Party-Gyle Barleywine

I have been planning a big birthday barleywine to be ready in about a year and a half. The more reading I have dnoe, the more excitement I have, and the more reading I do. I happened upon some party-gyle threads and have been even more enthralled. I haven't been this excited since I started my first batch.
I want a big english style barley wine. I have a huge MLT, so I will have no problem with the giant grainbill. I am guessing that I will have a good 1.100+ gravity from the first runnings in appx my boil volume. That leaves plenty of sugar in the tun. Enter party-gyle. I am hoping I can sparge 10gals and split into 2 batches, potentially using different yeast or hops on the 2nd runnings and ferment them out seperately (boil them seperate as well... kettle isn't big enough to boil 11-12gals)
Obviously I am still in the early stages of development. I have a few questions to ponder while the recipe comes to life.

1) What would make a good 2nd runnings style off of an english barleywine base? There will likely be a ton of maris otter, some munich, and a bit of crystal. Capping is always an option. Porter? Brown Ale? IPA? The mash will be conducted at ~149F to keep the BW fermentable.
2)Is 10gals a pipe dream? I don't want to oversparge, and I will monitor the gravity of the sparge and TOS if need be. I would like to plan this to be epic if possible, so is it?
3)crap... I know I had more... I'll be sure to ask!

Any and all input is appreciated!

I like the idea of capping it with chocolate and black malts for a porter. You may want to read this link.
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Batch_Sparge_and_Party_Gyle_Simulator

I am a rank amatuer so keep that in mind. I have made 2 partigyles however.. one has been gone a while and the other is in primary. First off I would make my barleywine the " epic" brew and make the partigyle more of a quaffer. I just brewed a barleywine with only 2 row.. no sugars or anything yet and my OG after boiling was 1.102..... I made a 5 gallon partigyle from that . sparged with 6 gallons boiled down to 5 and only had an OG of 1.032 so IMO yes a 10 gallon batch is a pipe dream.
The partigyle I drank already was an IPA style and the bitterness was way over the top because there was not enough malt to back it up. I would keep the IBU's low and just make a 5 gallon easy drinker.

OHIOSTEVE said:

First off I would make my barleywine the " epic" brew and make the partigyle more of a quaffer.

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"Epic" is more appropriate for the grist, I suppose. I know the 2nd batch will be much less epic than the BW. Interesting input, thanks. Can you give me more details on your recent parti-gyle? I just want to compare (Its hard to kill a dream! ). Total grist weight? Fly or batch sparge? Efficiency of conversion/SG pre-boil?

A delicious pale ale in 5gals would be preferred over 10gals of a Budweiser Select 55 clone, lol... I don't want it have a gravity that is just silly to use. I like water and all, but I want all this work to go into making REAL beer.

Conroe said:

I like the idea of capping it with chocolate and black malts for a porter. You may want to read this link.
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Batch_Sparge_and_Party_Gyle_Simulator

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A Pipe dream's revelry!

According to this spreadsheet, with 35lbs grain, 1.25qt/lb (44qts) mash thickness, the first runnings will be 6.8gals of 1.094; boiled to 5.5gals - 1.105.
Second runnings with a 12gal sparge will give me 12gals of 1.032; boiled to 5gals each - 1.035.

It seems like it is possible! I need to tweak the calculator with a real recipe, and think about a slightly higher OG for the second batch... I could always add more, lol.

Awesome link Conroe, thanks so much. Even if I do 5gals for the 2nd, it will still be a great tool.

You can always add some DME to fortify the 2nd pretty cheaply.

NuclearRich said:

"Epic" is more appropriate for the grist, I suppose. I know the 2nd batch will be much less epic than the BW. Interesting input, thanks. Can you give me more details on your recent parti-gyle? I just want to compare (Its hard to kill a dream! ). Total grist weight? Fly or batch sparge? Efficiency of conversion/SG pre-boil?

