[thepalmhq]

I love the idea of doing a second runnings "small" beer from a big mash.  I'm planning a batch of Old Stoner over the Christmas break and want to get a decent beer from the second runnings.  Those of you who have done this, tell us what worked well in terms of the grains you added to "cap" the mash.

And if you've done a second runnings from an imperial stout, that would be very interesting too.  Share out what worked well and even what didn't work well, for our benefit.

Thanks,

David

[blatz]

medium english crystal, victory and chocolate malts (pale or regular) have worked well for me in the 2 partigyles i've done (old ale and ABW).

even if your original grist has a lot of crystal in it, you'll still want to add a significant amount of more crystal or at least dextrine malt otherwise the small beer can come across thin.  This *may* be perhaps because by the time you run your small beer runnings into your kettle, the mash has been sitting for 100 or more minutes, making the remaining sugars rather attenuative.

[dmtaylor]

On my last partigyle, I made a barleywine in combination with a jalapeno porter.  For the porter -- which would actually be classified as a "brown porter" and not robust -- I steeped additional black, chocolate, and roasted malts, and then found the beer was still too thin and wimpy, so I actually steeped the equivalent of 3 times as much as I thought I needed, and that seemed to do the trick.  And then I added jalapenos on bottling day, approximately two per gallon if memory serves, which had been soaked in hot vodka for 5 hours, and then, of course, any perceptions of being a wimpy beer disappeared ENTIRELY, and in fact it was one of the most fantastic and most loved beers I have ever made.  Although, I really enjoyed the beer without jalapenos as well, and saved a few bottles for myself.  Very yummy brown porter in its own right, but everyone loved the jalapeno version as well.

In future, yeah, I think I'd add more crystal malt to the second beer in order to give it some more body and muscle.  Otherwise, it can indeed turn out sort of watery and wimpy.  Jack up all your specialty malts, and crystal, by a couple notches, and you'll be set.

[marty]

don't be afraid to add extract to the 2nd beer to bump it up either

I like making lagers at a real low effifciency, about 50 to 52%. I don't want to waste that other 25% so I'll run it off and add extract in essence getting an All grain and a partial mash beer with only a little extra time spent (no where near the time needed for a whole batch) but compared to a real parti-gyle these are 2 beers at whatever strength you want, not one big and one small

for example a Pilsner or Vienna, and an Am. Lager off the 2nd (adding rice extract)

or a Bavarian Dunkel and a Scottish ale off the 2nd (60,70,80 depending on how much extract you want to add), actually took 1st in the Northeast regionals of the NHC last year with a Scottish 80 made this way

[chezteth]

I have only done one partigyle brew so far.  I made an American IPA from the first runnings and a ordinary bitter from the second runnings.  Both turned out very well!

[Malticulous]

I did a strong stout and an American stout with the second runnings. I capped it with some crystal and dark malts and added DME to the boil. Both beers were very good.

I'm going to do it again for a Weizenbock and a Dunkelweizen. Thanks to Kia's spreadsheet this one will be a lot more easy to plain.

[thepalmhq]

Great feedback so far.  I made a Scottish Wee Heavy two weekends ago and after the initial run-off and part of the second run-off (batch sparging) gave me what became the 1.099 batch, I got about 4 gallons of 1.040 that I'm going to use for starter wort.  But heck, I was awfully close to a nice second runnings batch there.  A little crystal and voila!  I would have been set.

So, please if anybody else has details, share them out (especially you, Denny.  Ahem  )

[brewmasternpb]

I've done a lot of second runnings beers, and one thing I do almost every time now, is add malt extract.  I know it might seem like defeating the purpose of a second runnings beer, but it really makes the second beer a winner.  I made a Belgian strong Golden, and added 4# of Wheat Malt extract to the second beer.  It really confuses people when I tell them that  made a wheat beer from the second runnings of a no-wheat mash!  I then added some fresh cherries and some mint to it... It turned out awesome.