Extract w/ Specialty vs. Partial-Mash

I'm wondering what the dividing line is considered to be between extract brewing with specialty grains and partial-mash brewing--and how best to handle crossing that line.

I ordered the ingredients for an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale, inspired by the book Radical Brewing and Northern Brewer's small-batch beer of the same name. The thing is, I've only brewed two beers before, and they were both extract/specialty, and I didn't really realize that partial-mashing was different from extract/specialty.

At what point is a recipe considered partial-mash? I'm assuming it's based on the quantity of non-extract grains. The recipe I created has 4 lbs. of DME and 4 lbs. of grain--and the stuff is on its way (darn Northern Brewer for their efficiency!).

Assuming that this recipe would be best handled through a partial mash, what's the best way of handling it? I was thinking of running to Home Depot and grabbing a 2-gallon round cooler. Is that the best solution, and if so, what should I do about a filter? Put a wire mesh over the inside of the spout? Create some sort of filter bag to hold the grains? Something else?

Seems you are at about the point I am.

Partial mashing is just that. Rather than steeping your grains at an approximate temperature for 30-45 minutes or so, you are mashing them which is just steeping them at an exact temperature for a specific amount of time to maximize the conversion of starches to sugars.

I have been planning an Imperial IPA that was going to be partial mash to save myself the trouble of spending more on extracts but the more I look into partial mashing, the more I convince myself to just go all-grain. If you are going to spend the money to buy a cooler and make a mash tun to mash correctly, why not buy a 10 gallon cooler, convert it correctly into a mash tun with a proper false bottom or SS braid, so you have it for future batches if you want to go all grain.

But if you wish to just do a partial mash on the fly then you could probably get a smaller 4-5 gallon cooler, a larger fine mesh bag and have yourself something for partial mashes. I just figured if I am going to go through the trouble to partial mash, why not set myself up for all-grain!

Just remember to sparge the grains after your mash so as to get the most out of them. I made the mistake of steeping a partial mash recipe once and although it tasted fine and came out okay, its OG was significantly lower than what it should have been and it was sadly, more of a session beer than a "2 beers to paradise" sort of thing.

So the long and short of it... you can get a smaller cooler and a grain bag and do a partial mash, but for a little more money you could invest in your future and make the move towards all-grain. I am going with the latter option as I don't like wasting money on trivial middle steps to get to where I want to be.

I'm starting to lean toward setting up a full-on all-grain setup as well. Is the 10-gallon cooler you mention the size I'd want for a 5-gallon batch? Also, what's the SS braid you mention?

I will also add that I was extremely hesitant to enter the All-Grain world as I thought the initial costs would cripple me and my whole brewing world would be turned upside down. I also live in an apartment so space is an issue, but then I stumbled upon this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CRI1veziKI

After watching that guy AG brew in his kitchen I decided it was more approachable than I first thought. I figure I don't even need the 2 kettles for strike/sparge water and the boil. I can just use one kettle to heat the strike water, mash, use the same one to heat sparge water during the mash, then I can fly sparge into a bottling bucket and transfer that back to the kettle once the sparge is done... not ideal but saves me having to buy a mash tun and a HLT or 2nd kettle.

Sorry if I have migrated off topic.

From everything I have read, a 10 gallon cooler is ideal for 5 gallon batches. I originally was looking at 7 or 8 gallon coolers but that limits the beer you can make. If you want to do big beers like 2xIPAs, Imperial Stouts and Barleywine type styles, you need a large tun to accommodate the bigger grain bill.

10 gallons works well for pretty much any 5 gallon batch you will do, as with the water and grain your volumes will fall between 6-9 gallons.

The SS braid (stainless steel braid) is just another option instead of dropping more money on a false bottom. I have heard good and bad reviews for each style and figured since an SS braid is cheaper I would go that route. It also seems easier to clear if you have a stuck sparge.

10 gallon cooler conversion:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/

I plan on doing that with a 10 gallon Igloo Industrial Cooler... $47 on amazon

SS braid vs. False Bottom:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/ss-false-bottom-ss-braid-289971/

further info on the SS braid:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Stainless_steel_braid

When I started I thought getting in to all grain would cost hundred of dollars, when in reality it can be done relatively well on the cheap. No need for those expensive 3-tier brewing sculptures and all the bells and whistles. 1 mash tun, 1 kettle, and an extra bucket seem to be the most economical route.

