Upper Limits of Partial Mashing

[Nick4228]

Random question:

Basically, the only thing holding me back from going all grain is my kettle, I only have a 5 gal kettle, so I can't really do a full boil (unless I'm making smaller than 5 gal batches). I have a 10 gal cooler mash/ lauter tun I got before I was going all grain because it was really on sale at Lowes, so how much grain I can mash isn't really my limiting factor. My question is, roughly, what would be the upper limit on the amount of grain I want to partial mash if I can't at this moment do a full wort boil?

Thanks!

 

[jaycount]

Basically you can mash as much grain as you want but you'll have to quit sparging once you get to your Comfortable boil volume. This will leave sugar in the mash tun which you'll have to make up for with extract in the boil.

Most folks suggest 1.25 qt/lbs for mash thickness and 2 qts/lbs for sparging so from that (and compensating for grain absorption) you should be able to calculate the maximum amount of grain that you could fully extract the sugars from for your given boil volume. Id go into more detail but I'm on my smart phone right now

 

[Captain Damage]

I'm in basically the same situation - 5 gallon pot, 5 gallon cooler. I've done a couple of beers as all-grain partial boils, but this only really works with lower gravity beers such as ordinary bitter. For an OB I use 5-1/2 lbs of grain. My efficiency is high enough that after doing a 4 gallon boil and topping up to 5 gallons I just hit my target gravity (1.034). I've found that my efficiency plummets at any more than 6 lbs of grain. A full and proper sparge is needed to get the sugar out. I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and get a bigger pot this year.

 

[xjmox14x]

You can mash as much grain as you possibly can. I'm in the same situation. I have to go back and look at my notes, but basically, I will mash 6lbs of grain for a roughly 4 gallon boil, and make up the rest with late addition DME and top off water.

 

[Revvy]

You can go 99% extract and 1% grain, or vice versa, and it still be a partial mash.

Take a look at my Old Bog Road Brown Ale- I show Partial Mashes for people's different abilities to handle different sized amounts of grain.

 

[stevedasleeve]

You don't need a full boil to do all grain. Just work it out so that you can add 1.5-2 gallons of water to your fermenter.

Here is the thing I love about brewing: there are *no* rules. Full boil, partial boil, all grain, over pitch, under pitch, dry or liquid, hops all in the kettle or boiled in a separate kettle, cane vs corn at the beginning of the boil or at the end or after fermentation starts... etc. etc.

The only thing you need to remember is grain + water + yeast = beer and the rest is infinitely variable.

I love this hobby!