Mini mash Time and Temp?

I'm doing a 2 gallon Pale Ale test batch with some homegrown hops for the first time and was wondering about how long to mash my grain bill, and at what temp.

I'm thinking
1.5 lbs American 2 Row
.5 lbs Caramunich II

in a Half gallon of water at 150 for 45 min?

The other fermentable would be 1.5 lbs Light DME

Ive meade my own recipes before but they were mostly fudging with some ingredients, this is the first time i've built a partial mash. Any help would be appreciated!

Jack

Primary: Was supposed to be Long Trail Hibernator until my thermometer broke in the wort!

Bottle: AHS Pumpkin Ale

Is there a reason to mash the 2-row rather than just using more DME? The caramunich is a crystal malt and can be steeped- it doesn't require mashing. If you do mash it, I would mash those grains in a full gallon for a nice thin mash and a little more thermal mass.

daksin said:

Is there a reason to mash the 2-row rather than just using more DME? The caramunich is a crystal malt and can be steeped- it doesn't require mashing. If you do mash it, I would mash those grains in a full gallon for a nice thin mash and a little more thermal mass.

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I'm thinking the opposite- for a 2 gallon batch, why not just use an extra couple pounds of 2-row and make it an AG recipe? That'll also give you additional thermal mass. As long as your mash tun can accommodate that much grain, I say mash as big as you can- same amount of effort, so why not?

HeadyKilowatt said:

I'm thinking the opposite- for a 2 gallon batch, why not just use an extra couple pounds of 2-row and make it an AG recipe? That'll also give you additional thermal mass. As long as your mash tun can accommodate that much grain, I say mash as big as you can- same amount of effort, so why not?

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I agree. For that small of a batch if you are going to mash you might as well do it all with no additional work or time required.

If you're going to mash 2 pounds of grain, using up to 4 quarts of water for the mash is fine, but I wouldn't go over that. Keep in mind that about 1/4-1/3 of the wort will be absorbed in the mash, though, so you won't get that much out of the mash. Don't use 1/2 gallon for the mash (2 quarts) as that is about how much the grain will absorb so it would be totally pointless to do that!

HeadyKilowatt said:

I'm thinking the opposite- for a 2 gallon batch, why not just use an extra couple pounds of 2-row and make it an AG recipe? That'll also give you additional thermal mass. As long as your mash tun can accommodate that much grain, I say mash as big as you can- same amount of effort, so why not?

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You know that's a good point. Do that.