First Partial Mash

[ozzyatfrbrich]

(posted in the beginner section ‘cause that’s what I am)

Made my fourth batch this past Friday, 10/10/08, my first partial mash (infusion / batch) and it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. It started out as a Two Hearted clone but I wanted a thicker grain bed so I added .5 lb of each the Vienna and crystal. My helper failed to prepare the 5.5 lbs of DME so I just dumped the 6.5 that I had pre-packaged.

2.5 pounds Vienna
1 pound crystal 15
.5 pound Cara Pils
6.5 pounds Extra Light DME
4 oz Centennial, whole (1 oz at 60, 30, 15 and 5)
1 pack US-05, rehydrated

I failed to get a combined reading of the run-off / sparge but the first running gave me .8 gal at 1.051 and the sparge gave 1.2 gal at 1.010. I couldn’t resist tasting it and was surprised at how sweet it was.

Started the boil with 6.75 gal and ended up with only 5 gal. The discarded hops were the size of a medium grapefruit and I guess held about 1 qt of liquid. So I lost about 1.5 gal during the boil. I wanted to have between 5.5 – 5.75 gal in the fermenter. I really would like to have at least 5 gal at bottle time. Rather than the 4 – 4.25 gal.

I kept it at a hard boil the whole time and it never had a chance for a boil over. Thanks to BIERMUNCHER and his fan post!

Anyway, the gravity was 1.068 when adjusted for temp.

I have to work on my mash temp and boil volume.

 

[foppa78]

I bet this beer will turn out great. Over time with some good notes you will know exactly how much wort you will need at the start of your boil. I dont brew 5 gallons batches all that often but when I do I need to start with a little over 7.5 gallons if I want to boil down to a little over 5 gallons. I also do 90 minute boils though. Let us know how this beer turns out.

 

[Grinder12000]

it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be

+1 on that!!!! I have that with AG but it's more of a equipment deal . . or lack of.

 

[BarleyWater]

I failed to get a combined reading of the run-off / sparge but the first running gave me .8 gal at 1.051 and the sparge gave 1.2 gal at 1.010. I couldn’t resist tasting it and was surprised at how sweet it was.

This tells me that you could have used even more grain, and still achieved good effeciency, great job. Just curious on your sparge method, fly or batch?

Started the boil with 6.75 gal and ended up with only 5 gal. The discarded hops were the size of a medium grapefruit and I guess held about 1 qt of liquid. So I lost about 1.5 gal during the boil. I wanted to have between 5.5 – 5.75 gal in the fermenter. I really would like to have at least 5 gal at bottle time. Rather than the 4 – 4.25 gal.

Then you are gonna need to start with around 8 gallons like me. I usually end up with just about 5.5-6 gallons in my fermenter (depending on boil length), and always start with 8 gallons.

My first partial mash was my last partial mash, it was so much easier than I had thought I went immediately to all grain. I enjoy the process almost more than the product sometimes, so I really enjoyed the jump to all grain.