Shoshin Pico-Brewery   Notes on our homebrewing adventures

I’ve been reading about Partigyle brewing and I want to give it a shot. I’m brewing 2.5 gallons of an Imperial IPA, then 5 gallons of a Porter. I planned the grain bill for a 7.5 gallon, 1.060 FG beer, with the understanding that this would give me a <strong OG> 2.5 gallon first running, and a <smaller, more sessionable OG> 5 gallon second and third runnings (broken into two 2.5 gallon batch sparges).

resources for this mad plan are Randy Mosher’s Radical Brewing and:

http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.2/mosher.html

http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=62046&pid=718622&st=0&#entry71 8622

Here’s my recipe and plan:

—Initial mash
8# 2-row
7# Marris Otter
2# Victory

Mash with 5.5 gallons at 152* for 60 minutes

draw 2.5 gallons (first wort, for IIPA), boil with the following hop schedule:

1 oz Magnum (14.7%), FWH
0.5 oz Cascade (5%), 30 min
0.5 oz Challenger (7.2%), 30 min
0.5 oz Cascade (5%), 10 min
0.5 oz Cascade (5%), flameout
0.5 oz Cascade (5%), dry hop
0.5 oz Challenger (7.2%), dry hop

(1 Whirlfloc, 10 min)

Yeast: 0.5qt starter of WLP002

—Second mash

After pulling the 2.5 gallons off for the IIPA, I will cap the mash with the following grains and let this all mash at 152* for at least another hour:

8oz Chocolate Malt
4oz Black Patent
4oz Special B
4oz Munich
4oz White Wheat

This is a modified version of the steeping grain bill for my LHBS’s house extract porter recipe. After the previous beer is done boiling and I transfer it to the fermenter, I will pull 6.5 gallons (in two steps) into the boil kettle. I have the following hops in the fridge, so this was my hop schedule for the porter:

1.5oz Tettnang (4.8%), 60 min
0.5oz Saaz (8.1%), 10 min
(1 Whirlfloc, 10 min)

Yeast: 0.5qt starter of WLP002

I’m also considering putting a vanilla bean, possibly one that was soaked in bourbon, in the secondary, to make a bourbon vanilla porter.

Here’s what I did:

Started at 10:15am, mash rose to 149*, was read at 150* or a little higher at 10:30, 10:45 I stirred and the mash read a little higher than 148*

first 2.75 gallons – OG 1.063 at 140* (1.079 corrected)

added 3 gal at 160*, then another 1/5 gal at 210*, added cap grains, brought mash to 150* at 11:45

started first boil at 12:05pm.

I added ~0.5 gallons of fresh water after ~45 minutes of boil, as the level was getting down towards 2 gallons. I paused the hop clock and restarted it when the boil returned a few minutes later

Taking hydrometer readings from the WLP001 and WLP002 starters, it’s clear that the WLP001 was not viable, as it had a gravity reading of 1.040 (which is the OG of the starter wort, with the 2cups water to 1/2 cup of DME formula). The WLP002 starter had a gravity of ~1.012, it fizzed when I opened it, and it was tasty. Mmmmm beer. I’m now going to split that starter between the two beers I’m making today.

at 1:30, added 3 gallons 176* water to mash (was 140*), brought it to >155*, sparged

for the IPA, I added 1 gallon of cold spring water, bringing the batch to ~3.5 gallons, and it clocked in at 1.054 OG at 70*

the Porter wort clocked in at 1.03 at 90* (1.02 at 150*??) for the pre-boil gravity, where I collected roughly 7.5 gallons of wort from the mash tun. Post-boil is 1.043 at 70*.

UPDATE (11/27): Yesterday morning, 11/26, the porter was bubbling away with krausen (in the clear carboy), but the IPA was not bubbling (in the bucket), so I swirled and agitated the bucket to get the yeast out of the bottom, and by evening, they were both happily bubbling away. This morning after my shower, I checked the porter just as it was about to blow the bung out of the carboy, so I replaced it with a 3-piece airlock and blow-off tube, and I asked Sarah to pick me up another 3pc and blow-off tube in case I had to do the same for the IPA. Not a ton, but at least a gallon, of headspace in the porter carboy, ~1.5 gallons headspace in the bucket. They both smell delightful, gauging from the smell coming out of the airlock! woot 🙂

UPDATE (12/3): racked the IPA to secondary and added the challenger and cascade

UPDATE (12/11): bottled the IPA and the porter. The IPA weighed in at 1.008 after adding the priming sugar, and the porter read 1.007. They both tasted superb. I’m quite excited! The IPA yielded a case + (1) 12oz and a growler, while the porter yielded (22) 12oz bottles, (8) 22oz bottles, and two growlers. Both batches also yielded an almost-full pint that I drank after I used it to measure gravity. Delicious!

UPDATE (1/1/13): tasted these two beers. The porter is fantastic. Smooth, creamy, with a hint of chocolate, some roasty character, complex and interesting. Delicious. The IPA is quite bitter, and might need some time to mellow. Malty, some complexity in the aroma, but a bit too harsh to totally appreciate right now. Mouthfeel is also creamy. This one might turn out pretty damned impressive, with a little more time.

UPDATE (2/3/13): I shared a growler of the porter at a party on Friday night, and feedback was quite positive! I’d say the beer in that vessel was not quite as flavorful as it was out of some of the bottles I’ve drank, and it sat a tiny bit flat and dull for me, but people really seemed to like it, incl. some homebrewing friends, so cheers to that. I popped open a bottle of the IPA tonight, drank at ~room temp (low 60s) and it is impressive. Clear beer with a rocky white head, minty and malty up front with grapefruit and marmalade bitterness and a touch resin (almost like rosin) on the end.

NOTES: Next time, consider upping the grain bill overall to get better yield of higher-OG IPA. Also, ditch the black patent in favor or some dark crystal (120?). The black patent was switched out for some moderate to dark crystal that was originally in the LHBS porter recipe. In this beer, the black patent adds some roasty character at the cost of some malty complexity, and I would prefer the malty complexity over the extra roastiness. I think this is a tweak that will make me like this beer a bit more. Jason knows what he’s doing, and I like the fruits of his original porter over the fruits of my tweak, but hey: it’s still tasty, and it’s all beer. Cheers!

UPDATE (4/29/13): the IPA is quite tasty 🙂 I think it’s finally coming into its prime. from the fridge to pour (could do with a little less carbonation), and letting it warm up a bit (maybe 20 minutes to a half hour), it is quite a complex malty but tasty (a little bit of floral/fruity hop character) background.