Easy Partial Mash Brewing (with pics)

Before I start let me join the chorus in praising this thread. Deathbrewer, you have done a wonderful thing here. After blowing fifty bucks on my first kit and getting mediocre results I was moving towards AG but dreading the hundred + dollars of equipment I needed to buy and construct. You've made it look so simple and even inviting. Thanks for making the prospect of brewing through the learning curve more fun!

Now on to business. My question is about how to build a partial mash recipe. Given an all grain recipe, how do you decide what stays a grain and how much becomes extract. I assume that I'd want to replace a chunk of the base malt and just keep the rest proportional. If there a rule of thumb to follow here?

My first beer was an all malt porter kit from True Brew. For my second batch I want to brew Jamil's Robust Porter. The extract recipe looked like this:
6.6 lbs Pale LME
1 lb Munich LME
1.25 lbs Crystal 40 steeped
0.4 lb Black Patent steeped
0.6 lb Chocolate steeped
1.5 oz Kent Goldings @60
0.75 oz Kent Goldings @knockout

For partial mash could I just do it like this:
3.5 lb Pilzner
1.25 lb Munich
1.25 lbs Crystal 40
0.4 lb Black Patent
0.6 lb Chocolate
That's 7 pounds of grain for the mash. 10 quarts gives me ~1.5 qt/gal. Then I'd just add the remaining four lbs of LME at knockout and be good? I'm swapping extract and grain at 1:1, and I don't think that works. I've been digging through my Palmer book but can't find the info on converting from extract to grain.

Sorry for the wall of text. Thanks!

-EDIT- I just bought two cheapo stainless 4gal stockpots for this method (previous put was 2.5gal) so I was trying to keep the size of my mash down. Did I under shoot at nine quarts?

-EDIT AGAIN- Just read the first fifty pages. Two answers gleaned. First that a good starting point for a pair of four gal pots is 7 lbs of grain with 2.5 gallons of water. Second is that 0.75 lbs of LME = 1 lb of grain. Recipe corrected accordingly.

Well I made my first all grain batch using this method with an Irish Red. I used 3 gallon pots to mash, and an 8 gallon to sparge and boil. Other than taking an hour to get a boil going, and carrying 60lbs of boiling wort to the bathtub for the cold break at 1:00 am, everything went great. I reached 77% efficiency.

By the way, I ended up going stainless steel for the boil pot. I found a decent one on Amazon and had the cash at the moment. This was also my first full boil batch. I also convinced my brother-in-law to jump in feet first with all grain. Within one week, this kettle will have 4 batches under it's belt. Thanks for the tips and help.

Is it possible to sparge with a smaller amount of water than the initial mash? I'd like to use as much grain as possible while still leaving a gallon worth of space for the boil. I had a boil over during my first batch and I intend not to let that happen again. Details:

I now have a 5 gallon and a 2.5 gallon SS pot. Could I mash 7 lbs of grain in 3 gallons of water (1.7qt/gal), then sparge with 2 gallons (1.1qt/gal)? After absorbtion I'd be boiling 4.1 gallons of wort. Is a stiff sparge bad? Or could stirring it well make this a non-issue?

I sparge with a smaller volume. Remember, you'll take about .12gal/lb with the grain so you have to account for that if you're transferring the bag to another pot to sparge.

EDIT:
For example: I have a 4 gal and a 3 gal for my pots. I mashed 7lb with 2 gal water (~1.2qt/lb) in my big pot, then transferred the bag of grain into 2 gal sparge water in the smaller pot. As expected, I was left with 1.25 gal wort in the first pot, and yielded all 2 gal from the sparge (seriously pushing it in the 3gal pot.) Say what you will about squeezing the bag, but I squeezed the hell out of it with a plate and colander over the pot after sparging. I still ended up with 3.25 gal. Not sure if it's the correct way to do it, but i went ahead and topped up to the 3.5 planned for my boil. Granted... my efficiency sucked (64%), so I was advised to max out my mash water and use less sparge next time to help that.

I suppose I could move the wort from my mash pot to a bucket or other container, move as much hot water from the small pot into my freshly drained mash pot, and sparge it there. That way I wouldn't have to account for displacement in my small pot.

Reading a long series of posts culminating in a paraphrased 'just do whatever works for your setup' I'm feeling much more confidant in just finding simple solutions to achieve my goals. Those posts were somewhere near page seventy (over half way read!)

The simple solutions are usually the lowest stress solutions. RDWHAHB

I have recently switched to a 15gal pot for full boils. I start with 12 gallon and end up with 9.5-10 gallon to rack to carboys. I have been doing grain steeping and DME batches and now wish to do some rye grain. Can I mash my grain in say 8 gallons of water in my big pot and sparge in 4 gallons in my 28 qt stockpot, then combine to start the full boil?

