Beer Captured Mini-Mash Method

I plan on brewing Anderson Valley's Boont Amber recipe from the book Beer Captured. I would like to use the Mini-Mash method since I have only been extract brewing thus far.

In the book it says to mash the malt & specialty grains for 90 minutes then follow the extract recipe using about half of the malt extract.

My question is: Where exactly do I jump into the extract recipe? At the point where it tells me to sparge?

It seems to me that I not only skip out on half of the LME, but also ditch the 30 minute steeping session. Am I correct?

whats the recipe? does it really say 'about half'?

most mini mash recipes are for about 2 lbs of grain, which will not do much as far as replacing extract, but if your sparging im guessing your doing like 5-6 lbs of grain, which will affect the gravity.

put the recipe up, and well tell you what do do.

I've not done this but I would think that you would mash and sparge out your grains.Then add extract and water if needed to bring it to boil volume. Do they tell you how much water to use in the mash portion of the recipe? I don't think you would have to steep the grains since this would happen when you mash. That's a very good beer. I really like it.

Ivan Lendl said:

whats the recipe? does it really say 'about half'?

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I wrote "about half" because it says to subtract 1.75 lbs. LME. The standard malt extract method calls for 4 lbs. LME.

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Blender said:

Do they tell you how much water to use in the mash portion of the recipe? I don't think you would have to steep the grains since this would happen when you mash.

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They don't specify how much to use during the mash but they do say to bring it up to 2.5 gallons for the boil.

I talked to a guy at my LHBS and he said to jump in at the sparging point. All of my malts are in one bag that I bought so the mash is also a steep. It made sense to me, but like I said before, I am a newbie to mini-mash and thought I'd get some of your guys' input.

The recipe is in the Beer Captured book for anyone who wants to take a peek. All of the recipes offer a mini-mash and all-grain alternative to the standard extract method.

Blender said:

That's a very good beer. I really like it.

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AVBC's Boont Amber is one of my all-time favorites and I am really looking forward to getting started on Friday!

You will need to determine the weight of the grain and from there you can figure the amount of water to use for the mash part. How much wort can you boil for your batches?

DP said:

I plan on brewing Anderson Valley's Boont Amber recipe from the book Beer Captured. I would like to use the Mini-Mash method since I have only been extract brewing thus far.

In the book it says to mash the malt & specialty grains for 90 minutes then follow the extract recipe using about half of the malt extract.

My question is: Where exactly do I jump into the extract recipe? At the point where it tells me to sparge?

It seems to me that I not only skip out on half of the LME, but also ditch the 30 minute steeping session. Am I correct?

Click to expand...

AG gurus can correct me on this first statement if I am wrong, but....

When you mash, you should throw all of the grains (including the speciality grains that you would normally steep for an extract+grain batch) into mash tun. Then, when you have finished sparged the grains, you are going to be left with a bunch of sweet liquid.

You jump into the 'extract method' at this point... just pretend that the liquid you drew from your mini-mash is water that has already had grain steeped in it. Heat it up to boiling, remove from heat, add your extract, return to boil, add hops, etc, etc, etc.

One last comment on the 'about half' reference to extract. My personal experience is that a 'normal' amount of LME to use for a 5 gallon batch is between 5 lbs (light bodied) and 7.5 lbs (fuller bodied).

4 lbs of extract (as you mentioned) seems pretty skimpy for a 5 gallon batch, IMHO.

-walker

Imperial Walker said:

One last comment on the 'about half' reference to extract. My personal experience is that a 'normal' amount of LME to use for a 5 gallon batch is between 5 lbs (light bodied) and 7.5 lbs (fuller bodied).

4 lbs of extract (as you mentioned) seems pretty skimpy for a 5 gallon batch, IMHO.

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The recipes in Clone Brews and Beer Captured almost always include some amont of LME and some amount of DME. So the 4 lbs LME is normal for their recipes. I'm guessing that they do this as a way to fine-tune the final gravity by mixing extracts.

cweston said:

The recipes in Clone Brews and Beer Captured almost always include some amont of LME and some amount of DME. So the 4 lbs LME is normal for their recipes. I'm guessing that they do this as a way to fine-tune the final gravity by mixing extracts.

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Ahhhh... ok. that makes sense.

-walker

What Walker said. When you do your partial mash you will do it with the 2-row and all the specialty grains. This replaces the steeping portion of the extract recipe. After you sparge and remove the grains you add the fractional amount of extract, get your boil going, and start hopping according to schedule.

Blender said:

You will need to determine the weight of the grain and from there you can figure the amount of water to use for the mash part. How much wort can you boil for your batches?

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2 lbs. of Pale Ale Malt
12 oz. of Crystal 80°L Malt
4 oz. of Crystal 40°L Malt
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3 lbs. grain TOTAL


I have a 22 quart (5.5 gallon) stainless steel stockpot that I use as my brewkettle.

