HomebrewandBeer.com forum

bullfrog wrote:I think Speedie would only be happy if people used an abbacus for their calculations, instead of computers. Although, he does seem to be under the assumption that brewing calc programs actually make the beer for you. If anyone has come across a program that does this then let me know, I'm always looking for ways to get out of doing the heavy lifting!

I believe there is a thing known as "contract brewing", done by micro breweries, although not usually the domain of home brewers (or their websites). Come to think of it, I seem to remember Speedie having a 200L micro brewery set up. Perhaps if you asked nicely he'd put a batch down for you?

Cheers
Paul

Oliver wrote:Hi Doc,

I happened across this (very) old thread. I'd be intrigued to know how this beer turned out.

Cheers,

Oliver

More than 3 years ago so memory of the beer is foggy but i recall taking the keg to a mates place without a CO2 bottle. Stopped pouring after 6-8 pints so off came the lid and it was poured into the largest jug we could find until it was empty. Given i went home with an empty keg I;d say it was a success.

But..... looking at that recipe it's not something i would brew again. I wouldn't use melanoidin in a hop drive beer, munich maybe. Certainly wouldn't use Nottingham, more likely WY1272.

As for Hop Juice, i brewed a Rye Imperial Landlord (TM) for a special case swap called the Insanely over the top swap.

I used only the 1st runnings from a partigyle, OG 1.114, 100 IBU and 355g of hops in 12L. Sounds nuts but it's actually quite well balanced due to the massive amount of malt. Its been in the bottle for ~6 weeks now and is tasting sublime. 2nd runnings turned into an all centennial american rye brown porter (added choc malt before sparging) that was the regular case swap contribution.

Thanks Doc for trawling your memory banks!

Interesting that you mention the partigyle. It's something I've read about before (mainly in British HB books) but you don't hear many people actually doing. Do you do it often?

Cheers,

Oliver

I've done it a few times now, only when doing very big beers.

I find that by only using the 1st runnings in the big beers you get an amazing malt character that adds an extra dimension.

It also allows you to make 2 very different beers from the 1 mash.

What kind of difference in gravity do you get between the first runnings and the sparge? I don't usually take a reading until the end of the sparge (have measured the first runnings a couple of times but can't remember what sort of reading I got).

Is the partigyle process much different in other regards? I.e. do you mash in with a "regular" water-grain ratio, and mash out with whatever volume is required to hit the deisred batch size?