I plan on doing partial mash and DME batches still until going all grain.

Hopelesst said:

Given an all grain recipe, how do you decide what stays a grain and how much becomes extract.

My first beer was an all malt porter kit from True Brew. For my second batch I want to brew Jamil's Robust Porter. The extract recipe looked like this:
6.6 lbs Pale LME
1 lb Munich LME
1.25 lbs Crystal 40 steeped
0.4 lb Black Patent steeped
0.6 lb Chocolate steeped
1.5 oz Kent Goldings @60
0.75 oz Kent Goldings @knockout

For partial mash could I just do it like this:
3.5 lb Pilzner
1.25 lb Munich
1.25 lbs Crystal 40
0.4 lb Black Patent
0.6 lb Chocolate
That's 7 pounds of grain for the mash. 10 quarts gives me ~1.5 qt/gal. Then I'd just add the remaining four lbs of LME at knockout and be good? I'm swapping extract and grain at 1:1, and I don't think that works. I've been digging through my Palmer book but can't find the info on converting from extract to grain.

Sorry for the wall of text. Thanks!

-EDIT- I just bought two cheapo stainless 4gal stockpots for this method (previous put was 2.5gal) so I was trying to keep the size of my mash down. Did I under shoot at nine quarts?

Click to expand...

Your specialty grains should always go in the mash. For them, it replaces steeping. You'll want to have enough diastatic power to convert everything, so put pale malt in there. How much after that is up to you and your capacity.

Pilsner Malt is not the same as Pale Malt.

With your specialty grains, you have 2.25 lbs of the dark stuff. Also, I don't know if you are going to find 1lb of Munich LME. LME is difficult to measure. I noticed you adjusted your Munich Malt down from 1.33 lbs. This seems OK. Most of the color and flavors are coming from the roasted grains.

At this point, you have 4 lbs to be mashed and a diastatic power of about 17. If you add 1 lb of Pale 2-Row Malt, you'll have a power of about 40, which is what you want.

You probably shouldn't add 5 lbs of Pale Malt to it. If you're really concerned with hitting your OG, you could leave 3.3lb of the Pale Extract as LME and buy 3lbs of Pale DME. You could easily mash a total of 6 lbs and you might not have a problem with 7. So, go ahead and throw a total of 3 lbs of Pale 2-Row in there.

You'll need to add 1.2 lb DME.

As you near the end of the boil, you could measure the specific gravity. If it's too low, add some DME to bring it to where you want it.

DME gives about 44 points per pound per gallon. In a 5 gallon batch, 1.8 oz DME will increase your gravity by .001.

ludomonster said:

DME gives about 44 points per pound per gallon. In a 5 gallon batch, 1.8 oz DME will increase your gravity by .001.

Click to expand...

44/16 = 2.75 pts per ounce DME per gallon.

1/1.8 = 0.56 pts per ounce DME per FIVE gallons.

I couldn't figure your math there for a minute.

How much water is displaced by wet grain in the sparge pot? Is it the same 0.125#/gal that it removed from the mash pot? I'm doing an AG batch but that forces me to sparge in my smaller pot. I'm trying to control my boil volume and can't seem to find an answer to this one.

Also, if I'm adding water to hit my final volume do I need to increase my bittering hops to account for reduced hop utilization?

Thanks!

If I'm understanding your question... no, once the grain has taken it's share in the mash, you will get all of your sparge water back.

As far as the hops utilization, I will let a more experienced brewer address that one.

Thanks for the great post... Did I miss something, or were there only 4 gallons of water boiled for the wart? I saw 2 gallons in one pot and two gallons in another pot, but did you have to add any water to the final wart (in the fermenter)?

Probably a stupid question, but I wanted to ask it before I made a dramatic mistake.

I want to try a partial mash for my third brew. I have a 5.5 gallon stock pot dedicated solely as my brew pot, but I also have some miscellaneous large pots laying around my house. These have been used for cooking. Is there any harm in using one of them as my second pot? Can they absorb any sort of flavors that will end up in my beer?

I wouldn't worry about it. I use my pots for multiple purposes all the time. Just make sure you give it a good cleaning first. At first I was using multiple pots place in a cooler stuffed with towels to maintain temp, and it was working great. Lately, though I have been using an igloo water cooler with a grain bag in it. You can get 5 gallon ones for $29; it holds the temp really well. If you splurge you can get a 10 gallon one for $39 at walmart and then you would be able to do some hefty grain bills as well as be able to replace the valve for a better set-up down the road if you wanted.