A delicious pale ale in 5gals would be preferred over 10gals of a Budweiser Select 55 clone, lol... I don't want it have a gravity that is just silly to use. I like water and all, but I want all this work to go into making REAL beer.

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25 pounds of 2 row...Mashed at 150 degrees for 60 minutes.... Single batch sparged with 185 degree water ran off 7 gallons boiled down to 5.5........OG 1.102......... Added 6 gallons of water to the grains and stirred like crazy.. drained off 6 gallons boiled down to 5 ....OG 1.032. I figure my efficiency on the Barleywine was right at 60%. On a normal brew I am around 75% but the big grain bill knocks the crap outta my efficiency.

OHIOSTEVE said:

Single batch sparged with 185 degree water ran off 7 gallons...

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Single batch sparge? So you drained the original mash and then refilled with the sparge water and drained again to get your 7 gallons? I may just be misinterperating that, but if that is the case then your first and second runnings contributed to the BW and your third runnings were for your second beer... which would really make sense with the lower gravity.

hmmm... on second thought... I ran the numbers through the batch sparge simulator, and the second runnings would produce a beer of your caliber, so I probably am just confused on your wording (easy to do to me ). Still keeping my musings posted, as it may shed light.

One other discrepancy that might help as well: It seems you had a mash thickness of around 1.6qt/lb if I calculate correctly. Between the ~10lb of grain difference in our bills, and the mash thickness (I plan on using 1.25qt/lb), it may have given you a big difference in the second beer. I theorize that the thinner mash ran off more of the sugar into the first beer, leaving less for the second. Does this make sense, or is this more pipe dreaming of mine?

In either case, thinking of how to brew beer will hopefully help lead to better beer, so its all food for thought!

For what it's worth I just did this exact same thing on Monday, a party-gyle with a BarleyWine in the first runnings and an IPA in the second runnings.

My MLT is only 10 gallons and I was OK with using sugar for 10% of fermentables here was my procedure:
Recipe:
27lbs of 2-row
1.5 lbs of 40l Crystal
1.5 lbs of 120l Crystal

I added 28L of water (max capacity) to my tun and mashed at 151F for 90 minutes
Drained this and added 16L (again max capacity) of sparge water at approx 192 to sparge at 170 for 15 minutes
drained this completely giving me around 8.5 gallons of wort, 90 minute boil, 1st bittering hops 3oz of Columbus at 75 minutes and 3 oz of Cascade for aroma hops at 5 minutes
with 15 minutes to go took a reading calculated 4lbs of corn sugar would give me OG of 1.112 added sugar

After I took out my first sparge I added another 16L to let it sit at 160F for the 1st 60 minutes of the BarleyWine boil
I drained that and added a final sparge of 14L and let that sit 20 more minutes then drained
so as my 90 minute boil wrapped up my 3rd and 4th sparges gave me 7.5 gallons of wort which was 1.050 which after boil off would be 6 gallons of 1.062
I did a ton of late hop additions 6 oz mix, 2 oz each of williamette, northern brewer and cascade added 1 oz every 5 minutes from 25 minutes to 1 minute

So there's my story, I got 6 gallons of BarleyWine at 1.112 and 6 gallons of an IPA at 1.062. If you take out the sugar added I get 12 gallons of beer at an average of 1.072 which BeerSmith tells me is 80% efficiency for that grain bill, I normally get 80-84% efficiency with my system.

My advice would be 2-fold
1. Focus on the strong BarleyWine and make sure you get the OG as high as you want if you have to take a little more wort and boil longer to get the volume down thats ok, also using sugar is ok to most say up to 10% of fermentables is fine.
2. Be flexible, I had up to 6lbs of sugar ready to go because I had no idea exactly where the runnings of the BarleyWine were going to be. Also for the IPA I was ready with sugar to top up if the OG was too low and was willing to decrease the hop amounts as well to match the SG.

thanks Veinman! (Are you good are phlebotomy? They call me "Hands of God" for my skills) Encouraging post... I will likely be adding some sugar to the BW in any case, to aid in a full fermentation.

