Partial mash question.

Greetings! I'm planning my first partial mash on Saturday. I have read DeathBrewer's AMAZING partial mash tutorial, but I still have a question. He said that he uses 2 gallons of strike water per 5-6 lbs of grain. Does the water/grain ratio matter as much in a partial mash as it does in an all grain mash? I ask because I want to make sure I'm using enough water for my malt bill:
1 1/2lb Crystal Malt 120L
1 1/2lb 2-Row
1/2lb Carapils Malt
1/2lb Chocolate Malt
1/2lb Roasted Barley


It's a total of 4.5lbs of grain. It's going to be a porter. Is 2 gallons a sufficient amount of strike water? I believe he said that he also used 2 gallons of sparge water. Should I "tea bag" the grain in the sparge water, or run the sparge water over the grain? I'm just...I'm just so confused, cold, and alone. Any help will be nice.

Sea_of_Shells said:

Greetings! I'm planning my first partial mash on Saturday. I have read DeathBrewer's AMAZING partial mash tutorial, but I still have a question. He said that he uses 2 gallons of strike water per 5-6 lbs of grain. Does the water/grain ratio matter as much in a partial mash as it does in an all grain mash? I ask because I want to make sure I'm using enough water for my malt bill:
1 1/2lb Crystal Malt 120L
1 1/2lb 2-Row
1/2lb Carapils Malt
1/2lb Chocolate Malt
1/2lb Roasted Barley


It's a total of 4.5lbs of grain. It's going to be a porter. Is 2 gallons a sufficient amount of strike water? I believe he said that he also used 2 gallons of sparge water. Should I "tea bag" the grain in the sparge water, or run the sparge water over the grain? I'm just...I'm just so confused, cold, and alone. Any help will be nice.

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You will want to use 1.25-2 quarts of water per pound of grain. I will say that you have a lot of specialty grain, and only 1.5 pounds of two-row. If you can possibly increase the two-row, that would be better. An easy rule of thumb is to have a pound of two-row for every pound of "other" grains.

Anyway, if you have 4.5 pounds of grain, you'd want to use 5.6-9 quarts of grain for the mash. Stir well, stir some more, and then stir again. Make sure all the grain is "loose" in there and thoroughly wetted.

For the sparge, it doesn't matter if you lift out the grain bag and pour the water over or if you "teabag" it. Either is fine. You can use sparge water up to your boil volume. If you use 8 quarts (2 gallons) of water in your mash, you should get out about 1.5 gallons of runnings (since the grain will absorb some of the the liquid). You then can use as much sparge water as you need to get you up to your boil volume.

I hope that helps!

Usually you try to use 1.25-1.5qts per lb for strike at 152F

Assume .12g/lb for absorption as a loss and then figure out the difference to achieve your pre boil volume, I'll assume you want to do a full boil?

For sparge I recommend batch sparging so go to www.dennybrew.com to learn how. Sparge water should be about 180F

Yooper said:

If you can possibly increase the two-row, that would be better.

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How much are you thinking? I have no problems making a change in the malt bill. I came up with the recipe on my own and it's my first time doing so.

I know this thread is a bit long in the tooth but, Yooper, thanks for the tip, just what I was trying to understand.

Sea, how'd the beer turn out?