first partial mash starting...now

embarking on my first partial mash brew right now, drinking some two hearted ale, sitting out back in some pretty decent weather listening to obscure punk music.

hope all goes well, hitting my mash temps was a little trickier than expected, my cooler/mash tun isn't as insulated as I thought it was but we are holding steady now.

Sounds like you are well on your way. Good luck.

My beer took a major step forward when I switched to partial mash. Don't sweat the temp too much. I'm sure it will turn out great. Good luck!

pannell77 said:

hope all goes well, hitting my mash temps was a little trickier than expected, my cooler/mash tun isn't as insulated as I thought it was but we are holding steady now.

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Good luck, I'm sure you'll make great tasting beer! Just make sure you pre heat your cooler before mashing in. You may have done so -- can't tell from your post -- but it definitely helps my system retain heat more effectively.

nothing more relaxing to me than drinking a beer and getting a brew going

i did preheat the cooler, once I got the temp to where I needed it I was good, it dropped around 4-5 degrees but wasn't too worried at that point. its getting chilled down right now then into the fermenter so I can go to sleep and get up and do another first thing in the morning. pretty excited about this one, the hops smell amazing.

Good Luck! Hope your partial mash turns out great for you. I'm staring a Bass Ale clone brew this morning and crushing grains for the first time. I'm hoping to do a partial mash with my next batch.

I was experiencing a similar 4-5 degree temp drop in my 16 quart cooler mash tun but just last weekend I rested some aluminum foil directly on top of the mash and my temp only dropped 2 degrees over 60 minutes. I didn't preheat the cooler this time either. I just pulled off an extra large sheet of foil and folded it twice, like how you would fold a piece of paper that you would put into an envelope. Cheap, easy and effective.

I will try that foil trick tomorrow. I did another brew this today and I lost 4-5 degrees again, had to add some more hot water into the mash to keep it steady. I did hit my projected OG on both batches so i am happy with that.