All grain to partial mash conversion

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Blackhawkbrew

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I'm attempting to convert an all grain recipe to partial mash and would like some advice. The recipe is from The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide and is an IPA with oak chips.

The AG recipe is as follows:

9 lbs. British Pale Malt
1/2 lb. Cara-Pils Malt
3/4 lb. Crystal (80L)
2 tsp. Gypsum
1 1/2 oz. Kent Goldings (Bittering)
1 1/2 oz. Kent Goldings (Aroma)
1 1/2 oz. Cascade (Dry Hop)
2 oz. Oak Chips
1 Packet American Ale Yeast

My partial mash recipe:

5 lbs. Amber DME
2 lbs. British Pale Malt
and everything else remaining the same.

I just started using Beersmith and the gravity is within range, but I don't know if that is all I need to look at for a proper conversion.

Any assistance using Beersmith for this would also be helpful.
 
I would probally use Light DME instead of the amber to try and keep it in the color range of an IPA. The amber might make it a little darker than you would want
 
If you look at this conversion chart it says that you'll need 5.25 lbs of LME and 4.2 lbs of DME.

If you are keeping 2 lbs of pale malt, then you are subbing out for 7lbs of malt and thus would need less DME than you have listed.

but i'm sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong
 
I think he went with the DME at .65 lbs per pound of grain he is substituting instead of .60lbs like that chart uses. I have seen .6 or .65 in my search the past couple of days. If you do .65lbs DME per pound of grain you are substituting you will get 4.55 so I guess he rounded up?

All that being said this is all very to new to as well so I could be wrong as well.
 
MgMt_Home_Brew,

You give me waaay to much credit. I simply added DME into Brewsmith until I got to the right SG.

Donner,

Are you saying that I would have to use Both DME and LME in this conversion, or are the amounts either 5.25 lbs. of DME OR 4.2 lbs. of LME?
 
after rereading my post it should say OR instead of and. It's one of the other, not both, my bad.

The link i attached makes doing the conversions pretty easy (in case you haven't looked at it yet).

Again, sorry, LME or DME, but not both, at least not in those amounts. But i do also second using light or extra light extract for color.
 
i occasionally use beer alchemy (since i run a mac), but i haven't played with it enough to trust making the conversions. It's fairly easy to just total up my specialty grains and subtract that from the number of pounds i can mash. Once i know how much pale malt i can use i just sub the rest out as DME. After i do that i'll enter it into beer alchemy to make sure my numbers still yield the right gravities and then use the print out to aid me on brew day.
 
I have been reading the 2 links that are posted in here and they are both really helpful for converting recipes. The one that fivehoursfree posted seems much more thorough but they are both good.

Last night a attempted to convert BierMuncher's centennial blonde recipe and I think it turned out pretty good. I didn't account for the temp difference but the target OG was 1.040 and I hit 1.042-44. And that was using 5 pounds (including specialty) of grain and like 2.5 pounds of DME. I can't wait to see how it turns out.
 
Yeah I am ready to go all grain and my plan was to build my mash tun this weekend but I didn't get paid like I thought I was going to so that might have wait till that pay check comes in :mad:
 
I'm attempting to convert an all grain recipe to partial mash and would like some advice. The recipe is from The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide and is an IPA with oak chips.

The AG recipe is as follows:

9 lbs. British Pale Malt
1/2 lb. Cara-Pils Malt
3/4 lb. Crystal (80L)
2 tsp. Gypsum
1 1/2 oz. Kent Goldings (Bittering)
1 1/2 oz. Kent Goldings (Aroma)
1 1/2 oz. Cascade (Dry Hop)
2 oz. Oak Chips
1 Packet American Ale Yeast

My partial mash recipe:

5 lbs. Amber DME
2 lbs. British Pale Malt
and everything else remaining the same.

I just started using Beersmith and the gravity is within range, but I don't know if that is all I need to look at for a proper conversion.

Any assistance using Beersmith for this would also be helpful.

I am fairly new to the all grain stuff my self as I only have one AG batch and 3 partial mashes under my belt but I hve played with BeerSmith a good bit when setting recipes. My advice is similar to those posted already. Assuming you are keeping your specialty grains and mashing them with the base malt just cut the DME back a little bit and use extra light if you can. You could go with 5 pounds of DME and it would just give you a little stronger beer, but wouldn't really affect the body. Also try a late extract addition with adding about a third of your extract as boil begins. Then add the rest of your DME with 15 minutes left in the boil to keep you color lighter. Good luck!
 
