Easy Partial Mash Brewing (with pics)

[unionrdr]

The beauty of partial mash is that you mash as much as your system will allow. Then add extract to get to your OG.
I had trouble maintaining mash temps the first 2 PM batches trying to do it on the stove. Then I got the bright idea to use my thinsulate lined winter hunting coat. I get the mash water up to about 150F,then put in the paint strainer bag in & pour in the crushed grains,usually 5lbs in 2G of water. Stir with my plastic paddle to break up dough balls,& get the grains evenly wetted. Then off the heat & onto the inside back of the hunting coat,lid on & floating thermometer inside.
Flop the hood over the lid,wrap around the coats' sides,& tie the sleeves around that for the 1 hour mash. Put the 3 or 4 gallon SS stock pot on the same burner to heat about 1.5 gallons of sparge water to about 165F. When the mash is done in my 5G SS BK/MT,I pull the grain bag & set it in a SS collander on top of the BK/MT to drain. Then sparge to get total boil volume of 3.5 gallons in said 5 gallon kettle. Since my PM's mash makes up some 50% of the fermentables,I use that for the boil's hop additions & ad the extract as a late addition at flame out. The burner for the boil is on 8.5 (electric stove) with aftermarket burners. Less boil off this way than on 9 or "HI". But it still gets a nice,even rolling boil. Just not as violent.

 

[tx-brewer]

You should boil on 11

 

[MDBrew69]

Awesome post - thanks for the detailed instructions! I just started home brewing and have made two pretty successful batches from LME kits. I'd eventually like to move up to all-grain brewing, so the partial mash method will be a great intermediate step for me.

 

[smetana1986]

Awesome post - thanks for the detailed instructions! I just started home brewing and have made two pretty successful batches from LME kits. I'd eventually like to move up to all-grain brewing, so the partial mash method will be a great intermediate step for me.

thats what I was thinking. I also just found out one of my LHBS is starting to offer BIAB classes in addition to their other offerings.

I think partial mash and BIAB is getting more popular.

 

[unionrdr]

It def works well,& the insulated hunting coat holds temps so well that I acctually gain 1 degree,rather than loosing 5-12 degrees on the stove. I also like how partial mash gives some freedom to try various grains for more flavor complexity & tweaking the color.

 

[Lakesidebrew]

I did my first BIAB last week (7 days ago) and it is a honey ale with 6 lbs of grain and 3 lbs of honey!

I'm brewing it for Memorial Day party etc...

However I've never used honey in a brew or White Labs 0001 before and of course I've never seen a fermentation look anything like this yet!

Possibly it's due to my lack of experience ( 11 batches so far )... But this looks like I'm making cottage cheese.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

I am brewing my first partial using Deathbrewer's tutorial. I have little babies so things have not went as planned. I'm doing Papazian's Top Drop Pilsner.
I think I heated the grains too high and the water was just getting starchy. It was late last night so I just turned off the stove, covered the pot and slept. In the morning I had a lovely sweet wort. Tastes like honey.
I am late getting my Wyeast into an intermittent shake starter. It won't be ready until tonight. I have time to brew the rest of the recipe now while the babies are sleeping. Is it okay to brew and then add the yeast hours later?
thanks in advance.

 

[Lakesidebrew]

Is it okay to brew and then add the yeast hours later?
thanks in advance.

You just run a higher chance of getting an infection in your batch if there is already some wild yeast or bacteria. There is nothing to dominate the Wort so they have a better chance of getting a foothold.

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

that makes sense
thanks

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Ideally you would pitch right away but there are certainly times that I'll pitch the next day. Sometimes I save wort from a batch to make the starter and try to keep the batch covered, sanitary, and as cold as possible. RDWHAAHB!!!

 

[unionrdr]

I did my first BIAB last week (7 days ago) and it is a honey ale with 6 lbs of grain and 3 lbs of honey!

I'm brewing it for Memorial Day party etc...

However I've never used honey in a brew or White Labs 0001 before and of course I've never seen a fermentation look anything like this yet!