There are tons of options for pots...and also lots of arguments, just search SS vs aluminum. The cheapest I've found is this... buy a turkey fryer for $49. Now you have a 7.5 gal aluminum pot, a propane burner, and full boil capabilities. It has drastically improved my beer. I'll be using these instructions today for a partial mash surely bender kit from NB. Thanks to the OP.

I had a local shop cut down a few batches to 2.5g. Can I do closer to a full boil with the partial mash method or shoudl I stick with 1/2 the water that is suggested on page 1 of this thread?

I"m assuming I can use more but not less water than is suggested?

I want to give this a shot soon, I have the grist set up, but I do have a noob-esk question. If I wanted to calculate my efficiency for the mash, would I use the volume just used to mash and take a gravity reading from that, or would I use the entire volume (mash and sparge mixed together) and take a gravity reading from that? Or does it even matter which volume I use to measure efficiency?

Thanks in advance. Great post by the way. It has inspired me!

Brewed my hefeweizen this past weekend using this method, and I've gotta say I love it!
First batch I've made where my numbers came out as calculated!
Definitely sticking with this!

Thanks for the help man!! Do you have any good Lager partial mash recipes??

I am recently torn between a 3gallon cooler and a 5 gallon cooler. I am afraid that if i will mesh smaller amount in a bigger cooler, like 2 gallons in a 5 gallon cooler it will loose heat faster vs beeng filled up to the total capacity. Question How do you calculate your recepis for your partial meshes. I want to lern how to do this to use as much grain as i could.

I have a 4 gal cooler and a 5 gal brew kettle and I've determined that I can mash up to 7.5 lbs of grain fairly comfortably. BeerSmith has been awesome for helping me calculate my recipes. I just enter in an all grain recipe and then drop enough of the base malt to bring the lbs of mashed grains down to about 7 lbs and then add in enough LME to get back to the starting OG. Then I usually fiddle with the amounts to get round measurements. Btw, this setup is big enough to do some low gravity all grain batches, like a cream ale or ordinary bitter. I do have to top up with ~1 gal, but no biggie. Mashing this much grain has made it necessary for me to learn about water chemistry though, and the EZ water calculator spreadsheet has been a huge help with this.

My suggestion would be to buy a 5 gal home depot cooler so you won't need to upgrade right away if you decide to go all grain. With my 4 gal cooler I only loose ~2 degrees over 60 minutes. One thing that really helped me retain heat is to rest 2-3 layers of aluminum foil on top of the mash. Good luck.

My suggestion is to actually spend the extra dollars on a 10 gallon water cooler. You won't regret it. The heat loss is not really an issue. As you may have read, it's all about just relaxing about the process. I did about 4 batches this way, then just went to 10 gallon mash size of AG. I'll never go back.

Thank you guys for the helpful hints. My only concern about to go with the AG is that it will take me a day to boil 5 gal. of mash on the regular electric stove. But anyways I will follow the advise and go with the 5 gal.

I am doing my first partial this weekend, but it just so happens that my son broke my hydrometer. Should I push on or wait for a new one to arrive. This weekend will be the last chance I get for a while. Plus I'm pumped to give it a go. Should I give it a go?

If you aren't going to be able to brew in awhile, I say push on! Not ideal but its better than not brewing at all.

I'm back. Brewing a partial mash Cascadian Dark Ale and I'm using some wild hops for flavor. These were probably planted shortly after the civil war and were just rediscovered about a month ago. I have no idea what they are but they look, taste, and smell fantastic.

What a great day in America!

Has anyone else ever used wild hops? I figure I'll use a few ounces as I didn't dry them.

It would be impossible to thank you too much for this. As an extract brewer it can always sound a bit daunting to take the next step, so thank you for showing me that I already have everything I need (just need a bigger bag and I'm on my way). Thanks to you my next brew will almost certainly be a PM.

Great instructions Deathbrewer. Did my first partial mash this weekend. It was an English Pale ale with Fuggle Hops. I am calling it Mind the Gap Pale Ale. I used the Lowes paint straining bags and used the oven to maintain my mash temp. I discovered the hard way how long it takes my thermometer to register temp changes. My strike water hit 180 just after I put the grain in, so I just added ice and stirred like crazy to bring it down to 155. From what I could tell I hit just over 70% for efficiency. Not too bad for my first time I guess. It took me about 4.5 - 5 hours. And I ended up dropping my hydrometer right before the boil was done. Luckily I am only 5 minutes from my LHBS.

