Wrey said:
1) What temperature should I keep my mash at. I have read different things, The Joy of HomeBrewing says to keep it at different temps for different times and some things are saying to just let it sit at 165ºF for 45 minutes. Also what is the best way of keep the temp constant, do you have to keep adding hot water to it or can you just let it go.
It depends on the recipe. Typical mash temps are in the range 150-158F. The temperature affects the finished product because it affects how fermentable the wort you get from mashing will be. I don't have a lot of advice here, but it might not be a bad idea to just shoot for the middle of that range to start with, until you get a feel for your equipment and can accurately hit the right mash temp and be sure you can hold it steady. Be aware that you have to add water that is quite a bit hotter than your target mash temp because of the heat absorbed by the grains and mash tun. You also need to be using a good grain-to-water ratio, usually something like 1.25qt/lb. This is an area where brewing software is REALLY handy.
Wrey said:
2) How do I calculate effiency and should I be worried about it. I plan on making the tun from the Wiki with the S/S braid. Along with that how do I know how much DME to add to bring up the SG to where I want it.
Do some searching for calculating efficiency if you wish, however I do not generally bother worrying about it when doing partial mashes. Since you are only getting part of your wort from mashing, your efficiency won't affect your OG as much as it would with all-grain. As far as how much DME to add, well, I would recommend following a pre-written partial mash recipe, or using brewing software if you want to formulate your own recipe.
Wrey said:
3) How do I batch sparge and how much water do I do it with. From my understanding I add 165º water to the lauder tun, let it sit for a few minutes and then drain it to my brew kettle.
Here I would also recommend you refer to existing recipes and/or use brewing software.
Wrey said:
4) How can I take a AG recipe and turn it into a PM recipe, or do I have to find a partial mash recipe. Also I am looking for a standard Hefe recipe that I can do.
I would not recommend trying to make your own recipes until you are more familiar with the PM process... There are plenty of partial mash recipes out there to get you started (try the beertools.com recipe library). If you want to go making your own, the general idea (if starting with an AG recipe) is to replace some/most of the base malt with DME and use the partial mashing for the specialty grains and maybe some of the base malt - but this is made a whole lot easier with brewing software.
As far as a Hefeweizen recipe... I would suggest, based on my limited personal experience on the matter, that you not try a hefe as your first PM brew, if at all. I made two hefes using partial mash recipes, and was disappointed with both, and then switched to a much simpler pure extract recipe, with no PM, and it turned out a whole lot better. That's not to say you can't make a good hefe with PM (because I'm sure you can), but hefes are really pretty simple, and there are other styles that would probably benefit more from doing a partial mash with specialty grains and would thus probably be better to start with.
Wrey said:
EDIT: Also, should I get a beer program or are those mostly for AG brewers. Also, anyone have any good links for a step by step PM brew guide, most of the stuff I have found has been more of theory and the basics but not actual step by step stuff.
I use the beersmith software and I find it to be a GREAT tool. There's a 21-day free trial, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to check out, and would probably help quite a bit with your current confusion.
As far as a step-by-step guide, well, I don't have any links for you at the moment, but here's a very brief run-down of what I do:
1) put grains into mash tun
2) measure out right amount of water (usually 1.25qt/lb) and heat to the right temperature (calculated with beersmith)
3) add to mash tun, stir, and cover, set a timer for an hour. It should have reached your target mash temp.
4) toward the end of the hour, if I'm getting impatient, I sometimes start pulling small samples of wort and testing with iodine to see if the starches have finished converting to sugars. Some people say "don't bother", but I like being sure.
5) near the end of the hour, measure out your sparge water and heat to the correct temperature (again, I calculate with beersmith)
6) drain some of the wort from the mash tun, pour it back into the top - repeat until it pours relatively clear/free of sediment.
6) open the valve on mash tun, drain all the liquid into the brew kettle.
7) close valve and add sparge water. Let it sit for about 10 mins.
8) open the valve and drain into the brew kettle again.
Now, you've got some wort in your brew kettle, and you just continue on with the rest of your brewing process as you would with extract brewing - add some more water if needed, add extract, etc.
*edit* I did a short writeup of my first partial mash a few months ago, which you might find interesting:
http://eegeek.net/content/view/72/39/