Easy Partial Mash Brewing (with pics)

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Wow. Just picked up a bottle of Franziskaner Dunkel at my local grocery store and at first I thought they had just changed the label on it because the hefe's are normally gold/yellow. This one was red. Then I noticed it was a dunkel and picked it up, because of Deathbrewer and his awesome writeup that Ive recently discovered :) I normally don't do dark beers so I thought I would give it a shot...it is amazing. I'll tell you how good the smell was lol. I was messing with my fermenting chamber after I had poured the dunkel and set it on the counter. I kept smelling something awesome and thought it was coming from my fermenter, then realized it was coming from the dunkel I just poured about 5 feet away, not even kidding. Could drink this dunkel all day. I will be brewing your Dunkelweizen very soon Deathbrewer :)

@thedude00 I don't know how to quote so to answer your question, the 5 gallon batch I have in my fermenter is a Bavarian Hefeweizen from AHS, their mini mash kits are pretty good, yes you can partial mash just like deathbrewer does with one of those. The only problem I find with the kits from AHS is they contain about 4 lbs of dme and 3-3.5 lbs of grain. I like to get as close as I can to as much grains as my system will hold, which is about 5-6 lbs. I also like to get as little extract as possible. So I usually tweek recipes to make it fit my system, but if this is your first venture into partial mashing then by all means the recipes from AHS are great and you will not be disappointed.
 
whiskeyjack said:
Wow. Just picked up a bottle of Franziskaner Dunkel at my local grocery store and at first I thought they had just changed the label on it because the hefe's are normally gold/yellow. This one was red. Then I noticed it was a dunkel and picked it up, because of Deathbrewer and his awesome writeup that Ive recently discovered :) I normally don't do dark beers so I thought I would give it a shot...it is amazing. I'll tell you how good the smell was lol. I was messing with my fermenting chamber after I had poured the dunkel and set it on the counter. I kept smelling something awesome and thought it was coming from my fermenter, then realized it was coming from the dunkel I just poured about 5 feet away, not even kidding. Could drink this dunkel all day. I will be brewing your Dunkelweizen very soon Deathbrewer :)

@thedude00 I don't know how to quote so to answer your question, the 5 gallon batch I have in my fermenter is a Bavarian Hefeweizen from AHS, their mini mash kits are pretty good, yes you can partial mash just like deathbrewer does with one of those. The only problem I find with the kits from AHS is they contain about 4 lbs of dme and 3-3.5 lbs of grain. I like to get as close as I can to as much grains as my system will hold, which is about 5-6 lbs. I also like to get as little extract as possible. So I usually tweek recipes to make it fit my system, but if this is your first venture into partial mashing then by all means the recipes from AHS are great and you will not be disappointed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info i may take a shoot at this method at try one of those kits. I feel the same way i would like to use as much grain and as less dme as i can. I heard some where that 1 pound of dme is like 1.2 pounds of grain
 
1 pound of grain is .6 pounds DME and .75 pounds lme .If your going for a dunkelweizen or hefeweizen use one of deathbrewers recipes if you can mash that much grain because it comes out to a perfect 3 lbs of dme and you don't have to measure out ounces for your dme. If you can't do 5 pounds of grains but only 3-4 then the ahs mini mashes can't be beat.

How do you quote people ;)
 
Wanted to thank you for your instructions on your stove top BIAB system. I live in a condo and don't have the means to brew outside with a burner. After my first 3 all extract kits, I moved to partial mash using your system. I then brewed 9 partial mash batches that all came out well. I've now moved on to all grain. People are amazed that I can brew all grain batches on my electric stove top while using a BIAB system. I'm getting excellent efficiencies. Usually between 75%-85%. I've had to adjust my recipes to account for higher than normal eff rates. Thanks again!
 
I will be brewing my third and fouth batches soon. These will be my first partial mashes. First I was thinking of getting the Spotted Cow partial mash clone kit (Speckled Heffer) from Northern Brewer and adding 3lbs. of organic raspberries to secondary. Thought it would be a good base for a raspberry cream ale. Any thoughts?
My 4th batch will be a Strong Dark Belgian. My first batch was an extract SDB. I like how it turned out, but am excited to see how I can improve it with a PM. Hoping to get more raisin with some Special B. If anyone could point me toward a good PM recipe for a SDB I would be grateful.
 
