yikes, accidental partial mash

[dbkdev]

Soooo for my second beer ever I picked the zombie dust clone on here. I should have read closer. Only after buying all the ingredients did I realize the grains needed weren't steeping grains, the recipe was a partial mash. I almost had a heart attack, no idea what I was in for. Well, I decided to take a shot at it, and I gotta say I think I did pretty well. If I hit the targeted og right on, my mash was a success right? I kept it at exactly 152-153. If that's really all there Is to a partial mash and I can do it, is it worth going back to all extract? Or should I continue partial mashin

On another note, I had a good laugh making it. My wife bought a pineapple yesterday that my ten year old wanted to eat, but my wife said it had to ripen, and that he'd be able to smell it when its ready. Wellll. When I was on like the ten thousandth citra addition on my zombie dust clone, my son walked into the room and said , "mom can I have the pineapple now??? I can smell it!". Just awesome haha.

 

[RM-MN]

You've passed the test. From now on you can say you know how to mash. With that step, take a look farther. BIAB is simply a partial mash without the extract. That's all there really is to it. You need to measure the water to use, heat it up to the right temp, add the grains to bring that temp to what you want to mash at, and let it happen.

 

[dbkdev]

Is biab the same thing as all gain?

 

[wilserbrewer]

BIAB is all grain!

 

[Qhrumphf]

BIAB is a mashing method that can be used for all grain. You can do BIAB partial mash. You can also do a partial mash in a cooler if you so desire. Although traditional BIAB is an all grain method. Imagine doing what you did for your partial mash, with a bigger grain bag, a lot more grain, and no extract. That's it.

Beyond that, there's no-sparge BIAB (the traditional way using all the water needed for the batch), and then there's folks with various "sparge" methods. Some folks do the "teabag" method of dunking the grainbag in a separate kettle of sparge water (I haven't read the thread in a while, but I believe that's what's in Deathbrewer's "easy BIAB" tutorial or whatever it's called). When I was doing BIAB before switching to a cooler MLT, I put my grain bag in a colander over the kettle, and then poured sparge water through it.

 

[TxBigHops]

Thanks for posting this. I'm pretty new to brewing as well, and came to this forum looking for the difference between an extract recipe with steeping grains and partial mash. When you say that you looked at the grains and determined that you had a partial mash, and not steeping grains, exactly how did you determine that? I'm having a little trouble understanding the difference.

 

[dbkdev]

I looked at the recipe again and it said partial mash . its much like steeping the grains, but at a constant temperature and for a longer period of time.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks for posting this. I'm pretty new to brewing as well, and came to this forum looking for the difference between an extract recipe with steeping grains and partial mash. When you say that you looked at the grains and determined that you had a partial mash, and not steeping grains, exactly how did you determine that? I'm having a little trouble understanding the difference.

I had trouble with that distinction when I started too. Steeping grains have no ability to convert their starch to sugar, it will either be already converted in the case of Crystal or caramel (those can be used interchangably, Crystal is a trademark and can't be used by everyone) or unconverted like in roasted barley.

Grains that can convert will be pale malt, Munich malt, Vienna, Pilsner, etc. Some of these have sufficient enzymes to convert other grains too.

 

[TxBigHops]

I had trouble with that distinction when I started too. Steeping grains have no ability to convert their starch to sugar, it will either be already converted in the case of Crystal or caramel (those can be used interchangably, Crystal is a trademark and can't be used by everyone) or unconverted like in roasted barley.

Grains that can convert will be pale malt, Munich malt, Vienna, Pilsner, etc. Some of these have sufficient enzymes to convert other grains too.

So are you saying the differentiation is whether or not you have grains with fermentable sugars? Or like dbkdev says, is it whether you keep the grains at a constant temp? Real world example - the following link is the first beer I made a few weeks ago:

http://www.defalcos.com/component/content/article/225.html

As you can see, the steeping grains (as they call them) include 3 pounds of pale malt. I assume I'm getting fermentables from this malt. So is this really a PM or mini mash?

The reason I am getting so specific with this is I started playing with Beersmith this weekend. I don't have a mash tun yet, but I do have a 9 gallon kettle, so I'm happy to start replacing some of the extract with grains in the recipes I'm planning to do next. What is the critical factor to ensure that I get enough OG, just steeping the grains, or keeping them at a constant temp for a longer period of time? And how much extract can I replace without a true mash tun capable of maintaining temps?

Thanks, and sorry OP if I've gotten too far off topic and thread jacked.

 

[TxBigHops]

I looked at the recipe again and it said partial mash . its much like steeping the grains, but at a constant temperature and for a longer period of time.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Home Brew mobile app

So if you weren't prepared to do a PM, how did you go about maintaining your temps? What equipment / process did you use?

 

[brycelarson]

Thanks for posting this. I'm pretty new to brewing as well, and came to this forum looking for the difference between an extract recipe with steeping grains and partial mash. When you say that you looked at the grains and determined that you had a partial mash, and not steeping grains, exactly how did you determine that? I'm having a little trouble understanding the difference.

http://www.beersmith.com/Grains/Grains/GrainList.htm

Look at the "must mash" column.

If it says "yes" that means that the sugars are still being stored as starch - and that the mash process is needed to get them into sugar format so that you can brew with them. If it says "no" that means it's already converted - and that you can get them out by simply soaking the grains like tea and pulling the sugars out.

make sense?

 

[RM-MN]

So are you saying the differentiation is whether or not you have grains with fermentable sugars? Or like dbkdev says, is it whether you keep the grains at a constant temp? Real world example - the following link is the first beer I made a few weeks ago:

http://www.defalcos.com/component/content/article/225.html

As you can see, the steeping grains (as they call them) include 3 pounds of pale malt. I assume I'm getting fermentables from this malt. So is this really a PM or mini mash?

The reason I am getting so specific with this is I started playing with Beersmith this weekend. I don't have a mash tun yet, but I do have a 9 gallon kettle, so I'm happy to start replacing some of the extract with grains in the recipes I'm planning to do next. What is the critical factor to ensure that I get enough OG, just steeping the grains, or keeping them at a constant temp for a longer period of time? And how much extract can I replace without a true mash tun capable of maintaining temps?

Thanks, and sorry OP if I've gotten too far off topic and thread jacked.

To convert the starch to sugar, you must have the right grains (called base malts) and the right temperature. The enzymes only convert the starch if the temperature is between (somebody correct me if I'm wrong, please) about 145 to 160. If you have sufficient base malts, you don't need any malt extract, you'll be extracting the sugars yourself.

 

[brycelarson]

The enzymes only convert the starch if the temperature is between (somebody correct me if I'm wrong, please) about 145 to 160. If you have sufficient base malts, you don't need any malt extract, you'll be extracting the sugars yourself.

Yeah, that's the correct temperature range. The lower in that range the more fermentable the wort will be - the higher the less. So a lighter beer that you're looking for a dry finish will be in the 148 range - while a bigger beer that you want to finish sweet might be as high as 154-156.

Above 160 and you'll start to denature the enzymes that break down the starch and stop the whole process.