10 replies to this topic

[SchwanzBrewer]

Does anyone have the partial mash FAQ from the green board? I have read a couple others but I really liked that one. I'm gonna do a partial mash for my second beer and since the GB is down, I figured the guys here would know.Thanks!Rich

[TAPPER]

I don't have the FAQ, but here's the quick and dirty rules I follow.Match your specialty grains with equal amount of base grain (2-row, pils). So if you're using 1.5 pounds of say oatmeal, match it with 1.5 pounds of 2-row/pils. If you've got a lot of specialty malts just cut down on the amount of base malt to stay within a reasonable amount of grain in your grain sock (say 3ish pounds).Mill the grain (rolling pin and plastic bag works) and put in grain sock.Steep in 150ish degree water for an hour. Use 1 quart water per pound of grain (or enough to just cover all the grain).After an hour, lift the sock out and let it drip off. DO NOT SQUEEZE IT!"Sparge" your grain sock with 1 quart/lb. of 160ish degree water. Again, no squeezing.Add to your boil kettle and go!

[MtnBrewer]

Does anyone have the partial mash FAQ from the green board? I have read a couple others but I really liked that one. I'm gonna do a partial mash for my second beer and since the GB is down, I figured the guys here would know.Thanks!Rich

I have it and I'm going to be posting it here as soon as I obtain permission from Jimvy. If you want, I can e-mail it to you. PM me your e-mail address.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Thanks for the info. I like the new board. I don't know what the fuss is all about, but everyone here seems nice enough.Thanks again!Cheers,Rich

[Jimvy]

I have it and I'm going to be posting it here as soon as I obtain permission from Jimvy. If you want, I can e-mail it to you. PM me your e-mail address.

Post away!

[SchwanzBrewer]

Jimvy,Why should you keep grains that need conversion to 30-40% of the partial mash? Is it that much more inefficient than a regular mash? Reason I ask is that most of the extract recipes only have a little over a pound or so of specialty grains for steeping and that means your total mash isn't that big, and the extract required is still very significant. It just makes me wonder how much difference you will notice in the flavor of the beer compared to just going extract with steeping.Here is the recipe I was going to try next:Also, should I go with a 60 min boil still? I asked this on another forum and I am trying to make sure the recipe is right.So, based on John Palmer's findings the DME is (40PPG X 6.5 lb) /5 Gal = 52 Points based on the recipe above (not including steeping because we are steeping in both)If you convert the all grain to points: (32PPG X 7 lb)/5 Gal = 44.8 points + (30PPG X 3 lb)/5gal = 18 points = 62.8 points totalThere is a discrepancy in points between the all grain and the extract version. Any idea what I am doing wrong? I would like to figure out how much DME I need after I do a partial mash.I don't have a brewing program yet and I would like to know how to calculate it myself so I am not blindly experimenting.Thanks,Rich

[MtnBrewer]

Why should you keep grains that need conversion to 30-40% of the partial mash? Is it that much more inefficient than a regular mash?

Yes it is unless you have a very good partial mash system. When I was partial mashing, I typically got around 50% efficiency.

So, based on John Palmer's findings the DME is (40PPG X 6.5 lb) /5 Gal = 52 Points based on the recipe above (not including steeping because we are steeping in both)If you convert the all grain to points: (32PPG X 7 lb)/5 Gal = 44.8 points + (30PPG X 3 lb)/5gal = 18 points = 62.8 points totalThere is a discrepancy in points between the all grain and the extract version. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

You're assuming 100% efficiency in the all grain version.

[SchwanzBrewer]

You're assuming 100% efficiency in the all grain version.

No, I used the table in John Palmer's book to calculate the points based on 85% eff all grain. I also assumed the partial would be 85% as well.So if I want to convert it to a partial mash assuming 50% eff (again neglecting the specialty grains):1.125lb total base malts to match the specialty grains (50/50 mix)(0.7875 lb MO at 19 PPG)/5 gal = 3 points(.3375 lb Mun at 17.5PPG)/5 Gal = 1.2 PointsTotal = 4.2 pointsFrom my calc in the post above for pure extract points total = 52So I need 47.8 points of DME which is (40 PPG X (y lbs))/5 Gal = 47.8y = 5.975 or approx 6 lbs DMEDoes this sound right to everyone?

[shmgeggie]

You can mash more grains if you want to. The limiting factor is either your boiling capacity or your mash tun size. With 2 pots on my kitchen stove, I can boil 4.5 gallons or so (a little more sometimes). I have plenty of mash tun capacity, since I have 3 different size coolers I use for camping. I haven't done anything to the coolers in order to use them as mash-tuns. I just have about 4' of high temp vinyl tubing with a hose braid clamped-on to the end. When the mash is done, I just shove the hose-braid down to the bottom with my mash paddle and start the siphon to vorlauf/sparge. No worries about contamination pre-boil, so you can just suck on the hose to start the siphon. While the wort is boiling, I check gravity and then figure out how much DME (if any) I need to add to make my target OG. I add the DME after the boil and top off with about 1 gallon of water to get 5 gallons. With my setup, I can handle about 10 lbs of grain, which is enough to make a nice AG pale ale, stout, brown ale, etc. Bigger beers require some extract. I know this is a bigger mash than you were thinking but as long as you're going to take the trouble to do a mash, you may as well try to mash as much as you can, IMHO. If you want a sample recipe with mashing schedule, I can give you a decent example. But I kind of have a tendency to "wing it" and not take notes, so I won't be able to tell you precisely what volumes I collected, for instance.

[SchwanzBrewer]

I was going to use the strainer method like Jimvy showed in his article. I have access to to a mash tun if I need it, and I have a 5 gal pot along with my 10 gal for full boils, so I could make a larger batch, but wouldn't that throw off my calculations, ie become more efficient? Hell, I could use my buddies equipment and do all grain, but I was hoping to do this in my kitchen, hence the partial mash. I'm pretty sure I'll go all grain within a year or so, but I can't afford it right now.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Ok, I think I figured this out. John Palmer is a god among brewers. I can pick as much base malt as I want so long as it is in the right ratio and I have the volume to mash it. The procedure should be:1. Pick out your base malts. In the case of the red I need 70% Maris Otter, 30% Munich. So if I did 2 lb of MO I would need 0.85 lb Munich.2. Mash with the specialty grains.3. Sparge4. Take a gravity reading and calculate the DME addition. In the case of the red lets say I had a gravity of 1.025 after I was done mashing. My target for that recipe was 1.053 so now I need 28 more gravity points.So 28 pts/gal X 5 Gal = 140 points = 40 Pts/lb X y lbs DME; y= 3.5 lb DME to add. 5. Continue your brew!This takes the guess work out of figuring out the DME addition. All you have to do is have enough DME on hand for the compensation, which should be no more than the extract recipe calls for. Also, you can figure out the efficiency of the mash so you are not guessing. I figured out the math from this page in John Palmer's book.Thank you shmgeggie for the line that got me to this: "While the wort is boiling, I check gravity and then figure out how much DME (if any) I need to add to make my target OG." I almost asked for the calcs, but I decided not to be lazy and figure it out myself. Thanks again for the help!