Long long ago, in a post (Creative Ways to Split 10 Gallons Anyone?) far far away, someone asked:
and lead to some interesting ideas.
What’s the forum been up to recently?
I did many split batches before I had a large enough pot to do 10 gallon single boils. I would divide my runnings unequaly. Say 75% first and 25% second in one boil and the inverse in the other this way you can make two completely different beers it’s called party gyle. If you do one boil you can do stuff but the beers will still end up with alot of similarities. The only thing i do that way is one fermentation goes lager the other dry hopped ale.
I’ve been splitting pretty much every batch recently to run some sort of experiment. Decoction vs. not. Sparge vs. not. Lauter vs. not. Different yeasts (but that’s too easy!). Lid on the boil vs. not. Good crush vs. coarse crush. The list goes on forever. I can’t say I’ve changed the way I brew very much yet, but with more experiments, maybe I will later. Maybe.
Dave, tell us the results please. I’m always interested in real results from experiments by homebrewers. I would rather hear it from one than a lab conditions experiment.
Love to know if there is any affect with lid on boil and DMS. I did my own rehydrate and sprinkle in dry yeast and for a middle of the road OG beer could not find any difference. Would like to try purposely trying to add HSA but don’t want to risk ruining 5 gallons of good beer.
Decoction, I doubt makes a difference in taste but the jury’s still out. It does improve efficiency though.
Sparge, jury’s still out. I think it makes a difference but still not sure.
Lauter, yeah, it’s important in my experience. If I skip it (whether by accident or on purpose), I often end up with a permanent haze, and occasional astringency.
Lid on (WITH a short, weak boil), YES, I got DMS from this. I’m pretty positive that it matters.
Crush/efficiency, I’m still running more tests, not sure yet.
I think I rehydrated my dry yeast once. But why bother. I haven’t done it for nearly 100 other batches and still make tasty brews most of the time.
HSA, I’m starting to think that it really DOES matter. I’ve been real lazy with HSA for a couple years now, and I fear my beer quality is suffering for it. I’ve ended up with faster oxidation and caramelly flavors in my beers compared to previous years. So I’m going to start paying a lot more attention to it from here on out, just to be safe if nothing else. I’m tired of oxidation, it’s plagued me for a while now. (Dang it.) Learning the hard way.
I’m both lazy, and in a hurry. I love to take every possible shortcut. Anything that makes my brew day shorter and easier is a win for me, as long as it still gets me tasty beer. If I need to spend any extra time and effort on something, I will. But only if I determine it is absolutely necessary.
Cheers.
2 Likes
Good info. I have always boiled with the lid off. Way to easy to have a boil over with it on for one. Crush wise my mill is not adjustable so unless I go for a new one, that stays the same. HSA I try not to do and really would never purposely try it so that’s good. Dry yeast, we are in the same court with that. Decoction? Too much work for me.
So vigorous stirring while chilling = not good?
What’s your best free (or paid) resource for getting started with party gyle (including a recipe or two)?
It’s that other “stuff” that I’m also curious about.
I’ll share what I’m doing in a couple of days.
Mostly I made my own recipes. I would start with say a a grain bill for a fat tire then then make a stronger Abey ale with half. You have to calculate out the ratio of first and second runnings . That @rebuiltcellars explained how to do. Most recipes have similar grain bills except for the specialty grains. The other thing is after you get your wort separated you can steep your special grain in the different pots. This you can do whether you party gyle or not. I just liked the idea of different strength beer.
1 Like
You know you can add DME also to up the ABV. I just liked playing around with the mash numbers. Taught myself alot
I’ll dig up my recipes to give you some ideas.
I split batches all them time. I do either differnt yeast or dry hops. My last batch i did an ipa then split. dry hopped the ipa half, added d180 candy syrup to the other. So i ended up with a ipa and an imperial red.
1 Like
Another one that’s easy is a pilsner and a saison
You BIAB ritght? I’ve started trying to avoid as much HSA as possible since reading a few articles on it. My biggest concern is that I sparge after pulling the bag and wonder just how much splashing of second runnings into the first affects HSA?
Thats what is great about the basket… raise it up a bit, leaving the bottom in the wort, turn up the heat and while the temp comes up, I have like a SS dipper I start squishing as much wort out as I can. Sneezles61
Yes, I BIAB. I also sparge. Hmm. I hadn’t thought of the sparge addition effect. That’s possible.
My process is also a little odd in that I boil on the stove, often in just one kettle but many times in multiple kettles because my biggest kettle is only 4 gallons. (I don’t have a turkey fryer style setup, and I’ve never ever boiled in my garage, as would be typical of most homebrewers.) As such, I’ve been growing more concerned about moving hot wort around between different buckets and kettles. But since I don’t always do that, and haven’t kept very good track of every single action on every single brew day, I still can’t be sure if something like this could be causing oxidation in some batches but not others. More experiments are needed. Hmm…