Nope, I was in the middle of reading an article and I was going to ask if I'd really need two pots if I was using a plastic cooler as a lauter tun--my brew kettle is plenty big enough (7 gal.) and I figured I'd have time to heat up the sparge water during the rests. I was careful when I bought my extract equipment to make it compatible with all-grain! Like you suggest, I can use my bottling bucket for recirculation.

with a partial mash you get fermentable sugars from grains. with extract with grains you are just there for the color and or toastiness and other flavor characteristics. any sugars are just incidental.

One thing to note is that with a 5 gallon kettle, you are never going to be able to do a full volume boil which effects your hop utilization and sometimes flavor as you are watering down your wort when you go to the fermenter by topping it off to 5 gallons if that is your batch size.

BIAB is an option for some but I find going with a MLT, although maybe slightly more expensive at first is more along the lines of where I want my home brew operation to move. Different strokes for different folks.

My logic was just that if I am going to be mashing anything, why not mash it all. Extracts are expensive.

Right now I'm going to be a partial-volume, simply because I don't have a burner yet that will allow me to boil 5 gallons all at once (still using an electric stovetop).

The only reason I'm considering a 5-gallon lautering tun right now (I can see you might need larger for a high-gravity beer) is that with only 4 lbs. of specialty grains, I think I'd be running the chance of the grain bed being too shallow and getting my sparge stuck with a 10-gallon. I'm also worried about whether the temperature would be stable if it was only half-full (for a standard 5-gallon batch).

VTrookie said:

One thing to note is that with a 5 gallon kettle, you are never going to be able to do a full volume boil which effects your hop utilization and sometimes flavor as you are watering down your wort when you go to the fermenter by topping it off to 5 gallons if that is your batch size.

BIAB is an option for some but I find going with a MLT, although maybe slightly more expensive at first is more along the lines of where I want my home brew operation to move. Different strokes for different folks.

My logic was just that if I am going to be mashing anything, why not mash it all. Extracts are expensive.

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You don't need a full volume boil to get good hop utilization in a partial boil. The difference is pretty small. Most kits & related recipies are designed for the partial boils most are capable of.
Flavors are the same. The difference is there,but not so much that it makes worlds of difference. It doesn't. So the beer isn't being "watered down",& Many don't necessarilly want to brew big ABV beers all the time.
Yeah,extracts cost $$. But way less in a pm brew,since you're using only about 3lbs of it vs 6 or 7 pounds in an all extract brew. On average,about $25pm vs $35 AE (All Extract). Hey! There's a new term...AE.

For holding the mash temperatures for your partial mash you can do a form of BIAB and put the entire pot in your oven. Preheat to your mash temperature then put the pot inside, I usually turn the oven off. Set the timer for your mash and it should keep the temperature close.

I'm a recent convert to partial mash. I followed one of the threads on here and converted a 5 gal water cooler by replacing the spigot with a ball valve faucet and barbed ends to connect tubing for easy sparging. It was easy and cheap. However I skipped the SS braid part and just use 5 gal paint strainer bags for my grains. Now someone correct me if I'm wrong but the bag accomplishes the same purpose as the braid, ie, allowing the grains to soak / mash and then draining the water to spare.

Enoch52 said:

Right now I'm going to be a partial-volume, simply because I don't have a burner yet that will allow me to boil 5 gallons all at once (still using an electric stovetop)..

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I use my electric stove now... the boil takes a little longer but it still works. I guess it all comes down to whether or not your kettle can fit on the stove.

I have pretty much done partial volume boils up until now, just to save myself some time but I had started reading and hearing that the bigger the boil the better the beer. I guess in smaller batches it is a rather negligible difference.

And as I understand it, yes, the grain bags act like a false bottom or a SS braid. Pretty much just keeping your grain out of your valve.

if you do BIAB you don't need all that stuff... it doesn't have the 'cool factor' of building the whole setup, but it works well, and it's a lot easier, and cheaper, and the cleanup is a breeze

unionrdr said:

AS I understand it,BIAB is a way to mash grains when you don't have a converted cooler or MLT with valves,false bottoms,etc. Not used together. If you have the cooler set up,you don't need the bag.

