Is my procedure correct?

[tdiowa]

Being rather new in the home brew field I have made the leap from extract to mini mashing with the thoughts of all grain in the near future. I made a Blonde Ale last week using a mini mash. I was wondering if you "experts" could look at the recipe and my procedure and see if I did it right. I took a SG after placing into my fermentor and it was 1.040 at 80 degrees.

I would really appreciate a Critique.

Thank You In Advance
TD

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 9.25
Anticipated OG: 1.056 Plato: 13.76
Anticipated SRM: 7.1
Anticipated IBU: 33.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name
---------------------------------------------------
5.4 0.50 lbs. Honey Malt
2.7 0.25 lbs. Biscuit Malt
2.7 0.25 lbs. Aromatic Malt ((Kiln 50)
2.7 0.25 lbs. Munich Malt (6-Row)
5.4 0.50 lbs. Crystal 20L
32.4 3.00 lbs. Pale Malt (2-Row)
32.4 3.00 lbs. Muntons DME - Extra Light
10.8 1.00 lbs. Flaked Corn (Maize)
5.4 0.50 lbs. Caramel Pils Malt

Mash Schedule
-------------
Grain Lbs: 6.25


The Mini-Mash Procedure:
1. Begin by bringing 6 quarts of water per pound of grain that you are mashing up to 170 F in the kettle.

2. While waiting place crushed grains in mesh bag.

3. Place mesh bag in mashing cooler.

4. Place warm water into Mashing Cooler.

5. Slowly add your water to the grains ensuring that it is thoroughly soaked.

6. Place lid on cooler and let sit for 45 minutes. Try to keep water at 150 degrees more or less.

7. From Mash Tun drain off Sweet Wort and place in Kettle.

8. Slowly pour 6 quarts of water pound of grain heated to 170 F per over the grains in the Mash Tun.

9. Let sit for 10 minutes.

10. After 10 minutes drain off the rinsed grain wort and place into your kettle. You are done
mini-mashing. Remove grains and place in colander and let drain above pot.
Once done draining you are finished with them and they can be thrown away.

11. Add additional water to your brew pot to get up to the volume of water you traditionally use for your extract brewing.

 

[malkore]

1. you're just a little off here, at least in your wording. You're not doing 6 quarts per pound of grain... 6quarts for a partial mash sounds right, but if you recheck, its more like 1.25quarts per pound.

2 thru 10 sounds just fine. I've never done the mesh bag method, but as long as your runnings were clear, you should be fine. this isn't going to be a highly efficient sparge, but it gives you a feel for things.

if you can modify your cooler to use a stainless steel braid as the grainbed filter, you can ditch the mesh bag and do some proper vorlaufing to get a better efficiency.

the transition to all grain is just a bigger cooler, a turkey fryer or two, and a wort chiller.

as for 11, ideally, you'd want your partial mash to give you the max volume you can boil. I would do a late extract addition to get a better color out of the beer, as well as better hop utilization.

so if you can only boil 3 gallons, you'd use 1.5 gallons for the mash (plus extra water to account for grain absorption, so more like 2-2.25 gallons) and then 1.5 gallons to sparge.

by the time it boils down in 40 minutes, you'll have room to add the extract. just be careful you don't scorch it on the bottom of the pan.

 

[tdiowa]

If you can modify your cooler to use a stainless steel braid as the grainbed filter, you can ditch the mesh bag and do some proper vorlaufing to get a better efficiency.

I have already modified my cooler and have the stainless braid in place. I don't know why or where I got the idea for a grain bag. Next batch I will D/C it.

As far as vorlaufing why would that give me a better efficiency?

Do you recommend stirring the grains after putting the water in?

FYI: I also boil using a 40 quart kettle.

Thanks TD

 

[david_42]

Grains bags work just fine, but you need to stir the mash. Both when you add the mash water and when you batch sparge. Imagine tossing some sugar in a glass of iced tea & not stirring. Same problem.