1 Gallon tiny partial mashes

[bdg0223]

I'm a new extract brewer and I'd like to make some unconverted grains available to me (Reading Jennifer Talley's Session Beers). But this opens up the complexities of water chemistry...

If I only want to partial mash enough grains to convert the starches (we're talking maybe 1 oz of wheat or oats, + 1 oz of a base malt), could I just toss a portion of my DME into some RO water to get my minerals in the right-ish zone, then do a basic partial mash (pretty much just a steep alongside my other specialty grains), boil and do my late extract addition and move along?

Or should I really start building out my water profile at this point? I'm waiting on my city to get back to me on some blanks in the water report (magnesium, sulfates, alkalinity).

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

What batch size are you brewing? Which recipe from Session Beers (I have the book)?

 

[IslandLizard]

Seriously, a 2 oz (partial) mash?

Is this for brewing 1 gallon batches?
If so, why not convert the recipe to all grain and mash everything?

You could use distilled or RO water for the mash. Use a water calculator for your mineral additions. You will need a 0.01 gram scale to get some accuracy, while measuring out those miniscule amounts. Don't sneeze.

Using extract as a mineral vehicle in your mini-mash water will make things much more complicated. How would you know the mineral content?

 

[bdg0223]

What batch size are you brewing? Which recipe from Session Beers (I have the book)?

Seriously, a 2 oz (partial) mash?

Is this for brewing 1 gallon batches?

I'm brewing 1 gallon batches, yeah. I should have been more clear in my headline. I don't have a particular recipe in mind, but I do see several including flaked oats, flaked barley or white wheat.

Using extract as a mineral vehicle in your mini-mash water will make things much more complicated. How would you know the mineral content?

Well, I wouldn't. But I'm extrapolating from the How To Brew suggestion to add some extract to the steeping water before you steep the grains to help with ph levels and such. I usually add about 1/4 of my total extract to my kettle before the steep.

why not convert the recipe to all grain and mash everything?

As ridiculous as this is going to sound given my questions in the post, I'd like to just keep brew days as simple as possible. Going all-grain right now means a lot more attention to the mash process and I'd rather just focus on the other fundamentals while I'm still learning (temp control, yeast characteristics, hopping, specialty grain flavors, etc.) I've got decades more brewing ahead of me, so I'm not in a rush to conquer everything on Batch #8.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

As ridiculous as this is going to sound

It's not ridiculous.

It may possible that there are reasonable substitutions for some of the ingredients. For wheat malt, you could use Wheat DME. For oats, maybe Simpsons Golden Naked Oats is "close enough".

 

[IslandLizard]

I'm extrapolating from the How To Brew suggestion to add some extract to the steeping water before you steep the grains to help with ph levels and such.

You're not simply going to steep here, you're mashing!

As ridiculous as this is going to sound [...]

No, it's not ridiculous at all!

The smallest all grain batches I've ever mashed and brewed were about 10-12 oz of grain, IIRC, to end up with 3 filled (and naturally carbonated) 12 oz bottles. A lot of work for such a small amount of beer, but I had 6 different, small single grain batches, running concurrently.

 

[bdg0223]

The smallest all grain batches I've ever mashed and brewed were about 10-12 oz of grain, IIRC, to end up with 3 filled (and naturally carbonated) 12 oz bottles. A lot of work for such a small amount of beer, but I had 6 different, small single grain batches, running concurrently.

Now you're talking my language. I don't mind the work. I have to put the work in at some point. I'm brewing my way through base DMEs and dry yeasts and single hops to get a feel for all of them. Buying some specialty grains as I go for the recipes. I'll work up to all-grain and liquid yeasts and starters and all that fancy stuff when the time comes.

It may possible that there are reasonable substitutions for some of the ingredients. For wheat malt, you could use Wheat DME. For oats, maybe Simpsons Golden Naked Oats is "close enough".

You're likely right. I wonder if the crystal oats will impart the same body-enhancing characteristics as their flaked counterparts. Will probably use wheat DME and see where that gets me.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

It appears that they do.

Golden Naked Oats®™ (link, link)

Adds fullness and flavour in beer with a shaving foam white head.

 

[bdg0223]

It appears that they do.

This is the way. Thank you very much. Didn't know these existed!

 

[tracer bullet]

FWIW I think your original idea has some merit.

Any idea how your tap water is? Would you predict it seems to be fairly soft, fairly hard? Like, judging by how long a water heater lasts, or if your faucets build up a lot of white stuff, and so on. You can't be a walking water report of course but you may already have an idea. Just trying to gauge if you can use it as-is, cut it with some RO, or whatever.