Pretty sure this project is getting the green light... next questions... ingredients

How much Maris Otter? I was thinking to do a 50/50 split of MO and basic pale 2row with a few others. Right now my concern (since I haven't ever actually used MO) is the flavor of the MO. I read that it imparts a slightly more malty character and that in this quantity (15lbs) it will be a bit bready. Lovely... this is an english barleywine. Just wondering... if I were to scale the MO:2row ratio up or down, how much would that effect flavor?
Other grains I am looking at adding include Munich, victory, malted rye, perhaps a tad of crystal in the mid-lovibond range.
I need to sample more rye beer before I commit to adding it myself, but I hear good things.

I think that I am leaning towards a brown ale for the 2nd... capping it for a good nutty, malty flavor most likely. Crystal malt on top is fine, right?

I definitely recommend having some spare DME on hand, just so you don't have to settle for a crappy 1.031 beer or something like that.

No problem after doing 3 party-gyles I have come to love them and now anytime I do a big beer it just makes sense to throw in a few more pounds of malt and get 10 gallons instead.

hopefully someone can offer you advice on the Maris Otter v. 2-row debate I have only ever done 1 brew with Maris so I can't comment.

I think capping your 2nd to make a brown would work just fine, if you do let me know how it goes as I'm only ever done "big and small style" party-gyles
i.e. Strong Scotch Ale and Scotch 70
Barley Wine and IPA
Imperial Stout and "light" Stout (not really a style I don't think)

I would love to be able to do 1 big light colored beer and take the smaller beer in a different direction. Be sure to post how your results.

NuclearRich said:

1) What would make a good 2nd runnings style off of an english barleywine base? There will likely be a ton of maris otter, some munich, and a bit of crystal. Capping is always an option. Porter? Brown Ale? IPA? The mash will be conducted at ~149F to keep the BW fermentable.

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ESB, natch

Hmmm... ESB would be a natural progression. Not my favorite style tho and I am leaning toward the Brown. How much should I cap with? 2lbs of crystal 60? or lighter @30?

The grist is taking on this shape right now:
20lb Maris Otter
8lb 2Row (potentially just all MO)
2lb Victory
2lb Munich
1lb malted Rye
1lb Crystal 10
1lb Rice hulls

2lbs crystal 30-60 for capping

I feel I may be pushing the limit of grain complexity, and now that I think about it I could still use some head development like carapils since it'll be tough to maintain head with the high ABV. Suggestions? I think I would tend towards dropping the victory, adding more munich or rye and carapils.

Also, I think I may just do a different hop schedule for the Brown. A nice low IBU standard to style, and then the other half I will hop it up a tad. Probably fuggles or EKG.

I am thinking of pitching the BW onto a cake of Wyeast1056. I know I shouldn't use tired, lazy, beat up yeast that have been through the mill with the previous batch. Anyone have an opinion of the cake of fermenting a batch of SN Celebration Ale? It is a lighter IPA (my favorite right now). 1067OG 1017FG 47IBUs. I don't think that is a really stressful batch... you?

I would only use one pint of the cake. That way you get fewer dead cells and a better growth phase.

NuclearRich said:

Hmmm... ESB would be a natural progression. Not my favorite style tho and I am leaning toward the Brown. How much should I cap with? 2lbs of crystal 60? or lighter @30?

The grist is taking on this shape right now:
20lb Maris Otter
8lb 2Row (potentially just all MO)
2lb Victory
2lb Munich
1lb malted Rye
1lb Crystal 10
1lb Rice hulls

2lbs crystal 30-60 for capping

I feel I may be pushing the limit of grain complexity, and now that I think about it I could still use some head development like carapils since it'll be tough to maintain head with the high ABV. Suggestions? I think I would tend towards dropping the victory, adding more munich or rye and carapils.

Also, I think I may just do a different hop schedule for the Brown. A nice low IBU standard to style, and then the other half I will hop it up a tad. Probably fuggles or EKG.

