Partial Mash Equipment Wish List

Hello all!

I am new to homebrewing, however, I have done a few extract brews. I was thinking of moving over to partial mash in the New Year. I currently have the "Ale Pale" and a 5 gallon carboy. What other equipment do I need to add to my holiday wish list to get started with PM brewing?

Try
http://homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8805&highlight=mini+mash+extract+brewers
for a Mash Lauter Tun.

That's probably all you "really" need for PM recipes. Although some would argue for the bucket within a bucket method.

Maybe a thermometer.

I would not use the dual bucket method as during an hour mash you will lost 5 degrees thus defeating the entire purpose of mashing. (which is to gain more control over the final beer, in case you were wondering)

That is a good thread though it is quite long. I would suggest leafing through the whole thing to see everyone's ideas. You'll find you can spend about $25 - $100 on a cooler MLT, but they all work for the most part.

The bucket-tun doesn't make any sense to me, other that it's a couple dollars cheaper than doing one out of a cooler. I didn't lose a single degree in my Coleman Xtreme cooler during an hour-plus mash. I had a helluva time getting above 150, but it was at 150 for the entire hour. No screwing around with blankets or anything.

the_bird said:

The bucket-tun doesn't make any sense to me, other that it's a couple dollars cheaper than doing one out of a cooler. I didn't lose a single degree in my Coleman Xtreme cooler during an hour-plus mash. I had a helluva time getting above 150, but it was at 150 for the entire hour. No screwing around with blankets or anything.

Click to expand...

And that was in 40 degree ambient Vermont air!

Why not do the mash in a pot on the stove and the lautering in the buckets?

Lot easier, and if you have a cooler that holds temp well you'll have a very consistent temperature. Adding direct heat will allow you to do a step-mash, but that's generally not needed. It'll also make you a slave to the stovetop / propane burner so that the temps don't get so hot as to denature the enzymes.

With a cooler, you heat your water to the specified temp, add the right amount to the cooler, add your grain, double-check the temp and adjust accordingly, and then you can almost just set-and-forget it. I kept the probe thermometer in there to monitor the temp, stirred it every twenty minutes or so, but was able to relax and have a few brews while they did their thing.

When I first got started I did a bunch of partial mash brews with a grain bag on the stove top , a thermometer, and sparged with my bottling bucket. Eventually I got a cooler and a Tun up and running and have been doing AG exclusively. I probably was not getting the most complete conversions then, but I learned a lot about what flavors you get from what grain's and best of all it was simple.

A lot depends on your budget and whether you want to build your own kit or buy it ready done.

I've done PM's with a stainless steel pot as a mash-tun. I just put the pot into a warm oven (170 degrees), close door and turn oven off. Leave it alone for an hour. Almost invariably, the temp never drops more than a degree or two. The real challenge is sparging. But for PM, I don't sweat it, I use a collander and just pour 170 degree water through it. I recirculate the first runnings.

It's definitely not the most efficient way, but it's easy and I've made great beers with this method.

this being said, I've recently bought a coleman extreme cooler and will be venturing into AG brewing in 2007. I can't wait!

I've done several mini-mashes on my stovetop using a two-pot system.

I would heat 1.25qt/lb water in an 8-qt pot 10 ~160F and put my mini-mash grains in a bag and steep them for 45 min. I would heat the remainder of my boil in a larger 8-gallon pot and hold it at ~180F. I'd "batch sparge" the grain bag in the ~180F pot for about 10 minutes, lift the grain bag out with some tongs and let drip until it was just a drop at a time. Then I'd add the wort from the smaller pot to the boil pot and boil it up from there.

IMO you really don't need any "mashing" equipment like a cooler tun unless you're ready to go all-grain. The efficiency of my PMs weren't what I get out of my AG system, but remember that a PM still gets most of it's fermentables from extract... you're really looking to extract better (and more subtle) flavors from the added grains, or to utilize grains that require to be mashed (that you can't do in an extract w/steeping grains brew), so efficiency of a PM system shouldn't be a super critical focus. If it is, you just might as well go AG.