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actually, i do the BIAB in a cooler, but i just don't have all the valves changed on the cooler.

the cooler keeps the water at EXACTLY the temp i want, where doing the BIAB in the kettle the temp was harder to manage.

unionrdr said:

Yup! You nailed it dad-dad-daddio. Clean up would be a breeze if I wasn't such a cheap a$$ & reuse the grain sacks.:rockin:

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^^^^ i'm also a cheap a$$. i was the grain sacks in soap and water, and rinse the crap out of them, and let them soak, and then hang them up on the line in the basement for the next use... then i just boil them before i put all the grains in.

see, i'm cheap and lazy (except for show i call it being efficient).

After making it to AG, I have actually settled back to PM.

I use ONLY pale or extra pale DME and add 2 lbs of pale 2 row and whatever specialty grains to make it what I want.

I rinse the grains back and forth between 2 large pots and 2 large dish drainer/strainers from wal-mart.

cheezydemon3 said:

After making it to AG, I have actually settled back to PM..

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If you don't mind me asking, what made you switch back to partial mashing? I have figured once I hit AG I will stick with it. Are there benefits to using extracts that I am unaware of?

I didn't realize that AG was much more work than PM. Is it mostly the time/effort to heat up more strike and sparge water, and the extra time to drain?

AG is the biggest PITA and requires the most equipment.

I have 3 small kids.

I eliminate the mashing of 12 lbs of grain and disposing of said HUGE bucket of wet grain. I dispense with worrying about efficiency and meticulous temp control. I dipense with the cooler mash tun, I can just heat on the stove top.

I can boil on the stove top and cool with sanitized ice.

I can even pre boil the hops while mashing the grains with a little DME.

Save a lot of time and trouble, and short of a couple of very obscure brews, I can make anything.

On tap now are a blacker than death stout, an over the top IPA and a tame pale ale.

Uh...it turns out that the spigot opening on the Home Depot cooler is significantly larger than 3/8"...is there anything I can do, other than returning everything?

Enoch52 said:

Uh...it turns out that the spigot opening on the Home Depot cooler is significantly larger than 3/8"...is there anything I can do, other than returning everything?

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Wrong thread.

No, actually, it's not. I started this thread asking whether a recipe I was making required doing a partial mash, and if so, what equipment I needed to do so. In the thread it was suggested I make a simple lauter tun from a cooler. I took that advice, but the instructions I was referred to apparently assumed the opening on the cooler was 3/8", not 1".

I would also recommend BIAB for partial mashes. I see no need to build a mash tun and do all that transferring when you can just mash in your brew pot, pull out the bag and let it drain, add your extract and boil. You can also do all grain 2.5 gallon batches on the stove with a 5 gallon brew pot and a bag. Do a search for BIAB here. There are a lot of threads.

ssult1 said:

I would also recommend BIAB for partial mashes. I see no need to build a mash tun and do all that transferring when you can just mash in your brew pot, pull out the bag and let it drain, add your extract and boil. You can also do all grain 2.5 gallon batches on the stove with a 5 gallon brew pot and a bag. Do a search for BIAB here. There are a lot of threads.

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I like to use a big strainer and vorlauf the extra goodness out of the grains, but BIAB would simplify that. As much as I like simplicity, I NEVER leave a good man behind.(or good fermentables)

unionrdr said:

That's why I sparged my pm biab with 1.5G of sparge water to get 3G partial boil. Hit my numbers with good efficiency.

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OK! I am convinced!!!

I couldn't be happier going to BIAB after doing a couple AG batches. I'm lucky enough that I found a square cooler that my BK/mash kettle fits right into with less than an inch of room in any direction. And towels fill that so when I hit mash temp, it doesn't drop at all. I need to post some pics since it's such a great setup, all by luck!

Enoch52 said:

No, actually, it's not. I started this thread asking whether a recipe I was making required doing a partial mash, and if so, what equipment I needed to do so. In the thread it was suggested I make a simple lauter tun from a cooler. I took that advice, but the instructions I was referred to apparently assumed the opening on the cooler was 3/8", not 1".

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I've got ingredients on route to start a partial mash like you. Like you I've been doing extract+specialty grain until now.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/ is a great article that shows how cheap and easy it can be and is how I plan on doing it. I'd invest $7 in a big nylon mesh bag and do what Deathbrewer does. You can still use your cooler, but not deal with the braided hose...
Good luck and post how it turns out!

Thanks for all the advice--I'll try to complete the lauter tun anyway since I have all the parts, but if not I've got some great alternatives!