Pelikan
Well-Known Member
So I'm making the step-up to partial mash, and have a few questions. I've read tutorials, and the best one had a guy draping a large nylon bag over his pot. So the grain was basically floating in the pot, but when he pulled the bag out, the grains came out with it.
My LHBS and the places I generally order from do not have bags large enough to fit over the entire opening of my pot. So I'm wondering, for a partial mash, do the grains need to be "loose" floating in the water, or can I divide the grain between a few steeping bags? Looking at it another way, can the grains be added directly to the pot, and strained out after the mash and sparge with a standard metal strainer...or is this asking for a mess?
Regarding water volume: I understand the amount of water one has dictates how much grain can be used. I recall reading about a ratio of 1.2 quarts of water for every pound of grain. Is that ratio for all grains, or just for the "base" grains. To give an example, lets say I had a 1.2 quart mash volume (I'd never go that low, but to keep it simple). Would my grains have to be 1.2 total or could I have 1.2 of 2-row and an additional compliment of specialty grains?
Does the sparge volume have to equal your mash volume? The primer I read used 2 gallons mash volume and 2 gallons sparge volume for a combined 4 gallon boil. 3 gallons in the boil is about the max I want to deal with at this point, just because I have to carry the heavy pot down a flight of stairs, etc etc, and don't want to drop it. In an effort to get the most I can out of that 3 gallon boil, could I maybe use a 2 gallon mash volume and a 1 gallon sparge volume, or is this asking for problems?
Finally, about how much grain do I need to use in order to get proper hop utilization? I prefer to add as much of the extract at the end as possible, and with a partial mash I'd like to get to the point where all of it is being added at the end, if possible.
Thanks very much for your time.
My LHBS and the places I generally order from do not have bags large enough to fit over the entire opening of my pot. So I'm wondering, for a partial mash, do the grains need to be "loose" floating in the water, or can I divide the grain between a few steeping bags? Looking at it another way, can the grains be added directly to the pot, and strained out after the mash and sparge with a standard metal strainer...or is this asking for a mess?
Regarding water volume: I understand the amount of water one has dictates how much grain can be used. I recall reading about a ratio of 1.2 quarts of water for every pound of grain. Is that ratio for all grains, or just for the "base" grains. To give an example, lets say I had a 1.2 quart mash volume (I'd never go that low, but to keep it simple). Would my grains have to be 1.2 total or could I have 1.2 of 2-row and an additional compliment of specialty grains?
Does the sparge volume have to equal your mash volume? The primer I read used 2 gallons mash volume and 2 gallons sparge volume for a combined 4 gallon boil. 3 gallons in the boil is about the max I want to deal with at this point, just because I have to carry the heavy pot down a flight of stairs, etc etc, and don't want to drop it. In an effort to get the most I can out of that 3 gallon boil, could I maybe use a 2 gallon mash volume and a 1 gallon sparge volume, or is this asking for problems?
Finally, about how much grain do I need to use in order to get proper hop utilization? I prefer to add as much of the extract at the end as possible, and with a partial mash I'd like to get to the point where all of it is being added at the end, if possible.
Thanks very much for your time.