Possibly it's due to my lack of experience ( 11 batches so far )... But this looks like I'm making cottage cheese.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

What you have there is the classic wet popcorn cold break protiens settling out. You must've either topped off with really cold water (as I do) or used irish moss or the like. Nothing to worry about,& it'll compact down over time in primary.

 

[timcadieux]

I'm considering buying this to give BIAB a try..any comments? My Brew pot is 4 Gallons

https://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=29X29-MESH-BIAB

 

[unionrdr]

At 29 x 29",it's more the size to easily fit over the lip all the way round my 5G,20QT SS BK/MT. It's a shrter wider SS stock pot with the bead near the bottom that holds a polished SS steamer tray. My 18 x 32" bag isn't quite wide enough. 22 x 28" or so would be better for my BK/MT. And 15 dollars on sale for "only 10 bucks is a little pricey! My lhbs only chrged me 7 bucks for the LD Carlson 18 x 32" bag I bought. The nylon is so easy to empty including hulls. And easy to clean stains off the nylon. A few dunks in a half sink of water & it's clean. quicker if it's warm water. So easy to clean & a pleasure to use. Very good investment regardless!

 

[timcadieux]

I'm curious, would i be better off with the simple HomeDepot paint strainer bag?

 

[Lakesidebrew]

What you have there is the classic wet popcorn cold break protiens settling out. You must've either topped off with really cold water (as I do) or used irish moss or the like. Nothing to worry about,& it'll compact down over time in primary.

I used the Camden tabs and I've used them many times before (except on wheats) never seeing anything quite this strange!

Thanks

 

[unionrdr]

I'm curious, would i be better off with the simple HomeDepot paint strainer bag?

Many folks on here use the homer cheapo bags. I wanna see if they have a medium weave bag. This course weave is ok,but it lets about 1C of stuff through it.

I used the Camden tabs and I've used them many times before (except on wheats) never seeing anything quite this strange!

Thanks

Yeah,it's kinda strange at first,but does make for less haze come fridge time settling that stuff out.

 

[VampireSix]

I did my 5th brew last night, first time attempting a partial mash (previous batches were all extract/specialty grain). These instructions made it super easy, so a big thank you to DeathBrewer!

I ended up mashing at 154F (per kit instructions, Midwest Supplies Traditional Stout) in 2 gallons of water for 4.625 lbs of grain. Hit mash temps perfectly using the linked calculators on page 1. Covered my mash kettle with my SWMBO's snuggie (I'll have to call this one the Snuggie Stout), and only lost 1 degree F over the course of 70 mins. Removed grains and let drain/squeezed.

Sparged in 3.6 gallons of water (aiming for 5 gallons of wort) at 160F for 15 mins, stirring every 5 mins. Removed grains and again allowed to drain while squeezing.
Combined mash/sparge, stirred, and took a sample, which I allowed to cool to 70F while bringing the wort to a boil.

Preboil gravity put me around 78% efficiency! And here I had DME ready, expecting it to be below 70% for my first time.

It looks like I'll be doing BIAB partials from now on.
Only downside - it did take about an hour longer over extract/specialty grain recipes. Not a huge downside, though - just means I get to enjoy another home brew!

Edit: I had Midwest crush the grains twice, just an FYI.

 

[Brewing_Butterball]

Very nice post very informative, I am a new brewer and I currently have a West Coast Pale Ale in the primary. I have been doing tons of research as my next batch I want to try and do a partial grain Ruination style IPA. Thanks for the post


---Cheers!

 

[Lakesidebrew]

You must've either topped off with really cold water (as I do) or used irish moss or the like. Nothing to worry about,& it'll compact down over time in primary.

Thanks and yes I did use Whirlfloc tablet and the stuff seems pretty amazing so far. It is starting to Compact down but still has the original form just not quite as prevalent. Today is 3 weeks in Primary and was planning on moving it to a Keg but I am about to leave the house for an emergency business so I guess 3 more days won't hurt it. LOL... Hope not.

 

[Xanatos903]

Definitely not. I leave my beers in the primary for longer than 3 weeks all the time. As long as you don't have some curious kids, you'll be fine.

 

[jauntyjoe]

Thanks for the awesome thread! Very informative!

