Thanks for the info above DB. I have looked at Northern Brewer's website and Austin Homebrew and they have layouts that do make a lot more sense... At least I can find grains there even if I don't end up buying them there.
Speaking of only having one pot. I have a stainless steel pot that I use for brewing, but I do have a hard anodized pot as well. Would the hard anodized pot be serviceable as sparge pot or mash pot, then just poured into the ss pot for resuming the brew? Or is using hard anodized a nono?
Did my first PM Dunkelweizen on Saturday per your fine instructions. Even though I let the LHBS guy talk me into a small bag instead of the large on (I was forgetting that you are supposed to clip the bag over the edge of the pot and really let the grain spread out), I still got what I think was good efficiency out of it. I was pleasantly surprised I had only dropped to 149° after a full hour, and I finished up at 1.054 OG using 3.89# LME.
Pitched it on a cake from a straight Hefeweizen I kegged that morning (Wyeast 3333) and it took off great within 12 hours. Now to wait...
I am going to be trying this method out this week. I have never done a partial mash before, how do you know when you have reached conversion during the mash?
Sorry if this is OT but I was looking at a variant of this for my first partial mash. I plan to only mash the specialty grains and use extract for the base malts. I've got a dutch oven that should hold the 3lbs of grain and about 4 gallons I'll have. I plan to heat the water on the stovetop and after doughing in I'd get the mash back up to temp. Once I got the temp up I plan to cover the heavy pot and put it in my oven, at the same temp. I'll use my probe thermometer to make sure it stays at temp for the full 30-60, or til conversion. Meanwhile I'll heat my full boil water on my turkey fryer to 170 and just sparge in that for the suggested 10 minutes. Add back the steeping water and commence w/ the boil...How's that sound?
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Kegged: Cascade/Amarillo IPA, Common Room ESB, Sam Smith Stout, Jamil's Nut Brown
You cannot mash specialty grains. You can cut down your base malt, but without enough base malt (and the enzymes they contain) you are not "mashing". Mashing is converting the starches into sugars, which can't be done without the enzymes.
3 lbs is plenty for a decent partial mash, however, depending on your recipe.
Your method sounds fine, except when you say that after doughing in you'd "get the mash back up to temp"...it should already be at the right temp after you dough in. You can use this strike temp calculator to help you hit your temp exactly: Green Bay Rackers--Mash Calculators
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