mini/partial mash versus extract

I am an extract brewer, using specialty grains in my steep before the boil and such. I am now considering moving on towards a partial mash system. Getting roughly 50% of my fermenatables from the mashing/sparging process. Does anybody have any opinions on this? I am assuming that this is an upgrade over simple extract brewing.

You might check out this thread if you haven't already: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

I've did a couple of extract brews, that turned out decent. But the last couple have been Mini Mash kits from AHS. I have used a combination of Deathbrewers teqnique shown in the above link and the AHS recipe. Haven't drank any of them yet (still fermenting) but it was not hard at all. It seems to give you much more control over the brewing process. Takes a little more time but if the beer is better than there is really no reason not to do it. It's also a little cheaper. And it smells awesome, way better than brewing with all extract.

Deathbrewers technique is good but there are many other "like" ways. The important thing is to understand the "why" and go from there.

Your beer WILL be better but it does not take that much more time (if any). You open up all sorts of better grains you can use and it's pretty simple.

A mini-mash can match up to most AG brews but you can't say that with Extract/steeping vs. AG

I have been down that same path from extract to to partial to all grain.

Extract is the easiest, but comes with a little higher cost. price and flexibility
Partial mash is a little better, due to flexibility, but cost aren't much different than Extract alone, unless your ferementables are mostly in the grains.

All grain will offer you the best price and flexibility from an ingredient standpoint, but there is the equipment cost to consider.

When I partial mashed and I still do sometimes, I did as you mentioned and had at least 50% of my fermentables in grains. If anything, for a basic pale ale recipe, I may have saved about $6 in cost of ingredients. Not much, but something.

Yea - I can go up to 4lbs comfortably with grain in my mini mashes and more if needed but typically I just add 3lb of LME and the rest grain.

It's a huge upgrade, IMO. You'll see - once you really get the hang of the PM process, your beers will taste tremendously better. My personal opinion is that it's really difficult to tell the difference between a well-made PM brew and an AG one, all other things being equal. This is especially true if you do a full boil, but I've made some PM/partial boil brews that are better than many commercial brands, IMHO.

It's really all a matter of technique. I highly recommend DeathBrewer's method, since it's so simple and so effective. I can regularly get 70% efficiency with it, mashing about 8 lbs of grain or so, and making up the rest with LME or DME.

Of course, you still have to take care of the whole process - make sure your temps are right throughout, pitch a proper amount of yeast, regulate fermentation temps, etc. But if you do you'll see a major jump in the quality of your final product.

This is all very encouraging. I am certainly going to do a partial match for my next. A partial match IPA featuing a single hop variety. Four ounces of cascade hops. Cascade IPA, should be nice. I have to research a good grain bill for this one though.

I also went the route of extract to partial mash to just starting all grain. The step up from extract to PM was a huge improvement, in my opinion, to the beers I brewed. Actually my favorite beers I've brewed so far are a couple of my partial mash recipes. Am only starting AG so have a lot of learning and improvement to go but right now PM gives me a lot of ease and flexibility over extract with the ability to tweak recipes some to help me learn and apply the knowledge to AG. So I do an AG then a PM or two and an AG etc. well worth the effort to do partial mash.