1st Parti-gyle, 1st Non-BiaB All Grain: Review

[dougdecinces]

I'm putting the finishing touches on a nearly 7 hour brew day. I recommissioned my 12 gallon cooler with a homemade CPVC manifold and wanted to give it a try. True to my nature, I decided to up the degree of difficulty and also do my first partigyle batch as my first try.

The plan was to get 5 gallons of a 1.039 OG mild and 2.75 gallons of a 1.070 OG Baltic Porter. Overall there were no major catastrophies, though I did end up oversparging by about a gallon. I lost 2 gallons of water to my tun in my first runnings and thought the same thing would happen again; and not realizing that I would lose only 3/4 gallon in my second runnings.To make matters worse, I calculated the first gravity of my porter and ended up with 44% efficiency on my 1st runnings (38% expected). This led me to believe that I had hit the same numbers on my 2nd runnings. So I added nearly half a gallon extra water to the boil to compensate. Unfortunately I only hit 30% efficiency on my 2nd runnings, meaning, even after adding a pound of DME, I have 5.5 gallons of a 1.035 OG mild. But the good news is since I hit such high numbers on my baltic porter, I was able to get 3 gallons of wort instead of 2.75.

But overall this was a good brew session. Nothing catastrophic happened. My manifold and cooler worked very well and I learned a lot about what to expect next time I do all grain. Which I will need, since next time I plan on doing another parti-gyle only this time with 10 gallons of wort total and almost twice as much grain.

 

[gbx]

I did a similar brew a couple months ago. My first runnings were 1.084, the second were in the 1.025 range and then a 3rd runnings at 1.012. I collected them in 3 separate buckets and blended to get the gravities I wanted (1.070 and 1.035)...and the other thing I did...i didn't mash any specialty grains and steeped them on the stove so i could do completely different beers- I have a baltic porter still conditioning and have been drinking the ordinary bitter. Steeping in fresh grain also gives it a richness that you don't usually get in a second runnings.

 

[flatrockbrewing]

I parti-gyle every brew but I usually brew a 10 gallon first running then run another 10 gallons thru the grain while the first is boiling. I normally hit around 50% eff with the first and 25-30 on the second. Using beersmith really helps because it makes is easier calculating OG in both batches as long as you know your systems efficiency. I fortify the second running with honey, bcs, maple syrup, etc and barrel age the first.

 

[dougdecinces]

I parti-gyle every brew but I usually brew a 10 gallon first running then run another 10 gallons thru the grain while the first is boiling. I normally hit around 50% eff with the first and 25-30 on the second. Using beersmith really helps because it makes is easier calculating OG in both batches as long as you know your systems efficiency. I fortify the second running with honey, bcs, maple syrup, etc and barrel age the first.

What is your standard mash ratio for this? I did 1.4 this time, but it might have been a bit thin. If I had a thicker mash, maybe I would have had a better efficiency from my second runnings. But the biggest lesson from all this is to take gravity readings for both runnings before boiling so I can make necessary adjustments.

 

[flatrockbrewing]

I use a spreadsheet that automatically adjusts ratios based on system eff, desired og and color. The ratios change a bit depending in the recipe. I use enough grain so that the first running wort will be 10 gallons. Different grains have different absorption levels so I do sparge a but sometimes for a full 11.5 gallon boil. Then I just sparge thru into another kettle for the second running. Having a program like brewsmith 2 helps, once you have your system dialed in it's easy to make first and second running recipes.