Beginning Partial Mashes-Questions

I am taking the next step in brewing. After 7 batches, I am going to move on to partial mashes. A couple of questions.

1. I have about 5lbs of grain and am not going to brew for a week or so. Is it ok to just let it set in the plastic bag that it came in or should I refrigerate it, put it in the basement, etc.?

2. Until I get my cooler rigged up, I want to use a grain bag. Do I have to order one from the online dealers or is there a substitute bag that I can use?

I may have more questions later but that will get me started.

Thanks

1. Most importantly keep it dry, cool would be nice too, but no need to refrigerate.

2. A paint strainer that fits in a 5 gallon bucket (from HD or Lowe's) will work just fine

Just be aware you have to pay reallly close attention to temperature when you are trying to mash with a grain bag in a pot.

I am going to heat the water to about 165 degrees then transfer it to a 3 gallon cooler. The grain bag will go into the cooler. Close the cooler and wait - drain, sparge, drain then boil. I am going to follow an article that I got from this site "Counter Top Partial Mashing".

that's a good article.

make sure you really poke at the grain bag to get all the grain wet and separated. it likes to clump.

fair warning...PM will make you wanna toss extrat altogether and go all grain

awesome I'm really glad I stumbled upon this post. Perhaps I shall try a partial mash next weekend when I can go out and buy a cooler

david_the_greek said:

awesome I'm really glad I stumbled upon this post. Perhaps I shall try a partial mash next weekend when I can go out and buy a cooler

Click to expand...

Buy one big enough to do all grain batches, it won't be long as malkore said.

I'm already sorry I got a 5gallon cooler, shoulda held out for a 10gal Victory rubbermaid.

but, there are worse things than adding a couple pounds of DME late in the boil to make a bigger beer