New brewer here, so I still manage to have a couple questions ><

PM and Extract + specialty grains seem very similar to me, am I missing something? When I brew with specialty, i put my grains in a bag and hold temp @ 155 for 30-45 minutes, then remove, pour 170 degree water over/through my sack/grain bed that I've been holding above my brewpot draining, until the water coming out is fairly clear. Would the only step I'm missing be that I can incorporate some 2-row or other base malt along with my specialty grains, and a better method of sparging?

 

[borden]

Thanks for the awesome thread! Very informative!

New brewer here, so I still manage to have a couple questions ><

PM and Extract + specialty grains seem very similar to me, am I missing something? When I brew with specialty, i put my grains in a bag and hold temp @ 155 for 30-45 minutes, then remove, pour 170 degree water over/through my sack/grain bed that I've been holding above my brewpot draining, until the water coming out is fairly clear. Would the only step I'm missing be that I can incorporate some 2-row or other base malt along with my specialty grains, and a better method of sparging?

You pretty much nailed it. The fundamental difference is that you're replacing a quantity of extract with base malt. I would argue that there's a little more precision involved (really tracking temperature more than if you're only steeping), but that's just process.

PM can really open up new worlds in terms of recipes and control. It's hard to recreate Vienna and Munich mashed at 156 or Golden Promise at 148 using extract!

 

[unionrdr]

Plus mashing uses only 1-1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. This is the difference between mashing & steeping,other than the fact that mashing is for 1 hour generally.

 

[jkendrick]

I'm going to try this soon. I asked this earlier but didn't get a response. For the first attempt at using this method, would you go with a recipe you know well (obviously doing PM instead of extract) or do you think it's easy enough that I could try a more complex recipe? I'm really interested in brewing an imperial stout. Thanks!

 

[borden]

Plus mashing uses only 1-1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. This is the difference between mashing & steeping,other than the fact that mashing is for 1 hour generally.

Right. Process wise there are differences -- that's what DeathBrewer's walkthrough is for, so don't forget to use it if trying out partial mash!

 

[borden]

I'm going to try this soon. I asked this earlier but didn't get a response. For the first attempt at using this method, would you go with a recipe you know well (obviously doing PM instead of extract) or do you think it's easy enough that I could try a more complex recipe? I'm really interested in brewing an imperial stout. Thanks!

Everyone will tell you something different, I'm sure, but for me, I wanted to start with smaller beers (or at least not huge beers that need aging) so I could turn them around quicker and see how my process was working in terms of end product quality.

 

[unionrdr]

I'm going to try this soon. I asked this earlier but didn't get a response. For the first attempt at using this method, would you go with a recipe you know well (obviously doing PM instead of extract) or do you think it's easy enough that I could try a more complex recipe? I'm really interested in brewing an imperial stout. Thanks!

I'd get a partial mash kit,like the ones at midwest. My first was the PM Cascade Pale ale kit with premium dry yeast for $25. Good price to get a great,balanced pale ale that reminds me of SNPA,but lighter colored. The premium dry yeast was US-05. I think this would be the easiest way to get your feet wet with PM brewing. Good price too.

 

[borden]

I'd get a partial mash kit,like the ones at midwest. My first was the PM Cascade Pale ale kit with premium dry yeast for $25. Good price to get a great,balanced pale ale that reminds me of SNPA,but lighter colored. The premium dry yeast was US-05. I think this would be the easiest way to get your feet wet with PM brewing. Good price too.

Oh man, +1 to that kit. It was my first PM batch and remains one of my favorite beers I've ever made -- simple but very well balanced recipe.

 

[JeffD1]

Thank you for this! I already used this method and it worked great! I have dumb newbie question though, will this work for all grain as well?

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Thank you for this! I already used this method and it worked great! I have dumb newbie question though, will this work for all grain as well?

Sure, it is basically a Brew in a Bag (BIAB) set up. You could mash more grain and not add extract. You might be limited on the higher gravity brews and how big you can go will depend on your equipment, but it can be done. You could even mash and boil a smaller volume of higher gravity wort and then dilute just like you do with extract kits. What did you have in mind?