Sure it won't be perfect, but I think for starters you could certainly steep some grains, get to try them, gain some experience, and so on and make beer you are happy with. At least to get your feet wet for the next step if you choose to pursue it.

 

[bdg0223]

FWIW I think your original idea has some merit.

Any idea how your tap water is? Would you predict it seems to be fairly soft, fairly hard?

Tap water seems pretty soft at the moment, given what I know. This is what I have available on the most recent report:
Calcium: 5.94ppm
Magnesium: N/A
Bicarbonate: N/A (I know its usually not outlined clearly)
Sodium: 9.03ppm
Chloride: 15ppm
Sulfate: N/A

 

[tracer bullet]

Tap water seems pretty soft at the moment, given what I know.

I think you're right about that. It's not RO or DI but it's not so far away from it, at least compared to what some people report.

Are you familiar with "BIAB" methods? I wouldn't be against putting your grain in a small bag (crush it first), steeping it at say 150F for a half hour, remove it and then add your DME as your water comes up to a boil.

 

[bdg0223]

Yeah, familiar with BIAB and that process you described is basically what I do now with my steeping grains. My original thought was just to add the 2 oz of base + wheat/oats to that bag and let it sit for the 30 mins before I moved on to the boil.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

... the complexities of water chemistry...

When using RO water (or "low mineral" water), starting points for water adjustments for mashing and favoring are not complicated.

One good starting point is this article (link) which is a summary of A Brewing Water Chemistry Primer (link to HomebrewTalk topic).

 

[IslandLizard]

My original thought was just to add the 2 oz of base + wheat/oats to that bag and let it sit for the 30 mins before I moved on to the boil.

This is not plain steeping!
You'll need to hold the temps between 146F and 160F when mashing in order to convert starches to sugars. Above 160-162F conversion enzymes start to denature at an increasingly high rate.

I'm not sure, when you have a relatively large % of steeping malts included, if the general guideline of keeping the average Diastatic Power (DP) of the grist mix above 35° Lintner applies, to obtain full conversion.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

My original thought was just to add the 2 oz of base + wheat/oats to that bag and let it sit for the 30 mins before I moved on to the boil.

Over the years, I've known a couple of people who have tried this with their one gallon batches. They were able to hold the water temperature at around 150F for the duration of the process step. They (self-reported that they) were happy with the results. Just a couple of anecdotal experiences that could lead to curiosity and further investigation.

1-Gallon Brewers UNITE! (link to HomebrewTalk topic) is a good resource for ideas on mashing 1 gallon batches. Mashing using a pre-heated oven is one idea that was discussed a couple of years ago. Don't try to read the entire topic, skip ahead to around the year 2018 or 2019.

Diastatic Power (DP)

When brewing using a partial mash, there appears to be a relatively simple technique for making sure the grain bill has enough DP: for each pound of specialty malt, add a pound of base malt (other than munich). Most two-row or pilsen malt has a DP above 120 - so the DP of the mash will be 60 (or more).

(Reading Jennifer Talley's Session Beers)

I scanned a number of recipes in the book. Of the ones I scanned, most would convert to extract+steep without a problem. Many brands of Munich malt are "self-converting". There are a couple of specialty malts that need to be mashed, otherwise there will be some extra starches in the wort. For those, adding a lb/oz of base malt for each lb/oz of specialty malt will help get the DP right.

And there's more to mashing than just DP. This article (link), when using RO water (or "low mineral" water) covers many of those details.

 

[mashpaddled]

I've long been a fan of small batch brewing and in particular one gallon batches but this seems like doing so close to the work of a full mash for the batch that I'd encourage you to make the leap to all grain. If you have enough knowledge to think about water chemistry you have enough knowledge to conduct a full mash.

I don't have experience to say whether this would work but if I did this I would draft the recipe as no-sparge so you don't have to worry about the lack of sparge water adjustments extracting undesirable tannins.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

this seems like doing so close to the work of a full mash for the batch that I'd encourage you to make the leap to all grain. If you have enough knowledge to think about water chemistry you have enough knowledge to conduct a full mash.

I agree. And one of the advantages of a full mash (vs a partial mash) is the larger amount of grains will help stabilize the mash temperature. Insulating/wrapping the kettle and not peaking to measure temperature also help. OPs tap water mineral content is looking good (and it will be easy to avoid tannins). And, as I noted above, initial approaches to water adjustments are not a "leap".

On the "other side", many of the recipes in Session Beers convert easily to extract+steep. An occasional "short and shoddy" steep of a small amount of character malts that should be mashed (to avoid starches) covers most of the other recipes.

Back in #4, it was mentioned that

I'd like to just keep brew days as simple as possible.

and that is an interesting topic on it's own.

