I am planning my first partial mash and until now have done only extract brews. I am going to mash 5 lbs American 2 row and 1/2 lb crystal 60* Lovibond with a nylon grain bag in a 5 gallon pot. My first question is are 2-3 gallons enough or too much water? Secondly I have had difficulty finding how long to conduct the mash for. Is an hour enough time or can I get away with less (30 or 45 min)? Thanks in advance, any and all advice is appreciated.
You may need more than one bag, to make sure the grain is "loose" in there. Using two bags may be needed. You want the water to be free-flowing through the grain, as if it wasn't in a bag at all, and each grain to be thoroughly wetted.
You should use 1.25-1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain for the mash. So for 5.5 pounds of grain, you'd use 6.8 to 8.25 quarts of water. I'd use 8 quarts (2 gallons) just to make the math easier. Bring the 2 gallons to 165, turn off the heat and add the grains and stir well. Check the temperature in several places and if it's different in one place, stir some more. You could be right around 152-154. If so, stir again, and then cover the pot. 45 minutes should do it, but it won't hurt to go an hour. Check the temp in 20 minutes, and turn the heat on again if it's below 150. But don't go over 158!
After the mash, lift out the grain bag(s) and hold in a colander over the pot. Pour over 170 degree water over the grain from another pot until you're at your boil volume, or alternately just take the grain bag(s) and dunk in the water. You can use up to .5 gallons per pound of grain for this, so you should reach your boil volume this way. Throw away the grain at this point, and combine those runnings if you did them in a seperate pot. You can add water to reach your boil volume if you don't have enough liquid out of the mash/sparge at this point if you need to.
That's it! Let us know if you need help.
