Learned a lot from the first, mostly just heat the water to temp and add the grains. Last time I was trying to tweek the temp and it was up and down all over the place. Glorious Saturday to be brewing, hope the rain stays away
Yep! Partial mashes are great like that. Excellent way to phase yourself into all-grain. It can be hard to keep that temp steady, but it's very important. As long as you're within like 5 degrees though, you should be ok for this one.
check out http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php for a strike water calculator.
Just did my first two PM earlier this week and thankfully they went smoothly also. Now I just can't wait to try my beers. PM is so much more fun than just plain extract brews even when most of them have steeping grains.