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jezter6

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I'm thinking of doing my first Partial Mash this weekend, but got somewhat stumped on the water I should use for the mash.

Should I mash the 3-5# of grain with as much water as necessary for the 6.5 pre boil level I want before extract? Or do I just cut down the water to match the lower amount of grain and add water + extract to the mash runnings before boil?
 
You should shoot for around 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain - in your case, a little less than a gallon for 3# of grain, a little more than 1.5 gallons for 5#. You'll lose a little bit of water to the grain. You'll then sparge with about two quarts per pound (1.5/2.5 gallons). I would guess that you'll end up with ~ 2.25 gallons of wort for three pounds of grain, a bit more than 3.5 if you use 5 pounds of grain.

You don't want too thin of a mash (too much water) or conversion will get screwed up. Likewise, too much sparging is not a good thing.

From there, you can add more water to get up to the 6.5 pre-boil level, or you can just do a partial boil like on a regular extract batch. The only real advantage of a full boil will be greater hops utilization, maybe a little less caramelization of the wort, but then you have more concerns about chilling and aerating the wort.

I *think* I've got that more-or-less right; experts, how'd I do?
 
I'm mashing in a 10gallon cooler with false bottom.

And this is fairly high gravity, something like 10# extract w/ about 5# grain.
 
Why spend all that money on extract? Why not buy a bunch of 2-row? Maybe use a couple pounds of extract if you have it, but ten pounds is expensive. Sounds like you have all the gear to do a much bigger mash.
 
Aye. I have plenty of stuff to go all grain. That's why I bought the whole AG setup from a guy on EBay. I'm more concerned about ruining my first all grain batch because I have absolutely no idea how to do an AG batch.

I'm hoping to find someone local who will come by and show me how to use all the cool toys I bought.
 
I'm reading up as much as possible. But for me, no amount of book learnin' will ever replace seeing it done and doing it with someone who knows what the heck is going on. The last thing I want is 50% efficiency (or worse!!) because I can't figure out what hose connects to what and where to put this and that. :)

Hey, I'm looking for a Maryland mentor (see the gatherings forum). I'm willing to pony up for the ingredients to make a 10 gallong batch to split 50/50 with someone who just comes over and tells us where to put the water!
 
You know, it's dumb as hell, but go find the link to that doofus who was selling his DVD of how to do an all-grain batch from a few weeks ago. The entire video was on youtube, just in four parts. If you can get over his dancing like an ass-clown, it'll give you a basic idea of the process.

I have to go into a meeting soon, but if I remember, I'll dig up the link for you tonight (if you don't find it sooner).
 
Follow my link below and look at my first AG batch.

Easy.

But if you are happier trying a partial mash then do that first.

You are mashing quite a large amount of grain so just add more grain and forget the LME.

Heat water, meantime measure grain
Add grain to mash tun.
Add hot water (I add 1.3qt/lbs) @ 77c giving a mash temp of 68c
Stir and leave 90 mins. Heat more water
Drain mash tun, Add to Kettle
Add more hot water to grain and stir. leave 10 minutes
Drain mash tun, add to kettle.


The rest is the same as doing an Extract brew.


The only thing on top of that is when draining add the first bit of wort back to the mash tun to help filter it a bit.
 
You might also be interested in the Basic Brewing All-grain DVD. www.basicbrewing.com

I haven't watched the DVD but the recent podcasts are quite good. The earlier podcasts were quite amateurish so I'm not certain where the DVDs fall in that spectrum.
 
I did watch the whole thing. It was a bit odd, but I think helped put down the myth of all grain brewing difficulty.

1) Do I *need* to measure PH and do funky stuff with it? I'm concerned about putting chalk in my brew...

Guess i need to go get some tincture of iodine for starch testing. Maybe this weekend I'll go 5 gallons of AG just to test it out, and if it's too difficult I'll just stick extract until I can get a mentor.
 
jezter6 said:
1) Do I *need* to measure PH and do funky stuff with it? I'm concerned about putting chalk in my brew...

No, you don't need to worry about this at first. But you will get better efficiency and flavors if you have the correct water chemistry for your beer style. This is one big reason, historically, why they made Pilsners in Pilsen and stouts in Dublin--different water chemistry.

The book "Beer Captured" has a very helpful appendix on water chemistry for a wide variety of beer styles. If you get your local water report (from your water utility), then you can figure out which category your water falls in and what you need to add to get ideal chemistry for any of the various styles. It's pretty painless that way.
 
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