 

[balrog]

Good ideas all around here. I'll just add that when I started, steeping grains and LME|DME, went to larger and larger amounts of steeping, which was really mashing. Did it all in the 5 gal pot used to make the small-boil-with-top-up-water batches. I would turn on the oven to "warm", once it reached temp (in my case 175F), turn it off. Heat water to calculated temp, mash in, measure temp, lid on, put in oven. It would hold temp nicely.

With very VERY small amounts, you might be able to do what I read Kai did, and mash in a thermos.

I would stay away from mashing for 30m for now, if you are really after what the flavor imparts, and stick to 60m. For darker grists with more crystal and toasted grains, the flavor impact of 60m over 30m mash is noticeable to me.

And I"d have to agree with @IslandLizard 100% about the effort vs output of making 1 gallon or less at a time. With a 60m mash and 60m boil, there's still a lot of time involved no matter the batch size, although heating and cooling times scale with batch size accordingly.

But have fun with it!

 

[bdg0223]

One good starting point is this article (link) which is a summary of A Brewing Water Chemistry Primer (link to HomebrewTalk topic).

OK Whoa! I just got to read up on these links you sent this morning and wow. I've read and re-read the How To Brew water chemistry/Residual Alkalinity sections and beat the book against my head trying to apply the nomographs and formulas as simply as possible. The approach outlined in the Primer is what I needed. I can do this no problem at all. And I'm working on beginner recipe dark English beers which are outlined specifically. Huzzah!

this seems like doing so close to the work of a full mash for the batch that I'd encourage you to make the leap to all grain.

I'll get there in time. I wanted to have the book learning fully grasped before jumping in the deep end. I'm much closer to attempting an all-grain today than I was yesterday from the help of this thread so far.

I would stay away from mashing for 30m for now, if you are really after what the flavor imparts, and stick to 60m. For darker grists with more crystal and toasted grains, the flavor impact of 60m over 30m mash is noticeable to me.

That's good to know, If/when I get to a true mash, I'll keep my timing closer to 60 mins.

And I"d have to agree with @IslandLizard 100% about the effort vs output of making 1 gallon or less at a time.

If/when I start brewing stellar beers, I probably would want to move up in volume. 10 12 oz bottles per batch is plenty for me to learn what I did wrong and make a game plan for next time. Its about $5-7 a brew day also, which doesn't hurt.

 

[bdg0223]

This is not plain steeping!
You'll need to hold the temps between 146F and 160F when mashing in order to convert starches to sugars. Above 160-162F conversion enzymes start to denature at an increasingly high rate.

You're right, not steeping! Mashing! I've been practicing holding my steep temperature at about 158-160 consistently for 25-30 mins just to get ready for true mashing scenarios in the future. With one gallon its a bit of a dance on the stovetop. But using the oven is a very smart strategy I've seen recommended here and elsewhere, and I'll likely employ that.

 

[balrog]

OK Whoa! I just got to read up on these links you sent this morning and wow. I've read and re-read the How To Brew water chemistry/Residual Alkalinity sections and beat the book against my head trying to apply the nomographs and formulas as simply as possible. This approach is what I needed. I can do this no problem at all. And I'm working on beginner recipe dark English beers which are outlined specifically. Huzzah!

Re: that HBT thread by AJDelange, years later he recommended cutting the amounts mentioned in post#1 in half.
See it here.

 

[bdg0223]

Re: that HBT thread by AJDelange, years later he recommended cutting the amounts mentioned in post#1 in half.
See it here.

Nice! Thanks for this.

I see the world's tiniest scale going on my shopping list in 3, 2, 1....

 

[tracer bullet]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y61YW7...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl
^^^ This will do up to 100 grams (~ 3-1/2 oz), I've got 2 of them, one of them I've used daily (for coffee) for many years now.

 

[IslandLizard]

^^^ This will do up to 100 grams (~ 3-1/2 oz), I've got 2 of them, one of them I've used daily (for coffee) for many years now.

I got 2 too.

I see the world's tiniest scale going on my shopping list in 3, 2, 1....

Find one that comes with a calibration weight. IIRC, those 0.01-100g type scales need a 50g calibration.

 

[tracer bullet]

100g. That's what I use. Hopefully it's not 50g - that'd be a funny mistake. Pretty sure it's 100 though. That lets it cal full range.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

For calibration with smaller amounts (using U.S. coins), a penny weighs 2.5 grams, a nickel weighs ...

 

[IslandLizard]

100g. That's what I use. Hopefully it's not 50g - that'd be a funny mistake. Pretty sure it's 100 though. That lets it cal full range.

Yes, mine use 100g weights too, but I've been seeing many on Amazon now with 50g calibration weights.

But it all depends on what the scale "expects" to be calibrated with... it's "baked" into the firmware.