Hey Deathbrewer..Ive been browsing the forums and noticed that your AG and PM dunkelweizens looks like this

AG
6lbs wheat
4lbs Munich
.25 choc

PM
3lbs wheat
3lbs Wheat DME
2lbs munich
.25 choc.

I just wanted to see if there's any particular reason from going from 60/40 ratio all grain to 80/20 PM between the wheat/munich. Just curious if you use more of certain grains for pm vs ag. The way I have been converting recipes is to just drop 5lbs off the base grain and sub in 3lbs dme, does this sound right ? I'm sure both would make awesome beers, I actually have the PM recipe exactly from above arriving sometime tomorrow according to my tracking# :) I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again for all the help and advice on the forums DB.
 
Thanks for this idiot proof write-up. I used it last night for my Octoberfest partial mashing some Vienna and Munich malts. The only error I made was getting a little too happy with the DME doubting I did the mashing correctly. My wort finished at 1.068 when I was hoping for a 1.056'ish. Oh well another lesson learned, and great write up that works! Thanks again.
 
I will be trying this method, looks very easy........1 question.....in step 6 you add extract, is that powdered? I'm a newbie and all the extract I've ever seen was syrupy.
Thanks again!
 
talljetsfan said:
I will be trying this method, looks very easy........1 question.....in step 6 you add extract, is that powdered? I'm a newbie and all the extract I've ever seen was syrupy.
Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Yes there are two different types of extract, liquid malt extract (LME) and Dry malt extract (DME). The dme is a little better in quality but also more expensive. To convert them over from grain DME= .6lb dme for every 1lb of grain while LME=.75 lb lme for every 1lb of grain.
 
One question regarding Sparging using this method:

Ideally, should the water temperature be 168°F prior to adding the grain or is it that you want to be at a maintained 168°F once the grain is added throughout the sparge?
 
After the grains and sparge water are mixed you want the temp after the mixture to be no higher than 170. So most people shoot for 168. The water may have to be a little higher than 168 to reach this temperature. I would use a brewcalc to find the precise temps for your amount of grains/water
 
Am new to brewing but want to do a PM without investing in more equipment right now. Your system seems simple enough to follow, especially with all the great photos you posted. Will read and re-read your post, and all 122 pages of replies before brewing. Good to completely understand the process BEFORE brewing.
 
Just wanted to say thanks to DeathBrewer and everyone else for the helpful tips. Just finished my first partial mash batch (Midwest's Boston Red Ale PM kit), and it went pretty well. I only did a post-boil gravity reading, not realizing you do pre-boil for efficiency, but I was only a little bit low on that measure (1.039 instead of 1.042), so not the end of the world. Should be a good session ale! And now I'll never be able to go back to extract-and-steep brewing.
 
whiskeyjack said:
Hey Deathbrewer..Ive been browsing the forums and noticed that your AG and PM dunkelweizens looks like this

AG
6lbs wheat
4lbs Munich
.25 choc

PM
3lbs wheat
3lbs Wheat DME
2lbs munich
.25 choc.

I just wanted to see if there's any particular reason from going from 60/40 ratio all grain to 80/20 PM between the wheat/munich. Just curious if you use more of certain grains for pm vs ag. The way I have been converting recipes is to just drop 5lbs off the base grain and sub in 3lbs dme, does this sound right ? I'm sure both would make awesome beers, I actually have the PM recipe exactly from above arriving sometime tomorrow according to my tracking# :) I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again for all the help and advice on the forums DB.
Click to expand...

Wheat DME is actually a blend of wheat and barley (usually about 60/40 respectively) so there is not actually a much higher proportion in the extract version.

zyx345 said:
One question regarding Sparging using this method:

Ideally, should the water temperature be 168°F prior to adding the grain or is it that you want to be at a maintained 168°F once the grain is added throughout the sparge?
Click to expand...

You can use a bit higher temperature, but as has been noted, you don't want the solution ever above 168 or so. I generally don't worry about it getting to exactly 168. I usually just bring my water to 170 and leave it at that.
 
