiming for certain OG. I'm assuming it's going to be around 1.030ish and I'm thinking the batch size is going to be 4 gallons (2 gallons from each wort). It's a little bit confusing but I want to give it a try. Planning on adding flaked oats, Malto-Dextrin and a few ounces of Malt Extract to make the wort more workable.

ya if you did 10qts (so you get 4gals after boil off) for the 2nd sparge from both batches, it'd only be about 1.031ish. your plan sounds pretty good if you do that. if you use the 2nd runnings instead, it'll bump it up into the 50s, but give a slight hit to the 2 bigger beers. if you add 2-3lbs base malt to the batches it'll make up for the loss. of course all this varies a lil system to system.

Thanks so much for your help. I'm already mashing the first beer. One question, what would happen if I add, let's say, 8oz of Candi Sugar to the parti-gyle beer. Would it make it too sweet? Or should I just go ahead and give it a try

nah it'll be fine, give it a go

What a long day. And hot... but was able to acomplished it, OG for my parti-gyle brew was 1.040 =}

I did a parti-gyle 3 weeks ago, and REALLY could have used that spreadsheet. Ah well. The only thing its missing is a way to blend and make the gravities a little closer to each other.