What's needed to graduate to partial mash?

So I have all the stuff for regular extract and I'm thinking about making the smaller step into partial mash brewing. What else do I need? Just a converted cooler? Is there a guide besides John Palmer's online book that gives a quick-start guide to partial mashing? His site talks about it briefly but focuses more on either extact or all grain. Thanks!

try this

http://www.bodensatz.com/staticpages/index.php?page=mini-mash

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Extract_Brewing_Simplified#Mini_Mash_and_Partial_mash

[no point in repeating myself]

I did my first PM in my bottling bucket. I lined the bucket with a huge mesh bag and proceded as normally described. I lost a little heat, so I wrapped my bottling bucket with a sleeping bag for the hour. Then I drained via the spigot, added the sparge water, stirred and let sit for about 15-20 minutes, and drained that. It was easy, and didn't require any equipment.

You can do something like that, or you can use a cooler- it doesn't really matter as long as you try to keep the temperature within that mashing temperature window. My efficiency wasn't very good (due to the loss of temp, I think) but it sure made better beer!

You know what the single additional piece of equipment you need is for PM? A grain bag! I just heat 10 qts of water to 155 degrees and set my stove for the right setting. Over a 45 minute steep, it maintains heat very well. Then, the rest of the boil is identical to an extract batch

heat to boiling
remove from heat and add sugars
heat to boiling
start hop schedule

Sounds easier than I thought. So it's basically the same as steeping but adding 2-row malt?

A drink cooler (like on a construction site) is a great thing to have as well. I suppose not necessary, but it makes it alot easier. just heat your water up to X temp and the insulated cooler will keep it pretty close to that temp.

mjm76 said:

A drink cooler (like on a construction site) is a great thing to have as well. I suppose not necessary, but it makes it alot easier. just heat your water up to X temp and the insulated cooler will keep it pretty close to that temp.

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hey, that's a pretty cool idea :rockin:

So I think I tried a partial mash this weekend, I am working off of a IPA recipe, which cal s for 1 # of Carmel, 60L, and 1/2 # of munich, then 8 # of LME. I heated 3 gallons of water to 155, placed the grain in a bag and maintained the temp close to that for 30 mins, then I pulled out the grain bag, drained it a bit, and then took the juice on up to boiling, added about 1/4 of my DME ( I know I said LME, but LME tastes a bit funky to me), cooked my hops for an hour and added the rest of my DME the last 15 mins. Whites yeast #1 and it is bubbling away like a happy little sailor.

What volume of water is required for the steeping of the grains? It occurs to me, with a partialmash, that we might be able to steep a small volume fo grains on the kitchen stove where I can control the temps better, and transfer the mash to the bigger pot for boiling the hops and the malt?

What do you guys think?

Rick

If I wanted to do a PM version of an extract hefeweizen that just uses 6 lbs of Wheat DME, what would I do differently?

Something like mash 2 lbs 2-row and 2 lbs Wheat malt, and then add 3 lbs of Wheat DME to the boil? I'm not sure what amounts are appropriate.

That would work fine, although IMO hefeweizen are so easy to make extracts, why not stick with that. The criteria I use is if my recipe has more than 3 lbs of grains I use Partial mash, if not I just steep the grains

mjm76 said:

That would work fine, although IMO hefeweizen are so easy to make extracts, why not stick with that. The criteria I use is if my recipe has more than 3 lbs of grains I use Partial mash, if not I just steep the grains

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Since it is easy to make extract that might make it a good one to start PMing with since if something goes really wrong you can fall back on the extract. Use it as a way to get a feel for the process.

well.........for one

wheat can be difficult to sparge. so why mess with it

and two......

the grains you are mashing are the same grains in wheat extract so why not save yourself the hassle and possibility of low efficiency and leave it to the experts.

If you want to play Mr wizard any beer can be partial mashed or AG mashed. If you are using basic grains I would just use extract and save yourself the trouble and the extra 2 hours of work and waiting.

Well that makes sense to me but everyone raves about the special taste of doing it the 'grain way' so I figured there must be something to it.

Maybe I'll just steep a little Crystal 10L in there to give it some variety.

paranode said:

Well that makes sense to me but everyone raves about the special taste of doing it the 'grain way' so I figured there must be something to it.

Maybe I'll just steep a little Crystal 10L in there to give it some variety.

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Hi Paranode, I am with you. Like I posted, I added a pound of Crystal 40L, and a 1/2 pound of munich in my last IPA extract brew. I just boiled it with the extract and hops and I liked the flavor I got. The next batch I did as I posted earlier in this thread, using a grain bag and steeping at 150-160 for 30 mins, then removing the grain and boiling my DME and hops.

I did like the results of the 1st batch, better flavor, and a nice head on the brew, the second batch is still in the primary so I don't know yet, but I am optimistic.

Rick