Ahhh gotcha. That makes more sense now. Ive seen the bags of 3 lb DME with 60/40 on the sticker but never put 2 and 2 together. So instead of a 3 lb bag of wheat DME being equal to 5 lbs wheat grain it equals 3 lbs wheat grain and 2 lbs barley like 2 row. Thanks again for the help :)
 
Why do you have to sparge with 170F water? I did this with cold water and was then able to squeeze the bag as it was less hot. I hit my target SG nonetheless.
 
Delaney said:
Why do you have to sparge with 170F water? I did this with cold water and was then able to squeeze the bag as it was less hot. I hit my target SG nonetheless.
Click to expand...

Solubility (hot water can carry more sugars) and viscosity (hot water/wort isn't as thick so it flows out better).

That said, we squeezers have a huge advantage, so I'm not surprised you hit targets regardless. My goal is just to get nearly all water for the boil through that bag so im not putting in tap water at the end. That kills efficiency!
 
JimTheHick said:
Solubility (hot water can carry more sugars) and viscosity (hot water/wort isn't as thick so it flows out better).

That said, we squeezers have a huge advantage, so I'm not surprised you hit targets regardless. My goal is just to get nearly all water for the boil through that bag so im not putting in tap water at the end. That kills efficiency!
Click to expand...

I have only 1 partial under my belt, and it is still fermenting, so please excuse the ignorance. If you do not add any cold tap water does that hurt the O2 amount for the yeast?
 
borden said:
Just wanted to say thanks to DeathBrewer and everyone else for the helpful tips. Just finished my first partial mash batch (Midwest's Boston Red Ale PM kit), and it went pretty well. I only did a post-boil gravity reading, not realizing you do pre-boil for efficiency, but I was only a little bit low on that measure (1.039 instead of 1.042), so not the end of the world. Should be a good session ale! And now I'll never be able to go back to extract-and-steep brewing.
Click to expand...

I'm a dummy and forgot to adjust for temperature when reading the hydrometer. What does this mean? Basically right where I should be on the starting gravity, at about 1.041 or 1.042 (temp was ~73F when I pitched). Wahoo!
 
Irishwrench said:
I have only 1 partial under my belt, and it is still fermenting, so please excuse the ignorance. If you do not add any cold tap water does that hurt the O2 amount for the yeast?
Click to expand...

Not really, just cool it before you aerate it. Aeration can come through pouring it back and forth, pouring it slowly through a strainer into the fermentor (my choice), or that forced air aquarium pump route. It's a misnomer that boiling is what is driving off the oxygen. It's actually the temperature increase.

Air is 21% oxygen and the water maxes out at 8 ppm, so as oxygen is consumed by yeast it is re-absorbed from the headspace until eventually it is all used up and forced out by co2
 
Well, the cold tap water or bottled water already has oxygen in it, so it will certainly HELP with aeration, but is not necessary...shaking will work fine.

Water that is boiled and then cooled for top-off will not have any additional oxygen.

borden said:
I'm a dummy and forgot to adjust for temperature when reading the hydrometer. What does this mean? Basically right where I should be on the starting gravity, at about 1.041 or 1.042 (temp was ~73F when I pitched). Wahoo!
Click to expand...

Hydrometer Adjust
 
Water that is boiled and then cooled for top-off will not have any additional oxygen.
Adjust[/URL][/QUOTE]

It will if you give it time to reabsorb oxygen from the air - which is a question of surface area x time.

I'd love to know how fast boiled water cooled to 60F equilibrates to water kept at constant 60F. It will happen faster than perhaps you think. There is a lot more oxygen in air than water is capable of dissolving.
 
Just about to throw the hops in on my second PM batch using this method, but wanted to celebrate :ban: getting ~60% efficiency in collecting the wort. Right about where it should be according to DeathBrewer's first post. I'll take it!

EDIT: Hmm. Came out at 1.040 on a batch that was estimated at 1.042-1.046. Same thing happened with my other PM batch using this method. I imagine the problem lies in the sparge, which I ended after ~10 minutes at 158F. Next time I might leave it longer as has been suggested, to get some more conversion. A mash paddle to help with draining (to support the bag) might be a good investment too.
 
