First Partial Mash, Recipe Critique Please

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MrNic

MrNic

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Hey guys, I've done a couple of extract/specialty grain beers so far and I wanted to try a partial mash brew. My equipment is limited so I'm going to be using my 4 gallon kettle to mash the grains in. My plan is to keep the kettle in the oven to keep the mash temperature steady. I just wanted to post my recipe to see what you guys think and let me know if I should change anything. The recipe is for a simcoe pale ale.

3.5# 2-row
2# Vienna
.5# Caramel 10
.5# Carapils

2# Briess Munich Liquid Extract (Late addition)

.25 oz Simcoe (60 min)
.5 oz Simcoe (30 min)
.25 oz Simcoe (20 min)
.25 oz Simcoe (10 min)
.75 oz Simcoe (Dry hop)

Mash @ 152 for 60 minutes.

Let me know what you guys think. I was also wondering if anybody had advice on how to get the best efficiency with a partial mash. Thanks in advance.
 
Looks good. What we don't know from the recipe is your partial mash process - have you taken a look at the partial mash on the stovetop sticky thread?

I wouldn't worry too much about your efficiency. I would have extra extract (dry is the easiest to store if you only need to use some of it) so you can adjust to get the original gravity you want, if you need it.
 
I've been doing partial mash and my efficiency has been pretty low. See the thread I have going about it, jfowler1 has some good suggestions on how to improve the efficiency. Do keep some extra DME on hand, it came in useful on my last batch when I came up low on my gravity.
 
Pappers_ said:
Looks good. What we don't know from the recipe is your partial mash process - have you taken a look at the partial mash on the stovetop sticky thread?

I wouldn't worry too much about your efficiency. I would have extra extract (dry is the easiest to store if you only need to use some of it) so you can adjust to get the original gravity you want, if you need it.
Click to expand...

My process will be heating 2 gallons of water to 160-162, then adding the bagged grains to the pot. I'll have the oven preheated to 170 then I'll shut it off as soon as I put the pot in. After 60 minutes, I'll take the grains out and put them on a strainer, then sparge with about 1 gallon of 170 degree water. Then I'll proceed with my boil as usual, adding the extract at the end. This will all be done on my stove and I'll be doing a half boil and topping up with water in the fermenter.
 
Anyone have suggestions for getting the best efficiency without getting any more equipment?
 
Thats just about the method I use to do a partial mash.

A few suggestions:

I have a grain bag that is just a little bit bigger than my 4 gallon pot. I put the grain bag in the pot with the heated mash water first, folding the bag over the top edge of the pot. Then add and stir your grains thoroughly. If you throw a big bag of grains into the pot, you are likely to get dough balls that will decrease your efficiency.

I heat my oven to 150-155 deg F manually, most ovens are not settable below 180 deg F. Most ovens will hold the heat for quite a while. You can also heat a second pot of water (which will become your sparge water) and put it in the oven to act as addition heat storage, keeping your oven at temperature.

Make sure you have an accurate and calibrated themometer and get your mash to 150 to 154 deg before putting in the oven. If you heat the pot on the stove, use low heat and make sure your grain bag is not sitting ont the bottom. Mash for 60 minutes and confirm with iodine (if you have some)

Make sure you have a good grain crush. This method is not subject to a stuck mash, so crushing a little finer will not hurt much. You will get a bit of grain flour in the wort. Don't worry about it.

Stir the grain and then pull out the grain bag and let drain as you said. I don't do a mashout. Then rinse slowly with sparge water untill you are at a comfortable fill point in the your 4 gallon brew pot.

6.5# of grain and 2 gallons of water is going to be a tight fit in the 4 gallon pot. I'd suggest the following:

3.0 lb American 2 Row
1 lb Munich Malt
.5 lb crystal
.5 lb carapils
3 lb light dry malt extract

This will give you a little bit more room and increase your water to grain ratio which should increase your efficiency. I usually get about 65-70%.
 
Tyru007 said:
Thats just about the method I use to do a partial mash.

A few suggestions:

I have a grain bag that is just a little bit bigger than my 4 gallon pot. I put the grain bag in the pot with the heated mash water first, folding the bag over the top edge of the pot. Then add and stir your grains thoroughly. If you throw a big bag of grains into the pot, you are likely to get dough balls that will decrease your efficiency.

I heat my oven to 150-155 deg F manually, most ovens are not settable below 180 deg F. Most ovens will hold the heat for quite a while. You can also heat a second pot of water (which will become your sparge water) and put it in the oven to act as addition heat storage, keeping your oven at temperature.

Make sure you have an accurate and calibrated themometer and get your mash to 150 to 154 deg before putting in the oven. If you heat the pot on the stove, use low heat and make sure your grain bag is not sitting ont the bottom. Mash for 60 minutes and confirm with iodine (if you have some)

Make sure you have a good grain crush. This method is not subject to a stuck mash, so crushing a little finer will not hurt much. You will get a bit of grain flour in the wort. Don't worry about it.

Stir the grain and then pull out the grain bag and let drain as you said. I don't do a mashout. Then rinse slowly with sparge water untill you are at a comfortable fill point in the your 4 gallon brew pot.

6.5# of grain and 2 gallons of water is going to be a tight fit in the 4 gallon pot. I'd suggest the following:

3.0 lb American 2 Row
1 lb Munich Malt
.5 lb crystal
.5 lb carapils
3 lb light dry malt extract

This will give you a little bit more room and increase your water to grain ratio which should increase your efficiency. I usually get about 65-70%.
Click to expand...

According to this site: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml it should only take up 2.55 gallons of space, which should leave me with plenty of room.
 
I have about 3 gallons of room in my 4 gallon kettle and still be able to stir the mash and move easily without spilling over. I typically use a ratio of 1.5 qts/lb which would just about get you 3 gallons with the 6.5 lbs. So you could do either grain bill.
I don't think you would be able to tell the difference between the two recipies. +/- a pound of grain or extract is not going to make a huge difference with a pale ale.

I buy dry extract in 3 lbs bags and typically design a partial mash recipe to use 3 lbs of dry extract. You'll probably find that most partial grain recipes have 4-5 lbs of grain and 3 lbs of dry or 3.3 lbs of liquid extract. Tends to be the "sweet spot" for partial mashes.

Brew it either way and let us know how it goes.
 

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