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Hey I'm about to do my first party-gyle with a capped second beer. I think the easiest way is to take 1/3 of the total grain bill and consider that your recipe for the second beer since 1/3 of the sugars you get in the second beer.
So looking at your recipe your second beer recipe is:
6.67 lbs Maris Otter
2.67 lbs 2-row
.67 lbs Victory
.67 lbs Munich
.33 lbs Rye
.33 lbs Crystal 10L

Throwing this into BeerSmith at 75% efficiency I get OG of 1.051, FG of 1.013 ABV of 4.87% and Color of 6.6 for 6 gallons

You can really go a million directions with this depending on how you cap it, hop it and yeast used.

Adding 1 lb of Crystal 60L gives you a 1.055 FG ABV of 5.29% and color of 11.2. You now have 11% Crystal in your grain bill which is reasonably balanced I think. Bumping to 2lbs to cap would give you almost 20% Crystal which could end up very sweet.

Personally I'd say cap with 1lb of Crystal 30-40 and hop it with something English to a low 30s IBU's and ferment with either s-04 or a liquid English strain depending on your preference.

NuclearRich said:

I am thinking of pitching the BW onto a cake of Wyeast1056. I know I shouldn't use tired, lazy, beat up yeast that have been through the mill with the previous batch. Anyone have an opinion of the cake of fermenting a batch of SN Celebration Ale? It is a lighter IPA (my favorite right now). 1067OG 1017FG 47IBUs. I don't think that is a really stressful batch... you?

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I was under the impression that used and washed yeast isn't necessarily stressed especially if they were taken care of during their fermentation. BarleyWine's obviously need a ton of healty yeast so I'd say use mr. malty's pitching rate calculator to determine how much of the cake you need then aerate the heck out of it, also watch your fermentation temperature if the room you ferment in is 68F or higher you may need a swamp bath to keep your temperature down to avoid the yeast producing off flavours.

Veinman said:

Adding 1 lb of Crystal 60L gives you a 1.055 FG ABV of 5.29% and color of 11.2. You now have 11% Crystal in your grain bill which is reasonably balanced I think. Bumping to 2lbs to cap would give you almost 20% Crystal which could end up very sweet.

Personally I'd say cap with 1lb of Crystal 30-40 and hop it with something English to a low 30s IBU's and ferment with either s-04 or a liquid English strain depending on your preference.

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Great tip, thanks. I was being a little lazy for the math since I'm doing too much reading and tasting. That helps alot, as I wouldn't want to do more than 10% crystal really.
After sampling a handful of brown ales, including Samuel Smiths Nut Brown, I can't say I'm thrilled to make 10 gallons... I did enjoy a porter last year, and maybe I will try a crisp amber similar to my house amber and see what a little bit of different style can do for me. Steep dark grains with the porter?

Also tried the 2001 J.W. Lees Harvest Ale. No where near as good as the 2000. I would like a little less sweetness and a little more complexity. That '01 had plenty of depth, but it was all in a similar range of tastes of raisins. If I end up with a boring flavor, I am going to have to find some oak! (good thing I plan on tasting a bit before its full maturity)

As for the yeast, I could probably wash the cake and get plenty for all 3 batches right? I intend on pitching some fresh yeast into the Barleywine as it slows down and add a little sugar to keep driving towards a lower FG. Revvy is half of my inspiration here, so maybe I can follow his lead and try a different yeast strain. Something to help accentuate the spicy rye flavor perhaps.
Temps should be really low due to the weather. I can use my kitchen at 62F, but I will likely start really low on my stairwell which will stay near ambient temps... 50F right now during the day, or basement tho I forget the temps it hangs around at in the winter. Likely keep it there (active fermentation raises temps, remember) for a week and bring it up to to the kitchen for the 60F. Once I repitch, I might bring up the temp a tad further to get a flavorful yeast really working. I will certainly be staying on the low sides of the strains ideal temps.

