First PM tonight

Going to attempt my first partial mash tonight. I converted a 5 gallon Rubbermaid cooler from the DIY section which hopefully will work well.

Here’s my recipe:


5lbs 2row
1lb 10L
.5lb Cara-Pils
3lbs Light DME
1oz Cascade bittering
1oz Cacade Flaver
1oz Cacade Aroma

Heat 1.25 quarts water per lb of grain to 170 F, put grain in and let sit for 45 minutes at 152 F. Drain into boil pot and sparge with 2 gallons 170F water using a ladel or small pan.. Add DME, ETC….. That’s the basic plan. Final gravity will tell how well it works.

I may get rid of the Cara and cut the hop schedule a bit but other than that it seems pretty basic.
Any comments or tips to lend a newb?

That recipe is fine and if you like hops then dry hop with 1 oz Cascade at 1 week into the ferment and let it go for another week. Then rack to the bottling bucket with your sterilized corn sugar primer and bottle.

170F seems a little too warm to hit 152F.

First off, pre-heat your mash tun with hot tap water. 120F should be warm enough to decently pre-heat. let it sit with 3 gallons of hot tap water for 20 minutes or so prior to adding the grains and the strike water.

I wouldn't exceed 165F on the strike water either. the grain and cooler should soak up 11-13 degrees assuming the grain is about room temp (70-80F).

If you go too warm you'll get more fermentable sugars from the beer, but you'll have fewer unfermentables for mouthfeel.

malkore said:

170F seems a little too warm to hit 152F.

First off, pre-heat your mash tun with hot tap water. 120F should be warm enough to decently pre-heat. let it sit with 3 gallons of hot tap water for 20 minutes or so prior to adding the grains and the strike water.

I wouldn't exceed 165F on the strike water either. the grain and cooler should soak up 11-13 degrees assuming the grain is about room temp (70-80F).

If you go too warm you'll get more fermentable sugars from the beer, but you'll have fewer unfermentables for mouthfeel.

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According to the strike temp calculations, 170 will put him at 154. 168 would put him around 152.

Well she is in the lagerater bubbling away at 65F. I went with 170F strike water without preheating the cooler and it ended up at 153F after adding the grains.(although it was just a quick check) BeerSmith was telling me 164.9F for strike water, and 168F for sparge. Next time I will follow BeerSmiths guideline, and pre-heating sounds like a great idea.

Any way I ended up with an OG of 1.052 and BS at 60% efficiency put me at 1.054. Not to bad for a newb’s first shot.

Up next is a PM version of Orfy’s Hobgoblin. This time I will be a little more organized and hopefully have a dedicated HLT. And as luck would have it a friend of mine will be picking some fresh Cascade hops this week that may end up at the bottom of my secondary.

Thanks for the help!! I will have a few for you guys when she’s done!!

uhlee1 said:

Well she is in the lagerater bubbling away at 65F. I went with 170F strike water without preheating the cooler and it ended up at 153F after adding the grains.(although it was just a quick check) BeerSmith was telling me 164.9F for strike water, and 168F for sparge. Next time I will follow BeerSmiths guideline, and pre-heating sounds like a great idea.

Any way I ended up with an OG of 1.052 and BS at 60% efficiency put me at 1.054. Not to bad for a newb’s first shot.

Up next is a PM version of Orfy’s Hobgoblin. This time I will be a little more organized and hopefully have a dedicated HLT. And as luck would have it a friend of mine will be picking some fresh Cascade hops this week that may end up at the bottom of my secondary.

Thanks for the help!! I will have a few for you guys when she’s done!!

Click to expand...

Sounds like everything's gonna turn out great.

Here's a tip that I really like that I do, using the 5 gal converted cooler. I preheat the required volume about 4-5 degrees above my calculated strike temp, and dump that into the cooler in the absence of grains. Let it sit until it drops to your strike temp. This preheats the cooler in itself, and I'd just found that it holds better temp when the grist is added TO the water, and not the other way around.

Good tip, PseudoChef. I also put water in my MLT first then add malt. I found that I hit my target mash temp more often doing this.

I pre-heat my MLT (10 gallon cooler) which is probably why I don't need 170F water to hit 153