Advice on first PM recipe

I'm looking to jump from extract to AG when the weather warms up enough for me to move outdoors. In the meantime I want to try a Partial Mash to get some of the technique down.

This is my adjustment from an extract honey porter recipe (using beersmith and some of my own adjustments based on things I've read in this forum):

5 Gallon Batch
Approx 3.5 Gallon Boil (20qt pot, indoor stove)
10 Gallon rubbermaid MLT (with the toilet braid)

4.5 lb Amber Dry Extract
.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row)
.5 lb Caramunich
.5 lb Caravienne
.5 lb Chocolate Malt
.5 lb Honey Malt
3oz Cascade
1 lb Honey (last 10 minutes or so)

Nottingham Danstar Ale Yeast


Any recommendations on adjusting this? It's less than 3 pounds in the mash, which seems kind of small to me, but this is what Beersmith pumps out. Is it because of my small boil size?

Is there a way to adjust the grain-to-extract ratio with my boil size? Or does this look about right?
Any advice?

Thanks,
chris.

My buddies and I did 3 PM batches last year to transition to AG. The three recipes had wildly varying grain bills in the mash; one only had 3lbs of grain, while another had 6lbs! They all came out really well

I'd say you could probably up the quantity of grain if you want, but it may or may not be worth it- we didn't check our efficiency on any of those three batches, so we might not have NEEDED the larger grain bill (it's possible we were not getting everything we could have from the grain). It sounds like you crunched your numbers- we were pretty casual about volumes- so take this all with a grain of salt.

It definitely seems to be because of a small boil size (we were in the same boat). For the larger bill, we were afraid we'd wind up throwing out wort and skimped on our sparge.

But in the end, all three of those batches were far and away the best beers we've made so far. We just did our first AG Monday and we're dying to see how it comes out! Good luck!

The Caramunich and Caravienne can convert themselves, but I'd up the 2-row to a pound to convert the Chocolate Malt & Honey Malt. You'd probably be ok if you didn't, I just like to match the grains.

Excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by "convert" in this context? It looks like you want me to balance out the volume of 2-row with my honey/chocolate malts--is this because they need enzymes from the 2-row in order to release fermentables?

In the future, how can know to make these decisions on my own? I have a well-worn copy of the Papazian book but I wouldn't know to say "hey, I should check to find out such-and-such..." when it comes to which malts need what in order to convert...

chris.

Also, do I need to make any adjustments since I'm using such a small mash in a 10 gallon cooler?

Thanks,
chris.

Mashing converts complex starches to sugars which are more easily digested from yeast. Malt that has been kilned for periods of time add less fermentable sugar for yeast to consume. The more fermentable sugars the drier the beer and the less the sweeter the beer. Temperatures in the ranges of 150-152 yield drier beers because at this temp the highly convertable grains do best when most change to fermentable sugars for yeast to easily convert. It is about balancing this out throughout the grain bill. Way back in ancient times, grains were not as easily converted and is why you see decoction mashes, or multiple step mashes. Just remember if the grain is kilned in the slightest it may require more work on your part to convert the starch to sugar, which is done through temperature rests and balancing grain bills.

RDWHAHB!

- WW