One more thing... I hate the idea of a blowoff tube. It just saddens me for the loss of quality beer. This ferment should be wicked, so what do you think of using an 8gal bucket for 5.5gals? Should be no different than a 6.5gal bucket, right?

Great thread!

I just finished an American Barley Wine, and was really wanting to learn more about party-gyle for the next one. (would probably go either PA or IPA for the 2nd beer)

As for yeast on that big beer, it is really important to get a lot of healthy yeast cells in that well-aerated wort! Many of the guys I know that do BW either brew a PA and pitch on the yeast cake, or do really large starters on a stirplate. If you don't have an O2 system, be sure to agitate really really well!

Sounds like pitching on your SNCA yeast cake is a good idea....

Hope it goes well!
--LexusChris

LexusChris said:

Great thread!

I just finished an American Barley Wine, and was really wanting to learn more about party-gyle for the next one. (would probably go either PA or IPA for the 2nd beer)

As for yeast on that big beer, it is really important to get a lot of healthy yeast cells in that well-aerated wort! Many of the guys I know that do BW either brew a PA and pitch on the yeast cake, or do really large starters on a stirplate. If you don't have an O2 system, be sure to agitate really really well!

Sounds like pitching on your SNCA yeast cake is a good idea....

Hope it goes well!
--LexusChris

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Thanks brotha! I want to keep this thread updated with my thoughts so that anyone could follow along with my issues and see my project from all the angles that I attack it from. A learning experience for more than just myself.

As for aeration, I don't have O2 but here is what I typically do:
`pitch yeast in sanitized bucket
`attach sanitized nylon pain strainer
`dump cooled wort from as high as I can lift it with the help of a buddy. I do it in the fashion of a bartenders martini pour - start low to get my aim and then pick it up really high
The mesh and the height of the pour makes the wort foamy from such a vigorous pour! I usually have to give it a minute to dissipate so I dont put my hand in it when I remove the nylon bag.
I will do this, but I will shake it too once sealed. I really want to oxygenate the hell out of this baby.

NuclearRich said:

As for the yeast, I could probably wash the cake and get plenty for all 3 batches right? I intend on pitching some fresh yeast into the Barleywine as it slows down and add a little sugar to keep driving towards a lower FG. Revvy is half of my inspiration here, so maybe I can follow his lead and try a different yeast strain. Something to help accentuate the spicy rye flavor perhaps.

One more thing... I hate the idea of a blowoff tube. It just saddens me for the loss of quality beer. This ferment should be wicked, so what do you think of using an 8gal bucket for 5.5gals? Should be no different than a 6.5gal bucket, right?

Click to expand...

I suspect if you washed your yeast cake you could use about half of it for the BarleyWine and separate the other half into 2 mason jars (or whatever you have) and each of those would work for a normal sized beer. I read Revvy's thread and the 2-strain beer certainly sounds interesting and could add some really unique flavours. In my BarleyWine I was looking for neutral yeast flavor so I went with just s-04.

I have never worried too much about losing beer in a blowoff I don't think its ever more than a few ounces however the giant bucket would work if you absoultely wanted to save every ounce I would still make sure it had a blowoff or airlock to release pressure so you don't blow the top off.

Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes...

Washing yeast is a total waste of time.

Conroe said:

Washing yeast is a total waste of time.

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Insert controversial counter-opinion here.

If you think there is a benifit go ahead. I've not found one. An acid wash has some use but it's just better to get new yeast.

Better? Sure, you could argue that but there is a big part of homebrewing that is DIY. Being able to reuse yeast is not only cost efficient, but gives that DIY feeling. There is less viable yeast, but there is more of it. There is contamination risks but people make starters with yeast packets that carry similar risks. In your arguement, I think it is just a matter of opinion. Ease of use.

And you can bet your ass, Veinman, that I want to save every ounce of this baby! Brewmasters Warehouse has an 8gal bucket, and of course I will be using an airlock... how else would I be able to tell it is fermenting??



jk there, but yes there will be an airlock still

I repitch yeast all the time. I just no longer bother with washing it.

