Diff. between all grain and partial mash

Just getting into home brewing. What is the diff. between all grain and partial mash?

all grain is just that, all grain. partial mash is some grain and some LME/DME. Most of the fermentable sugars in a partial mash still come from the LME/DME while all the sugars in all grain come from the grain.
All grain uses more grain in a batch and generally requires a larger kettle to work with. I'm sure some of the AG brewers here can chip in some more differences.

Both are about the same amount of time/work, but AG requires some equipment beyond what extract or PM brewing requires: most notably, a kettle large enough to boil 7 gallons or so, a wort chiller to chill it quickly, and a mash tun/alutering system of some sort.

The reason some homebrewers do partial mashes is that there are many grains that don't really contribute anything to an extract beer if just steeped--they need to be mashed with some amount of a base malt like 2-row malt in order for their sugars and flavor contributions to be extracted.

So PM brewing opens up the many more possible grains available to the AG brewer, without some of the expensive equipment required.

BTW, partial-mash is *not* the same thing as extract w/steeping grains. That seems to cause some confusion here sometimes.

partial mash: using some grains to convert starch to sugar and suplimenting with some other sugary supstance be it dme or other.

All grain: using all grain to convert starch to sugar

the temps for the mash should be kept arount the magin zone of 150° to 160°.

you will find on the internet some really simple instructions and some mind numbingly complex instructions but Pauls Page is a great place to start

So a recipe is either all grain or partial mash but it can't be both right?

It might be misleading to describe a recipe that uses 12 lbs of grain and 1 lb of malt extract as a "partial mash", but since it is not ALL grain....

I just call them beer recipes.

-walker

Walker-san said:

It might be misleading to describe a recipe that uses 12 lbs of grain and 1 lb of malt extract as a "partial mash", but since it is not ALL grain....

I just call them beer recipes.

-walker

Click to expand...

Or 12 lbs of grain and 6 lbs of DME for a 1.120 Barley Wine if you only have a 5 gallon Mash Tun



beer recipes goood!

mikey