Glossary
Parti-gyle
A historical practice of producing several beers of descending strength from a single mash by collecting the runnings separately.
Also called parti gyle, partigyle.
Historical. A former meaning. Present-day usage differs.
The full record
Parti-gyle has its own catalogue entry with the detail this page summarises — causes, thresholds, related styles and evidence.
Parti-gyle brewing — Draw several beers of descending strength from one mash by keeping the early and later runnings separate rather than combining them.
The first, strongest runnings became the strong ale; subsequent, weaker runnings became table or small beer. It was the normal way of brewing in Britain for centuries and explains why historical brewing records list several products against one mash.
It also explains the origin of "small beer" as a term for something of little consequence.
Related
- Small beer — The weakest product of the practice.
- Blending — The related practice of combining rather than separating.
More vocabulary
Arrested fermentation · Barrel ageing · Batch sparging · Biotransformation · Blending · Bottle conditioning · Bottom fermentation · Burtonisation · Cask conditioning · Centrifugation
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.