Questions about my next extract recipe

Hopefully someone can hash this out with me.
I have some left over grain and extract that I want to use, to be specific 4lbs extra light DME and a mixture of cars pills, marris otter, and crystal grain that was given to me (by mixture I literally mean mixed in a jar). I have never done a partial mash before nor do I have any equipment for it; but I was wondering if it is even worth mashing the grains and mixing it with less of the DME? If so maybe I could use a a small cooler and strainer to mash with.

The real beginner question is how to tell if the grains are crushed? And if not do you have to have a grain mill to crush them?

The hops I plan to use are citra, Amarillo, and nugget. Let me know what your thoughts are please.

If the grains are not crushed, most (if not all) the grains will be whole. If crushed, the outside f the grain (the husk) will be separate from the grain, and you will have bits of solid grain. It should be pretty easy to tell by just looking at them. If you really can't tell, then I suspect they are not crushed.

How much grains do you have? And what is the rough proportion of each type of grain?

It is really impractical to crush grain without a mill. Some people have used coffee grinders or blenders, but they will give you powder, which is difficult to work with. When I started, I tried using a glass jar and rolling over the grain in a plastic bag - wayyyyyy too much effort if you have more than a few ounces. You could put the grain in a big plastic bag, lay it out (in a single layer between two pieces of wood and drive over it.

Driving over the grains is a great suggestion and I'm not sure how much of each grain. I would however suspect it is a total of 2-2.5 lbs

Anthonie said:

Driving over the grains is a great suggestion and I'm not sure how much of each grain. I would however suspect it is a total of 2-2.5 lbs

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Grab a paint straining bag from the hardware store and you are set. Get the 5 gallon bags. They are cleanable, and you will find lots of uses for them. Probably cost about $4 for 2 bags.

Call me a simpleton but mash, partial mash, brew in a bag, or stuffing it in my sock is all just soaking grain to me. More a difference of volume and time.

I've done some all-grain but I'm sticking with extract and specialty grain.

I bring 2gal water up to temp dump in my grain monitor temp for 30 min and stir occasionally. I pour it through a SS strainer that sits nicely upon my brew pot followed by another 2gal of slightly hotter water for a rinse then I do the boil thing and pour it into a bucket with 2gal freezing water I pour from bucket to bucket a couple times till frothy and then run it through my reverse circulation chiller with 50% antifreeze at 10 deg going the other way and it's ready for yeast.

Well, with 2-21/2lbs of grains, you'll need 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 quarts of water per pound of grains to mash them. Mashing at 153F 1 hour would be a good average. Then batch (dunk) sparge the bag of grains with the nylon bag stretched over the lip of the kettle in order to stir them. This'll get more wort out of them. Sparge like 10 minutes at 168F. Then drain bag & add sparge to main wort to get your total boil volume.

Next recipe in a nut shell. Any suggestions or comments?

3 gallons

Grains/Extract
1lb munich
1lb carafoam
1lb crystal
{step at 155 degrees for 60 minutes}
3lbs extra light DME

Hops:
0.6 amraillo 60min
0.6 citra 15 min
0.6 citra 10 min
0.6 citra 5min
0.6 citra flame out

Is this an IPA?

A pound each of crystal & carafoam is a bit much. 1/2 pounds would be better. You don't want it too sweet or foamy.

Yes it is an IPA. I want to do a partial mash for the first time and this is what I have laying around. Initially i was going to do a similar recipe, but steeping these grains instead. That's why I figured I should just do a small mash and crush the grains.

Well, you have to crush the grains regardless. But munich is a base malt & must be mashed. 153F to 155F for the mash, depending on how much malt character you want. Their won't be a lot of difference, but some difference nevertheless.