anyone ever do a small beer? I’m brewing a barleywine (22# of grains total). is it worth it to sparge again for another 3-5 gallons to use up all the sugars? any leads on mash calc for this and/or advice for hops? is it just going to be beerwater?
Look up ‘partigyle’. I’ve seen quite a few posts where people do exactly what you’re thinking of. And remember, if the 2nd batch SG is lower than you want, you can always add some DME.
First time I did a partigyle the second runnings beer turned out better than the first - and the first won an award in a competition I entered it in.
But “is it worth it” depends on what you enjoy drinking. Second runnings beer will typically be at about 1/3 the OG of the first runnings beer (assuming equal volume runnings).
I’d also suggest capping your mash with crystal malt and perhaps a dose of one of the maltiness enhancing specialty malts, biscuit, special roast, etc. The small beer tends to be a bit thinner and will often be a bit grainy. Crystal will help you bring back some lushness and the malt enhancing specialties will help smooth over the grainy-ness. If you want to go buck wild, a bit of dextrin malt wouldn’t hurt either.
With a big barleywine you’re set up to make a very nice small beer.
perfect. thanks, all.
i couldn’t run out to get any more grains, but I did have a pound of DME lying around, so I threw that in along with 7oz of hops. i eyed the sparge water additions. it was about 1/3 the OG of my barleywine. should be a great summer beer.
