Another Partigyle Recipe - Strong Brown/Weak Amber

I have been messing around with multiple batches with one grain bill, doing a full AG on the first and then a partial mash on the other. This was a good brew session and I am pleased with the beer so far, it has really started to bubble good and hard today, just about 12 hours after pitching.

Thought I would post this and get some feedback. I don't do any brewing software, I never use the hydrometer, and I have no clue on my efficiency. I only use an online mash water temp and volume calculator based on thickness and poundage of malt. I just do it by the seat of my pants. If someone wants to do the math tell me what to expect, more power to you.

I think the brown ale will be more reddish than brown, and I am pretty sure the small one will be a nice deep amber. The smaller one just got the extra sugars I had lying around, last bit of dextrose, some brown sugar left in the bag, and an extra DME pack.

All-Grain Power Brown Ale – 10/12/08
8 lbs. Cargill 2 Row Pale Malt
3 lbs. Briess 6 Row Malt
1 lb. Durst Turbo Munich Malt
1 lbs. Munton’s Crystal Malt – 60
1 lb. Weyermann Carafoam
½ lb. Flaked Barley
2 oz Tettnanger Pellet Hops – Bittering (60 Min)
1 oz Mt. Hood Pellet Hops – Flavor/Bittering (30 Min)
2 oz Mt. Hood Pellet Hops - Aroma (Last 5 min of boil and 10 minute steep after flameout)
Irish Moss
Nottingham Dry Yeast – Rehydrated


Partial Mash Weak Brown Ale – 10/12/08
Third running from power brown ale recipe
1 lb. Light DME – Added after boil
1 lb. Brown Sugar
5 oz. Dextrose Corn Sugar
1 oz. Challenger Hop Pellets – 60 Min
1 oz. Cluster Hop Pellets – 30 Min
1 oz. Liberty Hop Pellets – 10 Min boil and 5 minute steep
Irish Moss
Munton’s Gold Dry Yeast – Rehydrated

The Brown Ale looks very promising, but I can't believe you don't use a hydrometer. It's my required instrument, I use it many times throughout the brewing process. That is however assuming you care to know your alcohol content. Although you can always use the tried and true method that I have discovered, drink a few see if you get drunk!

I just like to keep it as hands off as possible. Just the two rackings, to secondary and then to the bottling bucket. I may take the top off after a week and check it out, but not most times, mostly just leave it for 10 days, then leave it for two weeks, then check bottles for carbing after bottling. Worked pretty good for me so far, even with mead that wasn't quite done yet.

looks good. i didn't see this post before i just wrote a thread on the same topic...
i would use a hydrometer or refractometer if i were you. when you're doing batches like this and collecting the third runnings, it's likely that you'll start getting under 1.010. at this point you start getting tannins from the husks which will give you off flavors. i've stopped caring that much about the gravity of my first runnings, but those last ones are important.

I know, everybody tells me to use them, but it has worked out so far and I am the main drinker, so I will drink it even if it has some off flavors. I keep a detailed journal of everything I do, so I can repeat good beers if I want, but I usually just keep trying more different stuff. I really like the parti-gyle style of brewing and I think I will stick with it this way for some time.

As far as astringent tastes go I try and keep my sparge water around 170 to keep that from happening but a little bit won't hurt that much. I need to really remember to keep the darker/roasted grains to a minimum when doing proters and stouts, other than that I think my equipment is pretty dialed in for this type of brewing now.