Easy Partial Mash Brewing (with pics) - Page 64

pretzelb · 10-22-2009, 03:14 PM

I was going to try the AG stove top method but maybe I'll try this first. After asking some questions in the AG post, I think it might be better to start here and learn more before going AG. A few questions I have are:

I already have a 5g bare bones ss pot used for extract recipes that cost me about $35. What might be a good investment for the second pot? I am willing to not be as cheap this time since I'm still interested in the hobby but I'm still looking at stove top brewing. Seems like the pots with a thermometer attached would be useful but I'm not sure a spigot would help. I might go to the $100+ range but some pots get up to $300 awful quick. I'm also not sure if going up in size like 8g would really be helpful if I'm looking at the stove top for the near future - in fact it might work against me to go too large. Plus I'd like to keep the space that my equipment takes up down in order to keep harmony in the house.
Do you notice a big improvement over extracts with specialty grains? If so, what can you expect or look for in a PM recipe over extract? Part of the reason I though to go the AG stove top method was to be sure I could get an improvement I could taste. I wasn't sure if going PM will be enough to tell a difference, or what to expect.

As said before, this is a great thread and it has very useful information.

**DeathBrewer** · 10-22-2009, 04:22 PM

1. I would go with a 7.5+ gallon pot. That size pot can be used for any 5 gallon batch and will really come in handy in the future. It was my first pot and I still use it almost every time I brew.

But do you have any other pots lying around? Go to a thrift store or a flea market or something and pick yourself up a cheap 4-5 gallon pot. You only need a 4 gallon pot for the mash in this method. 6 lbs of grain with 2 gallons of water only takes up about 3 gallons of space. With 5 lbs of grain you could even go with a 3 gallon pot. If you use a pour-over method (pour your sparge water over the grains in a colander instead of dunking them for sparge) you could use several small pots with water.

2. Grain tastes good

and you can make beers that otherwise would be unavailable to you (such as rye beers or beers that use all vienna malt.) Grain also has protein and other goodies that you will not get as much of from extract.

I believe it was in the book Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels that he notes that "although many award-winning beers USE extract, it's important to note that none of them use ONLY extract" (paraphrase)

grayburn · 10-22-2009, 11:11 PM

Thanks DB, I'm in the middle of my first stovetop mash, without this thread I probably wouldn't have had the cajones to make the step.

pretzelb · 10-26-2009, 05:45 PM

Hopefully this hasn't been covered before ...

How did you determine what your heat loss would be? Just trial and error?
Do you measure the temperature during the mash? You'd lose heat that way but how else can you tell if it's holding the temp? I see others will wrap with a towel but still how do you know if you need to unless you take a reading and then you're opening the lid and losing heat. Seems like a catch 22.
How were you determining the mash time? The range of 30-60 seems a bit much and I'm not sure how to determine when conversion is done.

**mrgstiffler** · 10-26-2009, 09:17 PM

Thanks for the guide! I'm going to be doing this next Tuesday and have a few questions.

1) Should I use Campden and/or 5.2 pH Stabilizer with my bottled water?
2) Austin HB lists Large Coarse Nylon Bag 20" x 22" without much of a description. I imagine this would be OK, but not sure if "coarse" means that smaller grains will fall through.
3) I'm trying to clone Rogue's Yellow Snow IPA (One of my favorite IPAs). Rogue lists all the ingredients and specs on their website, so it makes this easy.

From their website:

6 Ingredients:
Malts: Two Row Pale, Cara Foam & Melanoiden.
Hops: Amarillo.
Yeast & Water: Rogue's Pacman Yeast and Free Range Coastal Water.

Specs:
15º PLATO
70 IBU
76 AA
14º Lovibond

Here's my recipe:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.50 gal
Estimated OG: 14.250 Plato
Estimated Color: 6.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 69.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 44.44 %
3.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 33.33 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 11.11 %
1.00 lb Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 11.11 %
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 41.8 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (40 min) Hops 18.4 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (20 min) Hops 6.3 IBU
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (10 min) Hops 1.9 IBU
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 1.0 IBU

Does that seem like it checks out? I'll pitch with Rogue's Pacman yeast. One thing I'm really confused about is the color that Rogue lists on their site. They list Yellow Snow as 14 degrees Lovibond, which according to Beersmith would be it really red/brown. I know from experience that it's not that red, and the amount of Melanoiden needed to get that color throws the recipe completely off. Any idea on why Rogue lists it like that?

Ichthy · 10-27-2009, 06:53 PM

DeathBrewer

Sorry if this has been asked, but i don't have time to read the whole thread. When you partial mash (from your original example) you used a total of 4 gallons of water (strike water + sparge water). After you remove the grains and combine the mashed wort and sparged wort (sorry if my terminology is off), how much water are you left with when you begin the boil?

I ask because my stove can only boil 3 gallons of water with the lid off. I'm afraid if I attempt to boil over 3 gallons is won't happen.

Great thead!

**DeathBrewer** · 10-27-2009, 07:22 PM

The common consensus on absorption is .125gal/lb, so using 6 lbs of grain would give you a little less than a gallon and you will be over 3 gallons already.

You also will need to account for extract displacement, as it will raise your volume.

Can you split it between two pots? That would probably work best until you can get a 5+ gallon pot.

Ichthy · 10-27-2009, 08:24 PM

I have a 20 qt and 22qt pot, so I can handle the displacement issue.

My worry is that my stove will not boil more than 3 gallons of water. The stove has a glass top and the bottom of the pot is not perfectly flat, therefore my boiling efficiency isn't what it could be.

So, if split the pots would you just hop one pot of water and boil the other with wort only, and then combine them at the end? I hope i didn't confuse the situation...

**DeathBrewer** · 10-27-2009, 08:40 PM

You want wort with the hops. You don't want the hops to be in water alone.

I've done it before and just split the hops between the two pots (mash and sparge worts.) It turned out great.

Some people have used the hops only in one pot and they said that worked well, too.

You could combine the two into one pot first to get equal distribution when you divide, or you could just add your extract to the sparge water to increase the gravity and leave the other as all-grain wort.

Really, any method will work...hope that helps...i tend to muddy the water sometimes

Ichthy · 10-27-2009, 08:43 PM

Sounds great! I'll try this soon. Thanks for the advice!