First partial mash, questions

Just got a Belgian Ale kit partial mash from Austin and was looking at the instructions. Plan on brewing this Saturday and have a couple questions.

Kit instructions are doing 2 1/2 gallons of water for the mash.
The a partial sparge w/ 1 qt of water per 1lb of grain coming to about 1 Gallon of water.

Now, my question is, I have an 8 gallon pot and like to boil the full 5 gallons with all extract. If I want to boil the entire wort with this kit, would I add more mash water or more sparge water to make the final amount 5 gallons? Or should I just top up the pot at the end of the sparge?

Kit has a 3.75 lbs grain mix with 10lbs of extract and 1 lb of candi sugar.

Also, by brew time I should have a cooler MLT w/ false bottom and can build a HLT in an afternoon. Is 3.75 lbs enough to use with a false bottom and do the mini-sparge in there?

I like to add the wort from my mini mash to already boiling water to make up the difference, and to act as a mash-out. Say you end up with 2 gallons wort, add it to 4 gallons boiling water if you boil off 1 gallon per hour, = 5 finished gallons.

Just for general info

3.75lb of grain will suck up about .825 gallons of water (if that is any help)

Oh- here is the linky to PM perfection:
BYO - Countertop Partial Mashing

Bigsnake said:

Kit instructions are doing 2 1/2 gallons of water for the mash.


Kit has a 3.75 lbs grain mix with 10lbs of extract and 1 lb of candi sugar.

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I was under the impression you generally use ~1.25quarts/lb of grain for a mash. A 3.75 lb minimash should use just over a gallon of water, not the 2.5 as listed in the above comment. Is that a typo, or does this recipe for some reason user a very thin mash?

AHS kits all have you use 2.5g water for a mini mash - then 1 qt water for each 2lbs of grain for "sparging".

It's a default recipe - just like it ALWAYS have you use 4.5oz of corn sugar for priming.

This is a mini mash remember, where you are basically steeping.

Grinder12000 said:

AHS kits all have you use 2.5g water for a mini mash - then 1 qt water for each 2lbs of grain for "sparging".

It's a default recipe - just like it ALWAYS have you use 4.5oz of corn sugar for priming.

This is a mini mash remember, where you are basically steeping.

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So should I keep it at 2.5 gallons of water like the kit instructs?

I wouldn't change the all grain "rules" just because it's called a mini mash. Stick to 1.25 or 1.5 quarts per pound. Then you can sparge with 1qt/lb.

3.75lbs of grain, 5 quarts of water is close enough. You'll get about 3 quarts of wort out, then sparge with a gallon

Bobby_M said:

I wouldn't change the all grain "rules" just because it's called a mini mash. Stick to 1.25 or 1.5 quarts per pound. Then you can sparge with 1qt/lb.

3.75lbs of grain, 5 quarts of water is close enough. You'll get about 3 quarts of wort out, then sparge with a gallon

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Think I'll do it this way then. So, after the sparge I'll be topping the pot up to the volume I want before the boil and before I add the extract and bittering hops.

What are the negatives for too large of a water volume during mashing? Too much sparging can pull tannins out, correct?

I don't think too large a mash volume would cause problems provided it was at the correct temperature and it was subtracted from the sparge volume. And yes, you're aiming to get as much out of the grains as possible but there's only so far you can go before you ruin it.

In my own experience I am doing AG's and I know I'm using more grain than I need to as I'm ending up with final runnings from the mash tun at 1.018 currently but I'd rather be inefficient and maybe cost me slightly more than be too efficient and cost me an entire brew.

Parva said:

I don't think too large a mash volume would cause problems provided it was at the correct temperature and it was subtracted from the sparge volume. And yes, you're aiming to get as much out of the grains as possible but there's only so far you can go before you ruin it.

In my own experience I am doing AG's and I know I'm using more grain than I need to as I'm ending up with final runnings from the mash tun at 1.018 currently but I'd rather be inefficient and maybe cost me slightly more than be too efficient and cost me an entire brew.

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That's a good point. I'm just starting to read about all-grain. Have two partial mash kits I'm going to do in the next two weeks and then have to wait for one of those to clear a secondary to get another batch going.

I hope to attempt an all grain that brew so I've got some time to read up on the subject and prepare.