Mash water volumes

Well I guess I won't be doing my first partial mash today seeing as how my ingredients are still sitting in some Fedex warehouse. But I guess thats good so I can get one last question answered (hopefully the last for this batch). I was going through the water volumes for my mash and they seem low.

3lbs of grain
.75gal strike water
1.125gal sparge water
1.575gal wort from partial mash. Assuming .3 gal absorbed by grain.

Seems like a waste of time for only 1.6 gallons.

jcarson83 said:

3lbs of grain
.75gal strike water
1.125gal sparge water
1.575gal wort from partial mash. Assuming .3 gal absorbed by grain.

Seems like a waste of time for only 1.6 gallons.

Click to expand...

First off you should up the sparge to 1 1/2 gallons (1/2 gallon per pound of grain). Second, for a partial mash I would use more grain if you can. What grains are you using in this beer? The whole purpose of a partial mash is to get fermentables to augment the extract. For this you will need to use some 2 row base malt. You will also add your specialty grain to the mash to extract the flavors and colors you want.
Look at this recipe that I used for the PM brew I did in my 3 gallon mash/ lauter tun.
I used 4 pounds of American 2-row which reduced the dried malt extract by 2 1/2 pounds. I used 1 1/2 gallons for the mash and 2 1/2 gallons for sparging. With grain absorption I ended up with about 3 1/2 gallons in the brew pot.
I hope this helps.
McDermit's Irish Ale

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 8.13
Anticipated OG: 1.056 Plato: 13.81
Anticipated SRM: 14.9
Anticipated IBU: 42.6
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
49.2 4.00 lbs. American 2-row America 1.038 2
36.9 3.00 lbs. Generic DME - Light Generic 1.046 8
12.3 1.00 lbs. Crystal 55L Great Britian 1.034 55
1.5 0.13 lbs. Roasted Barley America 1.028 450
Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.25 oz. Cascade Whole 5.80 31.5 60 min.
1.00 oz. Goldings - E.K. Whole 5.00 11.1 30 min.
Yeast
-----
WYeast 1968 London Extra Special Bitter

I'd bump up your mash ratio to 1.5 quarts per pound of grain to have an average mash thickness... 1 qt/lb is considered thick, 2+ qt/lb is considered thin...

From http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-6.html
And I would sparge with around 1.75 gallons to hit about 3 gallons total wort collected (mash + sparge)

Hope that Helps,

mikey

EDIT: Damn your fast fingers Rich!!!

Heres my recipe, except I changed it to 4lbs of DME and 2lbs of Pale and 1lbs of Crystal.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=10716

I got this from the Clone Brews North American.

jcarson83 said:

Heres my recipe, except I changed it to 4lbs of DME and 2lbs of Pale and 1lbs of Crystal.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=10716

I got this from the Clone Brews North American.

Click to expand...

You could bump the 2 row up to 3 1/2 pounds and reduce the DME to 3 pounds and you will end up with more wort in your kettle plus it saves you a pound of DME.

Remember, the purpose of a mini-mash is to add flavors you can't get from extract and convert sugars from specialty grains that steeping can't accomplish.

The calculators are designed to give you the correct amounts of sparging water for an all-grain batch. This is always a balance between getting good extraction and minimizing boil-down time. When I do a mini-mash, I typically use around 2 quarts per pound. Then I drain the first wort and put all the rest of the water (3 1/2-5 gallons @ 170F) for the batch into the mash tun, stir and drain.

The professional standard is 40 oz H20 per pound of malt.

By the same token, I don't think many pros do mini-mashes. BMC might, to get mini-flavor.

Thanks guys thats helpful.