So, is it safe to say that, since I'm able to mash about 4.5 lbs of grain in my 2 gallon cooler, I should substitute the rest of the base grain amount in the recipe with extract by using the conversion tables?

For example: if the AG recipe calls for 9 lbs. of base grains and I use 4.5 lbs of grain in my PM that would leave me with 4.5 lbs of grain to convert. Using the chart from Donner, I would need 2.7 lbs of DME or 3.38 lbs of LME.

Does this sound right?

Sorry for the need for a step-by-step instruction :eek:
 
That is more or less correct. Keep in mind, though, that you have to take specialty grains into account, as well. So, if you have say 1 lb of specialty grains that you need to mash, that is one less pound of base malt you can include since you have a ceiling of 4.5 lbs.

subtract your speciality grains first from your total, (so in my example this is 1 lbs of specialty grains from 4.5 lbs of total grains you are able to mash). This gives you 3.5 lbs of base grains you can mash. If the recipe calls for 9 lbs then 9-3.5= 5.5 lbs of base malt you don't have room to mash and need to sub out for extract. According to the chart that means you need either 4.13 lbs of LME or 3.3 lbs of DME to make up for the 5.5lbs of base malt you can't mash. See?
 
I've done 3 or 4 partials. I like the idea of all-grain, and santa brought me a large enough pot and burner to do it, but i just like doing the PM. I don't like paying for extract, but i don't feel confident enough rely solely on my mashing skills for my fermentables.

At some point i'm sure i'll go AG, but PM is a nice balance. I've even started getting creative. I did a stout around christmas where i steeped my darker grains and mashed the rest so that i didn't have to mess with mash pH. BYO is a good resource, as well. They seem to do several PM related issues every so often.
 
I know what you're saying about the confidence with PM's. I have the AG itch, but don't have the $ for the equipment yet. Which is probably good so I can keep doing partials until I feel comfortable with everything.

Do you use a cooler for your MLT or do you mash on the stove? Also, are you doing partial boils as well, or going full boils?
 
I have a 2-gallon rubbermaid that works really well for mashing and holds just under 5 lbs of grain. I have a line on a free 10-gallon, but don't have it yet.

Of my four PMs, i've done two as partial boils (pre christmas) and two as full boils (post).

Doing full boils is nice, but does come with it's own challenges. I have noticed a nice improvement in my beer since going PM, but that could also just be from getting more practice each time i brew.

The big advantage of doing full boils, aside from the hops utilization argument, is that you don't have to worry about going over your boil level as much. I don't have to worry that i'll end up with too much wort and too small a pot.
 
I just got my 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler today! It was only $38 at Home Depot which i thought was pretty sweet. I have a ball valve and the nipple for the outside tube but I am trying to decide what kind of manifold I should use (SS braid or copper tubing). But tomorrow I will probably figure that out and do my first AG next weekend.
 
$38 for a 10gallon cooler! I might just have to check that out - for future use. Did you get all the hardware at HD as well?

Donner,
When you do full boil PM with your 2 gallon cooler do you just sparge until you get to your boil volume? How much do you end up boiling? I just have 30 quart turkey fryer. I know that's at the lower limit for AG, but I've read that you have to keep an eye on it for boilovers.
 
I had been using ~5.5 qts for mash and then the same amount for sparging. This got me close to the 3 gallons i was boiling when i was doing partial boils. Now i've upped my sparge closer to .5 gallons per lb (which i think is the upper limit, though i'd have to check my notes to be sure). What i don't mash i simply pour into the kettle. I target 6.5 gallons and that usually lets me transfer about 5 gallons to the fermenter.

The other thing i'd suggest is that you use a late addition for your extract. I don't add mine until there is 15 minutes remaining (usually at the next hop addition and when i add the irish moss). This keeps the extract from darkening too much (but you might know that already).
 
I got a couple pieces from HD and I went to ACE hardware and they seemed to have everything I needed but I haven't decided what to do for my manifold. But I liked ACE hardware better. I would rather go to a small hardware store than a depot for hardware.
 
I've been doing the late extract addition for my last few batches. I've also been using mostly DME. The thing I don't like about the DME is that it clumps up at the mouth of the bag when I'm pouring. Maybe I should put it in a big bowl and dump it from that.
 
Fivehoursfree thank you for posting that I am just getting into Partial Mashing after many beers tasting like extract. The math really helped. I had been doing it with BeerSmith the same way the OP was doing it. Now I know the math involved and can check my finding now instead of guessing.
 
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