Parti-Gyle Brewing

Parti-Gyle brewing is an archaic manner of brewing wherein the mash is drawn off used for one strength of beer and the remaining grains are re-mashed. There is no sparge to speak of. The process can be repeated three or more times to produce three or four progressively weaker beers. In fact this method was used extensively in the Medieval times to produce beers of varying strengths from a single mash (Strong Ale, Common Ale and Small Beer, for example).

I have always been a big fan of batch sparging, in which the sparge water is applied all at once after the first runnings have been drawn off, then the second runnings are added to the first for the entire beer produced by that mash. It's simply an easier and quicker-albeit, perhaps less efficient-method of mashing. I like simple.

Recently I had a bit of trouble deciding on which kind of beer I wanted to make. I always have this problem because I like so many types of beer! I decided on making two different types of beers at once. Because I have a large supply of free hops and an equally large supply of very cheap hops (thanks to a bulk purchase made by my homebrew club), I decided to put these to use. I made an Imperial IPA with the first runnings and made a weaker beer with the second runnings (sort of a Parti-Gyle brew, though I didn't actually mash the grains again...much). I deliberately sparged with less than the expected amount of water for my typical ten gallon batch, to ensure adequate gravity for both beers and ended up with a little over eight gallons of beer total.

It was interesting but I didn't have enough beer when all was said and done! The product was pretty good, though!

The following recipe is for an IPA. I used the resulting two runnings to produce the Imperial IPA and the IPA. Here are the details (the italicized portion is what the beer would have been if I hadn't split the batch):

Mitten Envy IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Mike Mullins
Date: 7/20/2009

Size: 10.48 gal
Efficiency: 70.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 181.41 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.055 (1.056 - 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.018)
Color: 6.27 (6.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 5.36% (5.5% - 7.5%)
Bitterness: 41.2 (40.0 - 70.0)

Ingredients:
20 lb English 2-row Pale
2 lb Vienna Malt
1 lb Carapils®/Carafoam®
2.0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
Hop schedule for IPA:
1 oz Nugget (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled FWH
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled FWH
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min

Schedule for Imperial IPA:
1 oz Nugget (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled FWH
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled FWH
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1 oz Centennial(10%)- added at knockout, boiled 0.0 min
1 oz Simcoe (8%) - added at knockout, boiled 0.0 min
1 oz Amarillo (6%) - added at knockout, boiled 0.0 min
1 oz Centennial(10%)- added in secondary, dry-hopped
1 oz Simcoe (8%) - added in secondary, dry-hopped
1 oz Amarillo (6%) - added in secondary, dry-hopped

Mashed at 158 for 90 minutes, then...
Ran off 4 gallons in first runnings
Sparged with five gallons of water at 170, waited 20 minutes, then...
Ran off 5 gallons in second runnings.


Notes
Used a couple of packs of S-05 rehydrated.
split first and second runnings.
First runnings were 1.080 out of the mash tun. boiled 90 minutes. Yielded 3 gallons at 1.110.
Second runnings were 1.038 out of mash tun. boiled 60 minutes. Yielded 3.5 gallons at 1.050.
(Note that the split is about what is expected by Mosher in the Brewing Techniques article referenced above)

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

What I ended up with was a very strong and very hoppy Imperial IPA (only about a case of 12 oz bottles, though, after sampling, and a case and a half of a decent IPA. The extended boil of the Imperial IPA lessened the take considerably:-(

The Imperial is about 11% ABV and intense in bitterness and hop aroma, while well-balanced by malt sweetness. Reminds me of a Bells Hopslam (Larry Bell and crew rocks!). I am really happy with the aroma produced by the dry-hopping of three different hop pellets. It is sooo wonderful! Hop heaven!