Author: Phil Rusher

As someone who enjoys being able to consume more than a beer or two without getting hammered, I usually opt for low to mid range ABV beer styles. However, I also enjoy having a big beer around for those times when something middling just won’t suffice– celebrations, shenanigans, bad days, or just because I feel like getting a little saucey! Making a big beer will, in most cases, involve using a somewhat ridiculous amount of grain. Being the frugal bunch that we often are, homebrewers will tend to want to capitalize on their excessive use of grain. The parti-gyle method is one such strategy to get an efficient use of a large amount of grain. And in fact, there are a handful of commercial breweries that employ this strategy regularly, most famously England’s Fuller’s Brewery.

The parti-gyle idea involves using a large amount of grain to produce at least two different beers that can be kept separate or blended to produce unique beers derived from the same wort. Wanting to scratch an itch for having a big beer on tap, this is an intuitive means of producing a high ABV beer at the same time as a low to moderate ABV beer at once. The best of both worlds!

I took a liking to Wheatwine a few years back, and when I first brewed one, the style seemed somewhat obscure. More often than not, when perusing bottle shop shelves for high alcohol beers, they’re lined with Imperial Stout, Barleywine, and the occasional Belgian Quad, but there aren’t many commercial examples of Wheatwine. American in origin, it can be viewed as an imperial version of an American Wheat Beer with more generous hopping rates, and the appearance is often quite bright. Wanting both a big beer and a Weissbier on tap, I figured out a way to kill two birds with one stone!

| Making Wheatwine |

The grist for this Wheatwine was driven largely by my intentions for the small beer I would make from the second runnings, a Short & Shoddy Weissbier. The malted rye may not be traditional for the style, but I really enjoy the way it rounds out the malt flavors in a beer such as this.

Wheatwine

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 43.9 IBUs 8.9 SRM 1.098 1.023 10.0 % Actuals 1.098 1.014 11.2 % Fermentables Name Amount % Mecca Grade Shaniko White Wheat Malt 7.875 lbs 36 Mecca Grade Wickiup: Red Wheat Malt 7.687 lbs 35.15 Mecca Grade Lamonta: Pale American Barley Malt 3.562 lbs 16.29 Mecca Grade Rimrock Vienna-style Rye Malt 2.747 lbs 12.56 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Comet 25 g 60 min Boil Pellet 9.5 Galena 25 g 60 min Boil Pellet 14.5 Galena 15 g 20 min Boil Pellet 14.5 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Joystick (A18) Imperial Yeast 75% 60°F - 70°F Notes Water Profile: Amber Balanced in Bru’n Water Spreadsheet Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

PROCESS

A couple days before brewing, I collected a bunch of RO water.

Given the intended high OG, I made a starter of Imperial Yeast A18 Joystick.

I started my brew day by adding the volume of water to my keggle that would ultimately result in about 5.5 gallons/21 liters of wort. Once adequately warmed, I stirred the grain in then checked to ensure it hit my target mash temperature.

I left the mash alone and crossed my fingers for maximum conversion.

After a 60 minute mash rest, I performed a quick vorlauf to set the grainbed before vorlaufing and collecting the sweet wort in my Grainfather.

With the wort heating up, I measured out the kettle hop additions.

The wort was boiled for 60 minutes before being chilled on its way to a sanitized Brew Bucket.

A refractometer reading showed the OG was indeed quite high.

The filled fermenter was placed in my chamber and allowed to finish chilling to my desired fermentation temperature of 65˚F/18˚C, at which point I pitched the yeast starter.

The beer fermented for 6 days before signs of activity were absent, so I took a hydrometer measurement showing it reached a 1.014 FG for a respectable 11.1% ABV.

The beer was racked to a sanitized keg then placed in my keezer where it was burst carbonated overnight. I let it condition for a few weeks before serving it tasters for evaluation.

| IMPRESSIONS |

Having sampled Wheatwine very few times, it’s difficult for me to gauge what a good example is supposed to taste like, but I was rather pleased with the way this one turned out, as were those I served it to. The malt character was markedly pronounced with a big bready wheat flavor and a curious sweetness; it was difficult to discern whether the sweetness I perceived was due to the alcohol or the malt character. While the hop character took a backseat to the malt, moderate citrus flavors of mandarin orange were easily detected, in fact, a friend who tasted this beer couldn’t believe I didn’t add fruit to it! Despite having a large amount of alcohol, it was not hot, though it did have a smooth warming. The mouthfeel was medium with a slight creaminess.

While I consider this Wheatwine a success, there are a few things I’d do different in future batches. For starters, using a lower proportion of malted wheat might be a good idea, as I had a somewhat difficult time with the vorlauf (you can keep your rice hulls!). Another issue with the high proportion of wheat is that despite being in the keg for nearly 2 months, this beer just would not clear up– talk about unintentional haze stability! Sure, it would have been nice to have the kind of clarity I could read a newspaper through, but the hazy appearance didn’t bother me enough to do any post-fermentation fining. Lastly, next time around I might also consider using a different strain of yeast and increasing the flavor hop additions.

This was my first run at using the parti-gyle method and my experience was very interesting. The pseudo Type-A side of me really enjoyed the efficient use of grain and it was cool to produce two distinctly different beers with the same mash. I definitely plan on revisiting this strategy in the future with a focus on blending two or three different wort concentrations to produce a multitude of beers.

If you have thoughts about this recipe or experience making something similar, please feel free to share in the comments section below!

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