Thinking about jumping from extract to partial mash

#1) I'm looking at the possibility of getting into partial mashes. For starters, anyone have a great go to source on the internet for partial mashing. I've looked @ howtobrew.com and a couple other sites but it seems like mini mashing gets wrapped up into all grain...and because I dont have enough knowledge about it... I don't know where to cross the line between the 2.

#2) In terms of additional equipment for partial mash....do I only need a converted cooler? Will this pay for itself seeing that base grains are cheaper than LME? How many lbs of a base grain will I have to buy in order to have it equal to a standard 3.3lb can of LME....I just want to get a ballpark of how much $ I'd save per batch buy switching from extract to partial mash.

I jumped straight in to mini-mash recipes and can testify that it's very easy (if you have a thermometer and grain bag). All my recipe kits came from Austin Homebrew Supply.

It basically only requires one extra step - steeping (soaking) the grains (in a grain bag) in the range of 150-160 deg F for anywhere from 15 min to an hour prior to adding the LME (depending on what the recipe calls for). The only tricky part is maintaining the temperature - which isn't tricky at all with a good thermometer.

I can't answer your second question (the savings)... because I haven't done both.

Disclaimer - I've only brewed 2 batches total.

BearsWickedBrew said:

For starters, anyone have a great go to source on the internet for partial mashing.

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I found this helpful:
Homebrew Headquarters: Partial Mash

AHS has good partial mash kits:
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/

And here's a good video I found helpful:

I could be wrong...but I believe you are referring to simply steeping grains with specialy grains....as opposed to mashing with base grains

Yeah.... I think you're right. I'm clearly confused. Sorry about that.

BearsWickedBrew said:

I could be wrong...but I believe you are referring to simply steeping grains with specialy grains....as opposed to mashing with base grains

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jgohean said:

Yeah.... I think you're right. I'm clearly confused. Sorry about that.

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Actually, I think jgohean is correct. I did a couple of Austinhomebrew.com 's pm recipes a while back, and the mash is done in a grain bag just as described. The technique is very much like steeping, except base grains are included and the mash is held at 153 or so for an hour.

See Deathbrewer's PM instructional thread. That would show it in detail. It's no more difficult than steeping, and makes great beer!

3.3 pounds of LME would equal approximately 5 pounds of 2-row.

Here's that link I mentioned: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

Yea - depends what you are looking for. I went into mini mashing after two extracts and it's pretty easy - just steeping on steroids.

So there is

100% Extract
Extract with Specialty Grains (steeping the grains before boil)
Mini Mashing (using base grains along with steeping grains)
All Grain

I don't believe there is a version between Mini and AG.

Extract with Specialty grains is pretty easy and temp control is not a big deal for the 15 minutes. You will need a grain bag and thermonuclear . LOL I love spelling checkers LOL thermometer.

It's like making tea with out squeezing the tea bag. .

YooperBrew said:

3.3 pounds of LME would equal approximately 5 pounds of 2-row.

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as always thanks YB. Now...is 8.75lbs of 2-row a PM or a AG? Where is the weigh cutoff?

I was thinking this would be a good first PM/ AG brew
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/865527-post2.html

the question is can Cara-Pils/Dextrine be PMed?

Thanks for the post yooperbrew....I guess I don't even need a cooler for mini-mashing...I can simply use a grain bag.

RC0032-

There is no cutoff. All grain is different than mini mash because you add malt extract when you mini mash. When going all grain...you do just that...you dont add malt extract

Deathbrewers post on partial mash is flat out awesome. Let me confirm something... instead of sparging in the sense that you add water to your rinse grains...his methods version of sparging is tea-bagging...where you take the mash and then tea bag it in the hotter sparge water....correct?

BearsWickedBrew said:

Deathbrewers post on partial mash is flat out awesome. Let me confirm something... instead of sparging in the sense that you add water to your rinse grains...his methods version of sparging is tea-bagging...where you take the mash and then tea bag it in the hotter sparge water....correct?

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Yes. That's exactly what he does. He mentioned that letting it sit there and "teabagging" it over the course of several minutes would increase efficiency. (That sounds so dirty when I read it over).

I did something similar during my PM days. Then, I'd lift out that grain bag, and just pour the sparge water over the grains. I'd put that grain bag in a big strainer over the pot and pour the water. Either way will work. You won't get great efficiency with this method, more than likely, but you'll get better flavors. With my first PM (done in the bottling bucket with a grain bag, like I described), when I tasted the finished beer, it made me say "AHA!" That's the flavor I was looking for! Less extract flavor or something, or rather, more grain tasting.

If you want to go the cooler route you can build one of these:

Making a Partial Mash mash tun - Home Brewing Wiki

And then you can follow the directions in this article:

BYO - Countertop Partial Mashing

And Viola, a partialy mashed brew.

YooperBrew said:

Yes. That's exactly what he does. He mentioned that letting it sit there and "teabagging" it over the course of several minutes would increase efficiency. (That sounds so dirty when I read it over).

I did something similar during my PM days. Then, I'd lift out that grain bag, and just pour the sparge water over the grains. I'd put that grain bag in a big strainer over the pot and pour the water. Either way will work. You won't get great efficiency with this method, more than likely, but you'll get better flavors. With my first PM (done in the bottling bucket with a grain bag, like I described), when I tasted the finished beer, it made me say "AHA!" That's the flavor I was looking for! Less extract flavor or something, or rather, more grain tasting.

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I did something similar to Yooper when I moved to PM, which I'm still doing. I did her sparge method, in addition to using DB's tea-bagging (I chuckle as I type). On the advice of someone here, I believe just Dave, I used the tea-bagging method sort of like a first batch sparge then Yooper's method as a second sparge, getting 1 gallon of wort to use instead of top-off water.

The beer I first did is still conditioning, but I broke one open recently and had the same AHA moment as Yooper.

Basically, PM is (at any size) where part of the brew is mashed, and part is extract. It's not unusual for people who are normally AG brewers to pull out the extract when making a barleywine, for instance, just to keep the volume to boil or amount to mash reasonable with their equipment size.

Having read DB's article and then trying to shave time off (I probably did not save any time, note) I had a whacky PM session on Saturday - I was grinding, getting mash water to temp, deciding I'd put what I had ground in the water and grind more, FWH-ing the rest of the water in the brewkettle more or less all at once. I would have been much better off to wait until the mash water was hot, dump the grain in, and park in preheated/turned off oven - temperature control on a stovetop with a thick mash is difficult, at best.

One round of this grain-bag arrangement is enough to make me seriously consider a mash tun with manifold. The 5-gallon paint strainers I got are sewn flat, so they don't actually fit all that well in the 5 gallon pot I was mashing in when filled with grain. Getting the mash mixed with the water at 1.25 qt/lb was difficult with the bag not fitting the pot well - there's very little excess water at that ratio. The sparge process was awkward. Despite all that, it appeared to work.

Austin_LSU said:

If you want to go the cooler route you can build one of these:

Making a Partial Mash mash tun - Home Brewing Wiki

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That's how I got started with partial mashing and it was a great way to get going. It's a convenient system, works great, and as a huge added bonus, the bulkhead/valve setup can be swapped directly into a larger rubbermaid cooler if you decide to go all-grain, albeit with a longer braid. I went from that little 2-gallon cooler with PM's, to a 5-gallon doing AG, and finally to a 60qt ice cube when I had the gear to do 10 gallon AG batches, and I've been using the same bulkhead/valve setup all along.