 

[Beermeister32]

You can make 1 gallon pilot batches for fun before scaling up to a full 5 gallon batch. Easy to make hop addition changes and other tweaks.

If I were doing a 1 gallon batch, I wouldn’t mess around with water profiles for such a small batch. Yes for a 5 gallon batch, not so much for a 1 gallon.

Rather, I’d find yourself a general purpose store bought drinking water to use. Around here in SoCal, Crystal Geyser works well. The water analysis sheets are available immediately online, no waiting.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I see the world's tiniest scale going on my shopping list in 3, 2, 1....

I have a pair of jewelry scales (50g capacity/ 0.001g resolution) which I find is the range/accuracy needed for working with small batches. I also have a 100g /0.01g scale, but it rarely gets used.

Rumor has it that someone will be launching a "pro" series of 50g/0.001g scales that include "sneeze guards" .

 

[IslandLizard]

Will probably use wheat DME and see where that gets me.

Mind, wheat DME is typically 50-65% wheat, the balance (35-50%) made up of 2-row or pale.

You'll need to hold the temps between 146F and 160F when mashing

Let me add, the mash temp used influences fermentability of the wort. The higher the mash temp (within the range, above), the less fermentable, but it can be quite subtle, and depends on the method(s) used.

And yes, a prewarmed but turned off oven will help keep your mash pot at the correct temps. A little extra warming halfway through the hour may be necessary, but 2 degrees lower or higher doesn't have all that much impact on the wort fermentability.

I did mini/partial mashes for a long time, using a 2 gallon pot in the warm oven, until I wanted to brew a Witbier, requiring at least 50% raw (flaked) wheat.
That's when I built the 54 qt cooler mash tun and went all-grain.

You could mash a larger amount, say enough for 3-5 gallons of wort, using just Pale or 2-row malt (or wheat or so). Then split the wort into 1-gallon batches, where you differentiate. Such as using different hops for each sub-batch. Or add a potion of different steeped malts to them, such as C10, C20, C40, C60, C80, C120, etc.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

If I were doing a 1 gallon batch, I wouldn’t mess around with water profiles

Here's the reason why one might want to make water adjustments based on style.

At the 2007 National Homebrewers Conference, John Palmer presented on an experiment (link) he performed that demonstrated how different water profiles impact beer.

I earlier in this topic, I posted a link to an article that provides a simple approach for making those adjustments.

Basic water adjustments, even for one gallon batches, is a solved problem.

 

[IslandLizard]

I have a pair of jewelry scales (50g capacity/ 0.001g resolution) which I find is the range/accuracy needed for working with small batches. I also have a 100g /0.01g scale, but it rarely gets used.

Have you compared the weighing results of the 2 scales?

I'd say the 0.01g resolution of the 100 g scale is plenty precise for water minerals, even in a sub-1 gallon batch. The 100 gram mini-scale is also easier/faster to use.
For example, in a 5.5 gallon batch, 0.7 gram Gypsum would convert to 0.127g in a 1 gallon batch. The difference between 0.12 and 0.13 gram is undetectable in a gallon of beer.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Have you compared the weighing results of the 2 scales?

Yes. Each provides the 'same' result for very small items.

Previously, I had a 100g/0.01g scale (different model than one suggested) and it had problems weighing small amounts accurately. I don't have that scale (or it's problems) any more. FWIW: It looks like my current 100g/0.01g scale is able to weight smaller amounts accurately - but I only use it for larger amounts.

 

[ArizonaGoalie]

When I was starting and only doing extract, I purchased a Brooklyn Brew Shop 1 gallon dubbel kit. It was all grain and used a very simple mashing technique, very similar to brew in a bag. I was very skeptical that the process would actually work and convert grains to fermentable sugar. To my amazement, the beer finished at 6.9% ABV and tasted great.

You can see the process here and easily replicate it:
https://brooklynbrewshop.com/pages/instructions-bourbon-dubbel
Whatever you do, keep brewing! And move to all grain as soon as you're comfortable, it truly makes better beer and if I can do it, literally anybody can.

CHEERS!

 

[RufusBrewer]

I believe on points per dollar basis, malted barley is cheaper than LME of DME. If that us the case, I would use as much malted barley as my base malt as practical for 1 gallon batches. If some variables make DME or LME easier to add to the recipe, I would have no problem topping off my beer with DME or LME to get to my desired OG.

But if you are steeping or martial mashing anyway, go with as much base malt as you can.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

It may be that, for 1 gal batches, a partial mash process does not usefully "scale down".

A 3 gal kettle (a common kitchen item) works well for both full volume BAIB and extract+steep. Also, a larger mass of grains helps maintain a stable mash temperature.