Easy Partial Mash Brewing (with pics)

[DeathBrewer]

Sorry folks. Forgot I had those on a cancelled host. I'll upload them here and get them permanent

 

[DeathBrewer]

Uploaded photos but linking isn't working. I'll figure this out ASAP...

 

[DeathBrewer]

Pictures are back! And I'm probably a ghost again...

 

[702marine]

You should stick around bro. I have been looking forward to seeing more of your stuff.

 

[DeathBrewer]

I'm definitely going to at least update the Recipe Formulations thread

 

[DonBrewer]

Can you melt the brew bag onto a SS brew pot?

 

[unionrdr]

In my experience no, as long as you have water in there too.

 

[cheddarhed3]

Great post. I have yet to venture past extract with specialty grains but plan on heading in the BIAB direction soon. Might hit this technique up first on my way up the ladder. Cheers.

 

[MrSpaz]

This was my go to for partial mashing. I highly suggest it. After a few of these you then want to get into all grain which I finally did. Good luck

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah, it worked out real well for me doing pb/pm biab in the same 5 gallon SS kettle I started with. Same basic idea with sparge made my E/SG beers better as well.

 

[lazarwolf]

Great write up and nearly identical to what I spend my weekends doing. In fact I often make two batches with my grains. (What? You say " you can't do that? " you might extract the dreaded tannins...") to which I say in the words of our fine forefather, relax have a home brew.

Btw. Keeping the mash temp at around 149 should increase sugar extraction but also reduce mouth feel. There isn't one holy mash temperature. Steven Deeds "brewing engineering" and John Palmer "how to brew" cover this well, and new brewers should probably know this"

 

[unionrdr]

The 2nd batch you're doing would traditionally be called a small beer that in colonial times was the all day, every day beer you drank with meals. Even the kids, since the ABV% was low.
And different mash temps can be used to get more or less mouthfeel, more or less fermentables basically. Lighter beers lower mash temp, darker beers, higher mash temps in the simple sense. This covers a lot of ground though.

 

[wordswithtim]

This is awesome. I've completed four extract brews (I'm definitely a noob brewer) and wanted to know what the next step in learning to brew was. Partial seemed to be it, but the learning curve ramped way the hell up as, unlike the extract kits, there didn't seem to be a basic set of instructions. So this is a great place to start. About it, I did have two quick questions.

1. In the boil, you said you added hops, but didn;t specifically state how. Do you just pitch in the desired about? Do you have to use a bag? And if you end up hopping at different points in the boil, which you seem to need to, do you pull the first bag back out or leave them all in? As you can see, not sure about the correct way to add hops to a boil. Could you clear that up.

2. I've done see reading on the interwebs about partial boil and some processes talk about a two-stage fermentation. As I've been doing basic extract I've only got the one fermenter. Is that okay to use with this process, is that what you do too? Or should I think about two-stage and if so, why?

Thanks again for this write up. It'll be the base plate of my first attempt at a partial for sure.

 

[lazarwolf]

hello wordswithtim. This is a really wonderful, but old thread that deathbrewer posted. So Ill jump in and help out. How you add hops is not really a big concern. But most of us use bags now, or some other container to contain the hops (like large tea infusers). You can put all of the hops in one bag at various points in the brew, you can throw them all into the pot, or you can package them separately. Bags and tea balls make clean up easier and help reduce the amount of trub loss in your fermenter.

As for your question regarding two stage fermentation. For many many years it was recommended that you transfer your beer to a secondary fermenter after the really active period of fermentation was complete. We would wait for the bubbles on the air lock to slow to maybe one bubble per 2 minutes, and then we would transfer the beer to a different sanitized carboy. Some guys would take OG readings and wait for the beer to read about the same gravity for a couple of days in a row. Others didnt want to take any risks of contamination and would use the bubble method I mentioned above. The logic of a secondary fermentation was this, remove the beer from the dying yeast cells (they are pretty exhausted at this point) let the yeast in suspension continue to clean up the flavors of the beer in a different fermenter. When yeast is dying it can put off some
funky flavors. In recent years we have learned that most beers dont need to be transferred to secondary fermentation. There are many many posts about this topic on this site. So unless a recipe specifically says to transfer, there is no reason to do so.

Hope I helped. There are many many videos on youtube that can help you learn as well. Best advice is brew with an experienced friend your first time mashing. (it isnt hard and if you can make oatmeal by yourself you can mash) And or start with a partial mash kit. Northern Brewer, More Beer, Bull City, Midwest, Austin... they all offer kits with very detailed instructions. Once you start mashing you wont ever stop. I only make Partial Mash 5 gallon, and 2.5 gallon all grain now. I dont own any fancy brewing equipment, no elecrtic herms system or three tier all grain gravity system with pumps for my hlt. You can do all of this on your stove top, or you can take it as far as you want. Have fun. Feel free to keep asking questions.

 

[unionrdr]

This is awesome. I've completed four extract brews (I'm definitely a noob brewer) and wanted to know what the next step in learning to brew was. Partial seemed to be it, but the learning curve ramped way the hell up as, unlike the extract kits, there didn't seem to be a basic set of instructions. So this is a great place to start. About it, I did have two quick questions.

1. In the boil, you said you added hops, but didn;t specifically state how. Do you just pitch in the desired about? Do you have to use a bag? And if you end up hopping at different points in the boil, which you seem to need to, do you pull the first bag back out or leave them all in? As you can see, not sure about the correct way to add hops to a boil. Could you clear that up.

2. I've done see reading on the interwebs about partial boil and some processes talk about a two-stage fermentation. As I've been doing basic extract I've only got the one fermenter. Is that okay to use with this process, is that what you do too? Or should I think about two-stage and if so, why?