How do I compute the amount of water to use for the mash part?

use 1 gallon...thats 1.33 qt. per lb. = 3.99 qt.

i wouldnt subtract any extract, these grains will give you an og of 1.014 @ 75 percent...

Awesome -- Thank you.


And for the sparge -- my recipe calls for 1/2 gallon of 150°F water -- any advantage/disadvantage to using more or less?

i would sparge with at least 1 gallon, @ 168, not 150...Since your only mashing in with 1 gallon, you can afford to sparge with as much as your kettle can handle, for 3 lbs. 1 gallon is fine, more is better...

168°?

A little better rinse, I guess?

yup...what are you using as a lauter? check out my gallery i just put some picks up of my 'free' lauter tun curtousey of farm fresh icing buckets and a drill...it works great!

i'm very interested in trying something like this

I have a question though

is the ratio #'sdme/#'sgrain the same with most grains

if so what is the typical ratio of let's say 3lbsDME to ?lbsGrain

BT

Bjorn Borg said:

yup...what are you using as a lauter? check out my gallery i just put some picks up of my 'free' lauter tun curtousey of farm fresh icing buckets and a drill...it works great!

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So how many homebrews did you consume during the construction of said lauter?

I'm guessing A LOT!!! :cross: That's a bunch of holes!

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I was planning on doing the same thing, actually and was just poking around my garage. Here's a thought though:

What if I had a separate pot on a different burner with 168° water in it. My mash grains would be in a nylon bag and when I was done mashing I could transfer the bag from the brown mash water to the clear sparge water. Wouldn't this have the same effect as pouring the sparge water over the grains? In fact, I think it might have more effect. But I am certain I am not the first guy to think of this so maybe there's another explanation...

3 lbs dme would yeild an og of 1.027 (5 gallon)

5.5 lbs. 2-row would yield an og of 1.027 @ 70 percent efficiency
(5 gallon)

so thats 1.85 times the amount(1.85 x 3=5.5) but thats at 70 percent efficiency.

since your only doing 3 lbs,that would work, your getting most of your fermentables from extract anyway, so your efficiency isnt that important. even at 100 percent efficiency you would still only yeild an og of about 1.018.

an even easier way is after your mash is done, raise the temp to 168, (which is done to stop enzyme activity) after ten min. dip the bag in and out slowly letting it drip drain for a 1/2minute or so each time about ten times, being sure not to squeeze the bag, discard and your done. Youll probably still get a decent efficiency this way, and its alot easier...

I haven't done the conversions in a while, but what I've generally seen is that DME is 60% of grain required, or LME is 80% of grain required.

So, as an example:
10lbs grain == 8lbs LME == 6lbs DME

It depends on other factors like efficiency of mash, brand of extract, etc., but that's the general idea. Hopefully someone more familiar with extract and the ratios will correct me if I'm off.

Bjorn Borg said:

an even easier way is after your mash is done, raise the temp to 168, (which is done to stop enzyme activity) after ten min. dip the bag in and out slowly letting it drip drain for a 1/2minute or so each time about ten times, being sure not to squeeze the bag, discard and your done. Youll probably still get a decent efficiency this way, and its alot easier...

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How does one measure the efficiency of a sparge?

By taking a gravity reading and comparing it to the maximum possible for the grain. With this being a partial mash, most of your fermentables are from the extract. I think someone posted that you would only get about 1.014 or so out of your grain. I wouldn't worry about the efficiency too much. I would say just take a regular OG reading at the end of the boil. If Janx were here, he'd say throw the hydrometer away!

DP said:

How does one measure the efficiency of a sparge?

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you measure the efficiency of your mash/lauter/sparge technique AS A WHOLE by comparing your og hydro reading with the theoretical yeild.

so if you use 3 lbs (2 lbs 2-row+1 lbs. crystal) your theoretical og is 1.0188
plus 3 lbs dme which yeilds an og of 1.027, added up it is 1.0458

so if for example your actual hydro reading is 1.042, then you subtract 1.027, because dme always yeilds 100 percent, and your left with 1.015. you divide that by 1.0188 and you get .79 (x 100=79 percent)

I'll be damned.

So how does your new lauter tun stack up? That is, what efficiency is it running at?

Personally, I wouldn't reduce the extract by that much, if at all. You're not going to get very efficient extraction without a proper sparge (ie if you're using a grain bag).

The grain will still improve the flavor of your beer and add some fermentables, but I wouldn't reduce the extract by more than .5-.75 pounds at most unless you do a real sparge.

I used to work at AVBC. I never thought much of the amber (I personally don't think much of amber as a "style") but they make great beer. The stout, porter, IPA and especially ESB are awesome. Cheers!

Janx,

Do you consider the 5-gallon-bucket-with-holes-at-the-bottom deal (like the one in Bjorn Borg's gallery) to be a "proper sparge"?

I just threw the grain bag-in-pot idea out there to see what folks thought...

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You are right -- they're all good.