If you are 0.002 off, that could easily be due to error in reading the hydrometer, precision error of the instrument itself, errors on the scale used to weigh the grain, water differences in the grain's growth, etc.

I wouldn't stress 0.002 gravity points. You're there. :mug:

If you want to improve past 60%, though, you could probably do so with a more efficient sparge. I'm right in the 60% neighborhood and that's good enough for me.
 
DeathBrewer said:
Step 10:
Let me know if you have any questions on this process or if you need any easy partial mash recipes. Some of my favorites are Hefeweizens, Dunkelweizens and Cream Ales, as well as the Irish Rye Stout in my drop down.

Take care and keep brewing!
:mug:
Click to expand...

Just a question: im thinking about brwing PM and moving from extract. i noticed you are using 2 gal of water to mash and 2 to sparge and boiling in a 5 gallon pot, when you add the DME Doesnt it foam over a bit? seems like one hell of a full pot without too much room for the hot break. your thread is very useful and i plan on using this method just wanna make sure thats what youre doing before i jump in head first!

also,, got any good PM porter recipes?
 
BrewinBigD said:
Just a question: im thinking about brwing PM and moving from extract. i noticed you are using 2 gal of water to mash and 2 to sparge and boiling in a 5 gallon pot, when you add the DME Doesnt it foam over a bit? seems like one hell of a full pot without too much room for the hot break. your thread is very useful and i plan on using this method just wanna make sure thats what youre doing before i jump in head first!

also,, got any good PM porter recipes?
Click to expand...

This doesn't directly answer the question, but some recipes won't call for 2 gallons of water for mashing or sparging in the first place. My two batches with this method have been partial mash kits from Midwest Supplies. Both called for 1-1.5 gallons for each stage -- they seem to favor a 1 quart to 1 pound ratio. I did the last one at 1.25 quarts per pound instead, but either way, I had plenty of room by the time I got to the boil, and I'm just using a 5 gallon pot.

You also lose some liquid to the grains. Obviously you'd get all of it back in a perfect world, but you'd be holding that bag there for a very, very long time!

I'm so happy I switched to this method of brewing instead of just extract and steeping. It's a lot more fun for me, because there's a whole new level of control and understanding of what's really going into the beer. I recommend making the switch as soon as you can.
 
Justibone said:
You don't use Fermcap-S?

Also, if you add DME at the end of the boil (10 min.) then the boiloff makes some room.

But, seriously, Fermcap-S. It's beer magic. :ban:
Click to expand...

Never used fermcap. im only a 3month old brewer and havent tried many additives. ill pick some up from my lbhs, and adding the dme at the end? do you still get the protein separation like a 60 min boil??
 
borden said:
You also lose some liquid to the grains. Obviously you'd get all of it back in a perfect world, but you'd be holding that bag there for a very, very long time!
Click to expand...

One really easy way to maximize this is to take the grain bag after the sparge and to set it in a colander nested into a slightly smaller steel mixing bowl while the wort is getting back up to a boil. During the brewing process I periodically empty the bowl into the boil and I get back a lot of precious wort that way that would otherwise go into the trash.
 
CortexBomb said:
One really easy way to maximize this is to take the grain bag after the sparge and to set it in a colander nested into a slightly smaller steel mixing bowl while the wort is getting back up to a boil. During the brewing process I periodically empty the bowl into the boil and I get back a lot of precious wort that way that would otherwise go into the trash.
Click to expand...

I would recommend against grain in the boil at any point. Theoretically, this is causing tannin release, which will affect the flavor of your beer.

I'd rather lose 4% of the sugars than make my beer taste funny. ;)
 
Justibone said:
I would recommend against grain in the boil at any point. Theoretically, this is causing tannin release, which will affect the flavor of your beer.
Click to expand...

I do not think he means putting the actual grain bag in the boil but rather the drainings from the grain bag?
 
el_caro said:
I do not think he means putting the actual grain bag in the boil but rather the drainings from the grain bag?
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly. I basically hold the bag as long as I can per the original post (which varies based on how many pounds of wet grain it contains ;) ) and then set it in the colander over the steel bowl to let it drip drain while the wort is going to a boil. I don't ever put grain into the boil, just the extra drippings.
 