Thanks again for this write up. It'll be the base plate of my first attempt at a partial for sure.

I used to add my hops to the boil in hop sacks, but found the hop flavors/aromas have more edge to them added loosely to the boil. I use a 10 1/4" fine mesh strainer from either NB or Midwest to pour the chilled wort through to get out hop gunk, etc. This also helps aerate the wort. You'll get the foamy hot break right before it boils. I do pb/pm biab on my electric stove. Add the bittering hops, then start the timer for 60 minutes. Flavor hop additions are from about 20 minutes down to maybe 8 minutes. Aroma additions are about 3-5 minutes left. Dry hopping gives more aroma.
I mash up to 7 1/2lbs of grains in 2 1/3 gallons of water. 6lbs or so in 2G. This is usually at 153F to mash wrapped up in my quilted hunting coat for the 1 hour mash. Drain the bag & dunk sparge 10 minutes so I can stir the grains. Drain again & add sparge to main wort in boil kettle. I heat it on "high" to get past the foamy hot break. Then down to about "8.8" on the dial for an even rolling boil that's not blooping like molten lava. I've been using spring water with great success.

 

[wordswithtim]

Thanks both. Very helpful. Wish me luck.

 

[lazarwolf]

You can do this, and it will dramatically improve v your beer.

I call it partial grain rather than mini mash or partial mash.

 

[jblack138]

Just some clarification, please.

When you start the sparging process, you are dunking the grains in the sparge water? The "tea bag" is an up & down, or swirling, motion to get the water flowing through the grains? You then let said grain rest in the sparge water for a period of time before disposing of them & then mixing the 2 worts together?

 

[unionrdr]

Since I use a nylon grain bag, I dunk the mashed/drained grain bag in the sparge water & wrap the top of the bag around the lip of the kettle. Then stir the grains after setting the timer for ten minutes. Then cover & let it sit. I tried doing this for 2 minutes once & my OG wasn't as high as with ten minutes. Then drain the bag well & add the sparge wort to the main wort from the mash to get to my boil volume.

 

[DPveritasGold]

This is a long thread so I apologize if someone already addressed this, but I'm wondering why you would add all of the extract at the beginning of the boil if you're only doing a "partial boil"? Thanks!

 

[smitty8202]

Partial boil refers to the amount of water being boiled. If you want a 5 gal batch of beer you would only boil say 2-3.5 gallons of water. That way when you add your grains and your at max capacity of your kettle you don't overflow your kettle

 

[DeathBrewer]

This is a long thread so I apologize if someone already addressed this, but I'm wondering why you would add all of the extract at the beginning of the boil if you're only doing a "partial boil"? Thanks!

Some people don't. The more sugars you have in solution (the higher the specific gravity of your wort), the less utilization you get out of your hops. Many recipes call for "late-addition" extracts so that the hop amounts are the same whether you do a full boil all-grain or a partial boil with some extract. In other words, follow the recipe or plan accordingly if you change it.

I always tell people to plug a recipe into BeerSmith and play with the pre-boil volumes (uncheck that silly "calculate boil volume box) to see how it changes your IBUs.

Partial boil simply means not boiling the full amount (typically 6.5-7 gallons down to five over the course of an hour) and topping off instead, after the boil is finished.

If you do a partial boil, be sure to use pre-boiled water for your top-off.

 

[DPveritasGold]

Some people don't. The more sugars you have in solution (the higher the specific gravity of your wort), the less utilization you get out of your hops. Many recipes call for "late-addition" extracts so that the hop amounts are the same whether you do a full boil all-grain or a partial boil with some extract. In other words, follow the recipe or plan accordingly if you change it.



I always tell people to plug a recipe into BeerSmith and play with the pre-boil volumes (uncheck that silly "calculate boil volume box) to see how it changes your IBUs.



Partial boil simply means not boiling the full amount (typically 6.5-7 gallons down to five over the course of an hour) and topping off instead, after the boil is finished.



If you do a partial boil, be sure to use pre-boiled water for your top-off.

Great info! Thanks!

 

[DPveritasGold]

Great info! Thanks!

 

[madbewer]

Can you provide a list of the ingredients?

 

[DeathBrewer]

For what now? To play with BeerSmith? You can use any recipe. Find one in the database here that lists IBUs and compare.

 

[jlinz]

Great thread. I can't wait to try the dunkelweizen for my next beer! Maybe somebody can help me out here and answer a couple questions: How do I know how much grain to mash in any given recipe? And what do I do differently when doing a full boil? Do I just add the extra water to the brewpot after adding the water from the mash and sparge?

 

[DeathBrewer]

I'd suggest getting some software like BeerSmith to help you design recipes. I always mash 5-6 lbs of grain with this method and adjust the amount of extract to meet the needs of the recipe and get the right alcohol content. The software really helps with calculating the right amount of hops to add and creating the right balance.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah, I like BS2 for those reasons as well. It makes it easier to get the various hop & malt additions right for the style selected by using the bar graph it creates in real time. I hit my personal max with the kottbusser recipe. 7 1/2lbs of grain mashed in my 5 gallon SS kettle. After sparging to boil volume, it's turning out rather well. But 4 gallons is about max in a 5 gallon kettle if you're careful.

 

[Tippsy-Turvy]

Have you tried any really thin mashes with your approach? Just wondering how you sparged with so little resultant water.

I'm planning a thin mash for an upcoming IPA (say, 2 quarts/lb) and from my water calculations, that doesn't leave much water for the sparge step. I still want a sparge step as I'm finding my efficiencies are always > 80% this way. Am thinking I might add back some wort from the mash just to make the sparge easier to stir?!?!

Thanks again for your thread, DB. It was seminal in my move from extract to PM & AG.