Out Of Key Brewing

A couple weeks back I brewed for the the first time using a partigyle approach.  In this process two or more beers are created from one mash.  This is typically accomplished by using different portions of the run off to brew the different beers.  So that the first beer brewed is the strongest, the successive beer is weaker, etc.  This past weekend I brewed two beers, the first was five gallons of a mammoth breakfast type stout that weighed in at 25 degrees plato (1.100).  The second beer was 10 gallons of an english style mild.  For the mild I ran off 7 gallons of wort and added some palm sugar to boost the gravity.  In the end the mild weighed in at around 1.038 or 9.5 plato.

The big beer is based upon Maris Otter and a variety of dark roasted malts.  Additionally the grist is composed of almost 10% flaked oats.  I was able to get the  the big beer, tentatively named Devil on my Shoulder (Mr.  Hyde), to ferment down to around 5.5 plato.  The primary cake started to stall at around 8.5 plato so I started some champagne yeast and pitched it at high Krausen.  Within a week it had finished at around 1022 (5.58 plato).  During this finishing it aged on two vanilla beans and about 4oz of Kona coffee.  The final beer weighs in at about 10.5% abv, it is chocolaty and quite rich.  It has a subtle bourbon character with some hints of vanilla.  Surprisingly it is very drinkable given the level of alcohol.  It will be on draft in early march.    I think its going to be quite good.

The Mild (Dr.  Jekyll) finished at 1.28 plato (1.005) which is a bit lower than I would have hoped.  Given how it was brewed I really did not have the control over the mash that I typically would.  I belive that this was probably the cause for the more fermentable wort.  However the taste is much larger that the finishing gravity would precdict.  It is a fine session beer weighing in at 4.3%.