In this batch I pitched one pint of slurry,
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/no-sparge-ris-partigyle-172635/

Here's a little update

Grainbill:
20lb Maris Otter
8lb 2-row
3lb munich 10
2lbs rye
2lbs carapils
1lb rice hulls

I ditched the victory in favor of rye and munich (which I thought: DUH get 10L Munich and forget about crystal), and added some carapils for foam. I would like this baby to have a decent head, and I know thats not neccesarily an easy task with something high in ABV (which this is estimated somewhere around 1.105 as of now).

The yeast will likely be the 1056 cake from my celebration ale clone: a 1.054OG, 77IBU beer. So long as that ferments out nicely. I will scoop out two seperate cups and use those for the split second batch. I am still undecided of what strain I might like to add once primary is slowing up. Highly fermentable sugars I am thinking of feeding the beast with: corn sugar, honey/molasses, brown sugar, some high quailty vermont maple syrup... open forum, really.

For the second runnings: I am really liking the thought of making an american amber to give my house ale some competition (although this whole batch would be a little overboard to use it just to get the 5gal amber for the house ale, lol). I also haven't brewed a porter in awhile, so I am liking that idea for the 2nd half.

Next on the list: the all important HOPS! Haven't even given it a thought until now.
I am thinking that if I shoot for around 80-90IBUs, it will have plenty of time to mellow in the year, year and a half of conditioning. I don't want it American style, but I don't want it completely muted, either. Just a nip in the (taste)bud and a hint of lovely aroma. Too high of an IBU range?
I really like Fuggle and Wilamette. Looking at EKG for sure. For bittering, something I have never tried nor seen in a recipe: Bullion. Is this attainable? Anyone have experience with it? BYO states that it has an intense, blackcurrant flavor. Very interesting for the barleywine, methinks. Is it plausable to use EKG as a bittering hop? Guess I would have to throw a ton in, huh... dumb question.
Well how about a couple oz of bullion & EKG for 60, a couple ozs EKG & Fuggles for 30, and a couple ozs of fuggles & willamette for 5-10mins.
It sounds complex, but I think the 3 (discluding the bullion) mesh very well and wont compete so much as complement.
At an avg AA with 2oz at every individual addition, it comes in around 75IBUs.
Thoughts?

Just thought I'd give a good ole bump!

I will be ordering ingredients shortly... so any last minute advice? Brewday is in 15 days!

Conroe said:

Washing yeast is a total waste of time.

Click to expand...

I agree OH threadjacker.....

Conroe said:

If you think there is a benifit go ahead. I've not found one. An acid wash has some use but it's just better to get new yeast.

Click to expand...

New yeast?

You obviously missed my 19 batch yeast cake thread.

Dumping 3/4 (or 1/2 for barleywine) of a cake and just dumping new wort on that works fantastically.

cheezydemon3 said:

I agree OH threadjacker.....



New yeast?

You obviously missed my 19 batch yeast cake thread.

Dumping 3/4 (or 1/2 for barleywine) of a cake and just dumping new wort on that works fantastically.

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I think my point was lost. Rinsing with water does little good. What is washed off has piratically no impact on a brew made with proper pitching rates. Using the whole cake could have a noticeable impact on flavors and color from impurities with the yeast.

An acid wash on the other hand kills contaminates. I fell that if your yeast in contaminated it's better to just get new yeast--if it is at all possible.

I've personaly gone 10 generations with lager yeast with no problems.

Less than a week until brewday! I ordered the goods last Tuesday, and should arrive today or tomorrow. Here is what looks like the final grainbill:

20lbs Maris Otter
9lbs 2-row
3lbs Munich 10
2lbs Rye
1lb Carapils
1lb Rice hulls

2oz Bullion 60mins
2oz EKG 60mins
2oz EKG 30mins
2oz Fuggles 30mins
2oz Fuggles 5mins
2oz Willamette 5mins

Mash with 44qts 162.7F water to reach 149F mash temp. Mash 90mins
Decoct 1gal for a "mashout".
6.8gals of first runnings expected. Boil for 90mins, adding hops as per schedule. Yeast nutrient, whirlfloc added 15mins prior to flameout.
Pitch onto 3/4 Wyeast 1056 yeast cake.