DeathBrewer said:
i find if i do this, i waste all my ice (i only use the 3 trays) and i end up having to drain the water several more times and it takes longer. the water i use to dilute is about 55°F. i would probably use boiled water and stick it in the freezer, if it wasn't full of hops :D
Click to expand...

Could you place small bottles of water in the freezer,freeze for a few days and then use these along with the ice? they would be sterile from the freezer.... I use these as coolers with in my food bag when camping but I freeze juice and then drink them as they defrost.

I am putting this point in about 100 posts after the original post so I am sure its in there somewhere.
 
casperjah said:
Could you place small bottles of water in the freezer,freeze for a few days and then use these along with the ice? they would be sterile from the freezer.... I use these as coolers with in my food bag when camping but I freeze juice and then drink them as they defrost.

I am putting this point in about 100 posts after the original post so I am sure its in there somewhere.
Click to expand...

Nothing is really "sterile" from a freezer, unfortunately. Living organisms die off in those temperatures, but they leave spores behind that can grow when conditions improve.

We really don't worry about "sterile" in brewing, though. "Sanitized" is good enough. Truly sterile requires control of airflow, etc. It's really annoying, actually.

You would probably be fine using frozen water bottles from the freezer. I just had to be a pedant for a moment there.
 
What a great thread, thanks DB! I finished my first partial yesterday and I can't wait to try it out. By my calculations, I was only at about 55% efficiency, but it was fun and I felt like I was getting closer to brewing with the big dogs. I did have trouble controlling the temp on my electric stove, I was able to move the thermo around and find hot spots, which forced me to take the lid off and stir quite a bit. I was never able to turn off the burner. Next time I plan to use higher temps for strike water, hopefully this helps. Anyways, this may be the most useful thread I have found on HBT yet!
 
Heh. Those ribs are LONG gone.

Someone had mentioned using frozen water bottles. Your freezer is never a sterile environment. In fact, they are often rife with bacteria.

I would recommend using the frozen water bottles in your water to help cool the wort, but not in the wort itself. There is just no way to keep it sanitary.

I do know some people that use store-bought ice and open the bag just to pour in the wort. I suppose this could be more sanitary, depending on the manufacturing and packaging conditions.
 
DeathBrewer said:
Heh. Those ribs are LONG gone.

Someone had mentioned using frozen water bottles. Your freezer is never a sterile environment. In fact, they are often rife with bacteria.

I would recommend using the frozen water bottles in your water to help cool the wort, but not in the wort itself. There is just no way to keep it sanitary.

I do know some people that use store-bought ice and open the bag just to pour in the wort. I suppose this could be more sanitary, depending on the manufacturing and packaging conditions.
Click to expand...

Store-bought ice won't be sterile either. Before I made a pre-chiller for my immersion cooler, I used to freeze a bunch of small water bottles then dump them in starsan for a minute before using them to cool my wort - never had an infection but was always a bit worried. Now I use ice water for the pre-chiller and it's alot easier/less hassle.
 
First of all, thank you DB and everybody else for the amazing thread. It's taken me three days off and on to read it, but it's all so valuable!

This is a fairly specific recipe question. I want a pretty big oatmeal stout with some good roasted character. It is based off of "Ucklduckfay Oatmeal Stout" from the Papazian book with a few minor changes, partially inspired by other oatmeal stout recipes on this site. Can someone tell me if this seems plausible with the method this post describes?

1 lb. quick (cut and rolled) oats
4 lbs. 6-row pale malted barley
1/2 lb. crystal malt (perhaps black patent instead?)
1/2 lb. chocolate malt
1/2 lb. roasted barley
3.3 (or more like 4.3 or so) Dark DME
2 tsp. gypsum
2 oz. Williamette Hops (Bittering)
1/2 oz. Hallertauer hops (flavor)
1/4 oz. Hallertauer hops (aroma)
1/4 tsp. Irish moss
American or Irish ale-type yeast.

Any help/suggestions would be great.
Thanks! :mug:
 

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