Help with partial mash recipe

Hey guys, so after doing 3 extract brews and 1 partial mash of relatively low-medium gravity beer, I'm attempting to make my first BIG BEER. I'm going to attempt a clone of Stone's XI Anniv Ale / Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA, with a few modifications. Here's the grain/hop bill. The original was taken from a thread on this forum:

9.5 lb -- Pale Liquid Extract
4.0 lb -- Pale 2-Row Malt
1.0 lb -- Carafa III (de-husked)
1.0 lb -- Crystal 60L Malt

3.0 oz -- Chinook (90min)
1.0 oz -- Simcoe (10min)
1.0 oz -- Amarillo Gold (10min)
1.0 oz -- Simcoe (1min)
1.0 oz -- Amarillo Gold (1min)

2.0 oz -- Amarillo Gold (1oz pellets, 1oz dry cones) (dry hop 7 days)
2.0 oz -- Simcoe (1oz pellets, 1oz dry cones) (dry hop 7 days)


Anwyays, this is my first 90 minute boil recipe, and I'm really concerned about my water volume. My first attempt at a partial mash was an AHS Oatmeal Stout, and after mashing in 2.5 gals and sparging with 2qts, I ended up right at 2gals post-boil. I thought this was pretty low compared to my extract brews, but I topped off to my gravity. It seems a bit watery, and I certainly don't want to make the same mistake this time.

Does anyone have any advice with regards to:

1) what vol should i start off with for mash? and mash for how long? I figure 60 mins

2) what vol of water to sparge with?

3) The original recipe was all-grain, so I converted it. Do I still need a 90 min boil? I'm thinking yes

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm assuming this is for a 5 gal batch with full boil ability.
I would just bag the grains and tea bag them for 60 minutes BIAB style.
Start with 5 gal of strike water at proper temp to achieve mash temp of +/- 150.
Pull bag after 60 minutes and lightly squeeze.
Add all LME.
Top up water to 6.5 gal.
Boil for 60 minutes.
yada,yada,yada.
Drink up,
Bull

5 gallons would be WAY too much water for mashing 6 lbs of grain!

And squeezing your grain bag is a great way to extract tannins and give yourself an astringent tasting beer.

My advice.... download the free trial of Beersmith and plug all your ingredients in there. It will calculate your water volumes and temperatures.

With my partial mash brews I like to sparge up to my boil volume. If I'm going to be topping up with water at the end anyway, why not get as much as I can from my grains before the boil?

I disagree that lightly squeezing your grains releases any tannins. Tannins are released by temp, shreaded hulls and ph imbalance.

Also, steeping in nearly 1 gal per # will still allow the enzimes to convert and eliminate the need to sparge at all.

Easy is good!

Bull