What I am looking at now is pitching secondary yeast with sugar, once the krausen starts to fall. Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes sounds interesting, with 1-2lbs turbinado sugar.

Wish me luck and I will update after brewday

It is 1030am and I am pouring a centennial blonde ale so I can write this story!

Well brewday was a great day. LONG. up at 7am, didnt finish until 7pm, and I still have some cleaning to do. The recipe was as stated above, but I didn't recieve my rice hulls in my online order from a certain nameless group of people that are driving me nuts with forgetting to get my order correct (twice in a row now). So I omitted the rice hulls in fear of the dreaded stuck sparge, but it ended up A-OK.
It was particularly difficult to get my mash temp, because the kettle only holds 10 gallons max, and I needed a 11 gallon mash-in, and a 12 gallon sparge. I ended up boiling 4 gallons in my kitchen, and then using some thermal diffusion formula (thank you menschmachine), I calculated the temp of the large volume needed to get my mash to 149. I over shot and landed at 152. Not terrible, and it was a freezing cold day so I thought my cooler would lose a few degrees more than usual. WRONG, it stayed at exactly 152 the entire time. Guess I have a good cooler!
I did a small volume decoction (more for practice, and perhaps a minor modification of maltiness than for its intended use), and it brought the mash up to about 160. Not quite mashout, but I'll take what I can in this episode of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-brewing (airing in January on A&E to compete with Sam Calagione). That smelled soo good. After returning the decoction to the mash, I let it sit for another 15-20 mins, a total of a 90 minute mash.
1st runoff: 6.5 gallons of 1.095 wort! Boiled down for 90 minutes, OG: 1.101.

The sparge was intended to be a 12 gallon batch sparge, however I didn't think of something: that the initial mash was at capacity, so there was no way I could add 12 gallons. I was able to get 8 gallons in, along with 2 more lbs of 2-row (For just a small boost of sugar). It sat for the duration of the barleywine's boil. When the time came, I drained 6 gallons and added the 4 gallons and sparged again into a seperate bucket, another 6 gallons. I took half of each sparge for the next boil (Brown Ale), and had the same leftover for the 3rd boil (Amber Ale). This way I didn't compromise SG for either batch.

The Brown Ale went well, my finely oiled machine was running at full steam, now at 3:30pm I decided to steep some grain bags of specialties in both this and the Amber, so as to change the flavor profiles. For this Brown, I added 2oz chocolate malt, 2oz roasted barley, 4oz crystal malt 120L, 16oz crystal malt 40L. Steeped for 20 minutes at 158F, dropping to 148F over the duration.
I wanted to basically follow suit with traditional methods, and make this second runnings beer a close comparison to the big first batch. So I followed the hopping schedule pretty closely. 0.5oz Bullion for 60 mins, 0.5 oz EKG for 30 mins, 0.5 oz Willamette for 5 mins. 60 minute boil, OG 1.049

The Amber Ale also went well. For this batch I wanted to hop closely to how my house amber is done. Hopefully it will give me some insight on how to better create my house amber (it is already outstanding, which is why its the house ale! Just wanted to get some creative juices flowing and see if I could contribute more to my favorite homebrew).
The specialties were: 2oz carapils, 2oz crystal 120, 10oz crystal 20. Steeped for 15mins starting at 150F and finishing at 158F. Hopping schedule: 0.5oz Nuggett 60mins, 1oz Willamette 30mins, 1oz Willamette + 0.25oz EKG 5mins. The EKG was just a tiny bit leftover from the 18oz I had on hand for this brewday so I threw it in as well. 60min boil, OG 1.048.

Overall, an awesome and exhausting day. I wanted to take a lot of pictures, but my camera batteries died instantly in the cold, and my phone camera didn't want to work all that much in the cold either. I will upload the 1-2 pics at some point soon.

