Specialty Grains and Partial Mash techniques

[ncornilsen]

Hi, I want to see if this makes sense to you guys.

I have the equipment for mashing about 2 lbs of grain at a time.

I'm wanting to do a Russian Imperial stout recipe that calls for 6.65lbs of specialty grain, since I need to add about 1.5lbs of 6-row to get the enzymes needed for converting some wheat and barley.

I can only effectively boil 3 gallons, 3.5 if I push it.

My plan is to mash the 4lbs of 6-row, wheat, barley, and aromatic in the mini cooler using 1.4 qts/lb, while steeping the 2.65lbs of specialty grains (crystals, special b, black patent) in about .75 gallons of water. This would give me a boil volume right around3.5 gallons, maybe a bit less.

Are there any anticipated issues with this approach? Is there another, better way to go, without going all grain? The recipe is as follows: (figures are in pounds.)

Chocolate Malt 0.25
Flaked Barley 0.75
Special B 0.75
White Wheat 0.75
Carafa III 0.625
Black patent 0.40625
Crystal 40/45 0.40625
Roasted Barley 0.40625
Crystal 120 0.25
Aromatic 0.5625
Pale LME 16
Pale 6 Row 1.5

 

[eluterio]

Question, why not just add all the grains together unless you think your mini cooler is too small?

 

[ncornilsen]

Question, why not just add all the grains together unless you think your mini cooler is too small?

The mini-cooler is only 2 gallon. any more than 4 gallons of grain would probably overfill it.

 

[tezcatlipoca]

Why not steep the specialty grains in the Malt extract of the first? Kind of like how extract brewers steep bagged specialty grains in the "pre-boil". Except you would make your own extract...

 

[Calder]

What size boil pot do you have. You say you can boil 3.5 gallons, so maybe its a 5 gallon pot.

Get a 5 gallon paint straining bag and do it all in the boil pot with about 8.5 quarts of water. That should leave you 1.5 gallons of wort. Drain the bag, and then sparge with another 1.5 to 2 gallons of 170 F water in another pot. If you don't have another large pot, pour the wort to a smaller pot, and re-use the large pot for the sparge.

There are starches in the 'speciality' grains that you can convert with mashing.

 

[ncornilsen]

What size boil pot do you have. You say you can boil 3.5 gallons, so maybe its a 5 gallon pot.

Get a 5 gallon paint straining bag and do it all in the boil pot with about 8.5 quarts of water. That should leave you 1.5 gallons of wort. Drain the bag, and then sparge with another 1.5 to 2 gallons of 170 F water in another pot. If you don't have another large pot, pour the wort to a smaller pot, and re-use the large pot for the sparge.

There are starches in the 'speciality' grains that you can convert with mashing.

I hadn't thought about doing it that way... I'll try it!

Thanks,
-Nick

 

[chickypad]

Mashing BIAB style in your pot is definitely the way to go. I know you didn't ask for recipe comments but I have to say that looks like an awfully unnecessarily complicated recipe. 10 different grains not counting base malt?? Just wondering what the thinking there is. I can see using 2-3 different dark roasted grains for complexity but I'm not sure you need 4 different kinds of all very dark roasted grain. Then there are the 3 different crystals which seem a bit much and I think the wheat and aromatic are just going to get lost in the rest of the recipe.

 

[ncornilsen]

Mashing BIAB style in your pot is definitely the way to go. I know you didn't ask for recipe comments but I have to say that looks like an awfully unnecessarily complicated recipe. 10 different grains not counting base malt?? Just wondering what the thinking there is. I can see using 2-3 different dark roasted grains for complexity but I'm not sure you need 4 different kinds of all very dark roasted grain. Then there are the 3 different crystals which seem a bit much and I think the wheat and aromatic are just going to get lost in the rest of the recipe.

Yeah, it is a complicated grain bill, I agree. I'm not a master of designing recipes just yet, but that recipe was scaled from a similar one in this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=217674

 

[chickypad]

Ah, Kate the Great. Now I get it. Good luck with it.

 

[ncornilsen]

Ah, Kate the Great. Now I get it. Good luck with it.

If you're wishing me good luck the way one might wish good luck to someone who's about to launch a bottle rocket out of their mouth, please note I'm tone deaf to such things, especially when it's text!

 

[chickypad]

Ha! No not at all, brewing any big brew like that is a bit ambitious but I meant it sincerely. Never had it but it sounds like a great beer.

 

[tezcatlipoca]

I might try to do that clone later this year. I do already have a 12.5% pumpkin imperial stout going and I'd hate to tie up two carboys. Let us know how it comes out!