Partial mash extract volumes

Will be brewing a Pinkus Alt partial mash, then extract, hop additions....
After mash add volume yada yada
I am guessing there is not an issue if I fill boil kettle to 6 gallons for my 5 gallon result
Sounds crazy but it should be ok vs the 2.5 gallon I usually do then add water to carboy

Any thoughts?

I'm not understanding the question.

Very basically... you would be mashing the unconverted grain for 45-60 minutes for the prescribed temperature, at the rate of 1.5 liters water per 1 lb. grain.

After all the steps in between, you would bring the full volume of water with the weakened grain wort up to a boil, add your extract as the recipe instructs to bring your wort up to where it should be, plus hop additions, etc. ~~
This volume will have evaporated some after the boil (usually 1 gal an hour depending on your system).

Does that answer your question?

If your recipe is for a 2.5 gallon partial boil then doing a full 6 gallon boil will throw your utilization off changing the hop and bittering profile you may need to adjust amounts

Also hope you have a chiller as cooling a full boil takes a lot more than a partial

Thanks
Yes it does. Probably a dumb question. But I just purchased an 8 gallon pot so I have the ability to boil total volume using extracts and partial mash. I usually can only boil 3 gallons due to kettle size. I was not sure if extracts needed more concentrated water to extract ratio ie 6 lbs/3 gallons vs the higher volume water with the new large kettle. Thank you for replying

Balue said:

If your recipe is for a 2.5 gallon partial boil then doing a full 6 gallon boil will throw your utilization off changing the hop and bittering profile you may need to adjust amounts

Also hope you have a chiller as cooling a full boil takes a lot more than a partial

Click to expand...

Yes I have an immersion chiller

Mashing in full water volume is basically the same is the BIAB technique. After the 60 min mash is complete you can try a "mash out" but turning on the burner and stirring until temp increased to 172 degF then remove grain bag and continue with normal boil. If you measure the SG after the mash you can adjust the extract quantities to hit your target post boil gravity.

Also remember to account for the volume of the LME in your kit. 6 lbs LME is about 1/2 gallon. Forgot this on my first full boil and had to increase boil time to hit targets.

jCOSbrew said:

Mashing in full water volume is basically the same is the BIAB technique. After the 60 min mash is complete you can try a "mash out" but turning on the burner and stirring until temp increased to 172 degF then remove grain bag and continue with normal boil. If you measure the SG after the mash you can adjust the extract quantities to hit your target post boil gravity.

Click to expand...

I do BIAB a bit differently. Using two kettles (one small/one large) I mash the bagged grains in the smaller kettle while the plain water in the main kettle is slowly coming up to 170-ish. After the mash, I'll dip the grain bag several times in the 170-ish water in the main kettle. Let it hang/drain. Then proceed to add the grain wort to the main kettle, bring to a boil, add the extract if partial mashing, and boil as usual. This way, I don't skimp on the 1.5 L water to 1 lb. grain mash ratio.

Yeah, the only thing to check would be the hop additions, primarily the bittering additions. If the recipe was written up as add all extract to mash wort, then boil, the gravity of the boil is higher (because you'll dilute it later). The higher gravity generally means that you don't get as much utilization from your bitterings hops. With a full boil, the gravity is lower because you've already diluted it as far as you intend to, so if you use the same hop amounts you'll wind up with a higher IBU.

On the other hand, if the recipe writer was especially good or you got the recipe from here, its possible that they already included a "late extract addition". When I was doing partial mash/partial boils, I'd only boil the mash wort and wouldn't add the extract until 15 min were left in the boil. That way the gravity in the boil kettle for the bittering additions was lower, so I wouldn't have to adjust my amounts if I rebrewed the batch as full boil.

So you'll have to take a look at the recipe. Another option is to get some brewing software and use that to figure out where your gravity and IBU levels are. Right now I've got Beersmith (about $20-25), but before that I was using a free program called Brew Target. There are also a bunch of online calculators that can do similar things. For what its worth, a lot of people say that full boils lead to a better product (all water is boiled to disinfect, less caramelization, lower gravities, etc.). Good luck with the brew!

Thanks everyone for responding. Great info!
I'll let you know how it comes out

Cheers!

The Pinkus came out fantastic. Thank you for your replies

Another question, how big of a bag should I use for a BIAB five gallon batch

For future reference, if you didn't already figure this out -- you can do full boils and use AG recipes, but just scale the 2 row to DME/LME.

Makes life sooo much easier, and def improves the quality of your brew. It's a great step to get to AG.

nickmv said:

For future reference, if you didn't already figure this out -- you can do full boils and use AG recipes, but just scale the 2 row to DME/LME.

Makes life sooo much easier, and def improves the quality of your brew. It's a great step to get to AG.

Click to expand...

Thanks
Your thoughts on BIAB and appropriate bag size?