15 gallons fermenting away! Special thanks to Revvy for inspiration, menschmachine for mathematics, everyone in this thread for contributing something. Extra special thanks are for my friends who came to the brew day to help, it would have been a reeeeeally long day and a back-breaker as well if not for them.

Wellllll a few months down the road and I have nearly finished drinking the "amber" and the brown, second runnings beers. The brown ale, I have been very troubled by. It has a certain "funky" quality which I have been hard pressed to nail down. It was very strong so I wasn't sure if it was a flavor from one of the roasted grains that I may have used too much of or something. I gave it to everyone I know, and no one seemed to really understand what I was trying to tell them I was tasting. My tongue is more discerning than theirs, since they don't brew my beer.
After cracking open my latest batch, my standard house amber ale, I was extremely upset that I had the same off-flavor, albeit not as strong as what was present in the brown ale.
Also of note, the "amber" that I brewed alongside of the brown with the second runnings turned out to be more bitter, dry, and light so I re-dubbed it a pale ale. This, too, had a slight off flavor to it of the same quality.

Here is my thought: over sparging. Its possible that the pale ale masked it a little better, as it was more highly hopped. The brown had low IBUs and lower carbonation, so its malty flavor was supposed to shine, but instead this other one did.
I cant explain the new amber ale's sudden off flavor (I've always thought it amazing), but for an increase in my palate's discrepancy.

I am thinking of doing a new batch with a no-sparge to see if the flavor changes.

Thoughts?

I did a barleywine parti-gyle back in Jan, I used first and some of the second runnings to get my volume for the barleywine and then the remaining 2nd plus a third sparge for the second pale ale. I ended up with 5 gallons of 1.102 for the barley and 5 gallons of 1.034 for the pale. The pale is very harsh, and not from the hops, it's as if the type of sugars left in the 3rd runnings were just not as sweet.

That's my one and only attempt so far. I'm leaning toward your thoughts on over sparging leading to the off flavor.

awesome brewday... i did a barleywine partigyle last month and took the 2nds (1.037) and made a scottish 70 and peeled some more off with a belgian yeast.

as far as that weird quality, i've noticed on the dark roast partigyles i do, it has that taste... i'm convinced its the dark malt as the later PGs i've done i've let sit for a bit longer and none of that odd tongue coating astringency (its the only thing i can come up with as a description)

both the 70 and the belgian are more bitter than they should be given the hops schedule, but i think this may be a function of partigyles in general. that being said, i think the less time the water is in contact with the grains, the better.

After 6 months in the bottle, I gave the batch a sample.
Helluva taste, wildly complex and delicious behind the alcohol burn, but I hope another 6 months will continue to mellow that rocket fuel.

More importantly, an unfortunate lack of carbonation. I mean none. zip, nadda.
I did another post about it, and read a little around the boards. I decided to build a starter and take a few mLs of it when it is in a very active stage, and put it in each bottle, and recap. I have some Allagash yeast that I built up, washed, and froze. This strain is already underway to building up, and should handle the high ABV. I hope.

Wish me luck!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/allagash-yeast-starter-smells-tart-315012/

Trouble? The starter that I want to add to each individual bottle is stinky stinky. Tart/vinegar. I am wary of chucking it in.

However......
if that starter really is infected... would it be so horrible for bottling? I would get my carbonation from that, right? And I would think that the infection couldn't do much damage with the lack of oxygen. It is going to age another 5 months here, so I guess given that much of a chance it could be bad... Opinions?

Update.

I redid a new starter, as described in the link above. As fermentation slowed and the yeast started to come out of solution, I decanted (without the cooling... wanna keep these buggers as active as possible) and swirled it all back up into solution so as to get as even a concentrate as possible. I then used a sterile measuring device to add 2.5mL of the slurry to each bottle, and immediately recapped.
Heres to hoping for the best! I will open another bottle in a month or two.