Please Critique My Parti-gyle Plan

[dougdecinces]

This winter I plan on attempting my first parti-gyle. I will make a doppelbock with the mash and an alt from the second runnings. I want to make sure well ahead of time that my plan will work. Note that I do BiaB and I will incorporate elements of no-chill brewing in my method. Both batches will be 3.5 gallons as this is the extent my system will allow for a beer this big. I am also limited by the fact that I really can't afford purchasing any new equipment at this point. I have one six gallon stock pot and one winpak. This is all.

1) Mash the doppelbock (which will be approx. 80% Munich 10L, 18% German Pils, and 2% Carafa III) in my six gallon stock pot. By the end of that mash, I will have approximately 4 gallons of sparge-temperature water waiting in a 6 gallon bucket. I will then transfer the mash to the bucket, add 1/2 lb caramunich (optional) and cover. I'm hoping for enough conversion while the temperature is high enough.

2) While the grains are mashing again in the bucket, I will bring the doppelbock just to a boil to sterlize, then I will transfer to a winpak. Since I will be boiling my doppelbock in excess of three hours, I feel much more comfortable brewing the alt first and finishing the doppelbock later on.

3) I will brew the alt, adding 1 lb of pilsner DME to get the OG up to the low-to-mid 1.040's and chill as quickly as possible. This will be placed in a fermenter, yeast will be pitched, there will be much glandhanding. The alt will be done.

4) After I have had a chance to catch my breath, I will retrieve the doppelbock from the winpak and go through the brewing process per normal. Once that has been chilled, I will pitch transfer it to a fermenter, pitch the yeast and (hopefully) pat myself on the back for a job well done .

Now that I have told you my plan, I am going to point out the most probable issues from my point of view as well as any other overarching general questions I may have:

a) I know my bucket can handle temperatures around 160 degrees, but will that cause any plastic flavors to leach in the beer? I wouldn't think so, but would love verification.

b) Looking at other peoples' parti-gyle recipes, I see the gravity of the second runnings is approximately 1/3 that of the first runnings. If my doppelbock will be 1.085, and if I add 1 lb of DME, I calculate the OG of my alt to be approximately 1.042. Sound good?

c) Would it be necessary to add the 1/2 lb of caramunich to the alt or will I have enough maltiness from the high percentage of Munich 10L?

d) Do you see any problem from winpaking sanitized, but unhopped, wort for at least 3 hours, but possibly overnight? Again, I see no problem with this, but would love verification of this.

e) I am going to use the same yeast for both beers. Should I use Wyeast 1007 or 2206? Know that I only plan to lager the doppelbock. At best, the alt will get a total of 4-5 weeks in my cold, unfinished basement.

Thank you for reading my essay. Again, I am a noob when it comes to this type of thing, and I would love as many suggestions as possible.

 

[gointomexico]

cool. Ill answer your questions first, hope it helps.

a. Nope, I use plastic all the time. So long as it's food grade, hdpe 5 (I think) it should be fine.
b. yes, 1.042 is probobly to style for an alt. see BJCP 2008 Style Guidelines - Category 07
d. overnight, yes, 3 hours, no. for 3 hours, you only have to worry about dms, but I have heard (not done) this process, that dms isnt generated in those paks. so, go for it. As for overnight, im not sure. I would be concerned about some other bug... but probobly not. Sure, overnight? np.
e. I would use 2206 because its good for the bock (maltieness like celabrator) and true to style more so than 1007 for the alt. See: Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Beer Styles - Altbier: Style of the Month

My additional comments are that you do not have to mash twice. Once the conversion process for your mash is complete, you are done and no more mashing will extract additional sugars. you might even extract tannins by mashing the alt again, or having a mash take over 2-3 hours. there is considerable debate (read, no proof) about that last statement, but why take the risk?

I would follow your process and clear the BK for your alt ASAP. Are you batch sparging, or fly sparging? I would take only the first runnings for your bock beer, and not worry about sparging it. for your alt, I would do a batch sparge, 2 runnings and combine them both in the bk. This way you will get 3gallons for your bock, and 5 gallons for your alt. If you need more hot watter to make this happen, use some kitchen pots or buy a home depot bucket. Even better, you can double the size of your HLT by going to wall mart and asking the bakers for the doughnut buckets that they have. They are 5 gallon hdpe buckets. Or, use your fermenter (unless you are already doing this, and its not glass. Dont use glass for storing hot water).

back in the day, breweries batch sparged. They had the barlywine (first runnings) and the common beer (second runnings) and the small beer (third runnings). I have done this before, and it makes for a nice brewday when you can get 3 beers off of one mash.