Hi guys. I'm a nubie to this forum as well as to home brewing. So please have patience with me here. I've only brewed four five gallon batches to date. When I brew I bring three gallons of water to 155 degrees then put all my grains in a grain sock and let them steep for 30 minutes. I then remove the grain sock, put it in a colander and let it drip back into the pot for a few minutes. I then add my LMEs and bring the water to 212 and start my boil. My question is, how is this different than partial mash brewing? And my second question is how do I determine the efficiency and when? Thanks for any info here.

Drukin - here is some good info for mashing and steeping:

http://***********/stories/wizard/a...-basically-involve-soaking-grain-in-hot-water

http://******************.com/a-home-brewing-malts-guide/

Drunken_Sailor said:

Hi guys. I'm a nubie to this forum as well as to home brewing. So please have patience with me here. I've only brewed four five gallon batches to date. When I brew I bring three gallons of water to 155 degrees then put all my grains in a grain sock and let them steep for 30 minutes. I then remove the grain sock, put it in a colander and let it drip back into the pot for a few minutes. I then add my LMEs and bring the water to 212 and start my boil. My question is, how is this different than partial mash brewing? And my second question is how do I determine the efficiency and when? Thanks for any info here.

Click to expand...

Really, the only difference between mashing and what you're doing is that in a mash, there's some base malt and not just specialty grains, and you pay more attention to holding a specific temperature and proper pH. Also, a mash is generally longer, 60-90 mins is the norm.

Drunken_sailor said:

My question is, how is this different than partial mash brewing?

Click to expand...

Expanding a little on Nordeastbrewer77's explanation, in your example you have performed an extract with steeped specialty grains. Nearly all of your fermentables are from the extract, and the grains you used contribute, mostly, unfermentable sugars that influence things like head retention, mouthfeel, flavour/aroma.

in a partial mash you are mashing base malts, possibly specialty grains too, to extract enzymes that convert the starches to fermentable and unfermentable sugars and then combine this with extract to increase the volume of sugars in your wort to get to your desired Gravity. Partial mash is an easier way to achieve a larger volume of a higher gravity beer with limited equipment than All Grain.

Another big thank you for this thread. You really de-mystified the process, and made it seem far less daunting. It hit me that a partial mash isn't that much harder than steeping grains, and that it opens up so many more possibilities as far as what kind of recipes I would be able to try.

I did my first partial mash about two weeks ago, and can't wait to try another. I know I probably made some mistakes, but overall it went very well, and I'm very optimistic about how my brew will come out.

Great article thanks

Thanks for the guide, did a partial mash last night with 1lb of flaked wheat and 1lb of 2-row. Not sure what my efficiency was, but i was really just using it to kick a bit more alcohol and body into a beer, so shouldn't matter too much exactly what it was.

Thanks for posting. Took my first stab at a 2.5 gal AG using this method. I am a bit limited with my equipment, as I only have one pot that is 4 gal... I had to get a bit creative with the pots to get all of my sparge water together. I made a couple of blunders:

I meant to mash with 1.25 qt/gal, and ended up mashing closer to .77 qt/gal.

I underestimated how much would boil off and ended up with right at 2 gal.

I'm not too incredibly worried, as I feel like my efficiency probably wasn't too great, and the lower post-volume boil will probably result in better beer anyway.

So I just came across this thread today, and I didn't have time to read through all 136 pages of it...but I did read the first few and the last few. I tried this today and used the efficiency calcs shown on this page:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-5.html
My efficiency came out embarrassingly low (~17%) but I think that could be because I had more specialty grains in the recipe I made. My question is how to know the volume of wort? If you use 2 gals to mash and then 2 gals to sparge, you end up with less than 4 gallons because the grains soak up so much liquid. I probably had just under 3 gals after sparging. Would I use the ending volume to calculate the efficiency or the beginning volume?
Thanks

I used your instructions as my first attempt to brew without a kit, but for some reason my beer came out really weak. It tastes watered down. I followed the instructions as closely as possible, so I dont know what could have happened. Any ideas?

rachelclark21 said:

I used your instructions as my first attempt to brew without a kit, but for some reason my beer came out really weak. It tastes watered down. I followed the instructions as closely as possible, so I dont know what could have happened. Any ideas?

Click to expand...

Did you take a starting gravity reading? And what was the recipe?

the recipe was the dunkelweizen that deathbrewer posted:
Grains:
3 lbs Wheat Malt
2 lbs Munich Malt
¼ lbs Chocolate Malt (pale chocolate is wonderful in this recipe)

Extract: 3 lbs Wheat Dry Malt Extract

Hops: 0.6 oz hallertau

Yeast: WLP 300

I took a gravity reading on the wort after cooling, but it is written down at home. I can post after work. Should I be taking one prior to that point in the process?