Newbie Questions PM to AG

[Krelja]

I've been drinking good beer for a long time and have decided to try and make my own. I've got 4 extract brews with steeping grains under my belt so far and I'm looking to get more control. I have a kit for a wheat beer and it just lacked what I thought would be a good beer(2 cans of muntons and some goldings). I was originally going to use deathbrewer's method but I got a free 5 gallon cooler from work and converted over to a mashtun with a steel braid. I don't want to waste the extract so I was thinking PM so I bought some ingredients to split the cans into 2 PMs. I haven't seen anything about doing a PM using a cooler and I'm a little confused about the amount of water I should be aiming for since I will be using the 3.3 lb extract can to make sure I hit the gravities that I want. So what should I do, go straight to all grain or stick with the partial mash? I don't want to waste the extract I have and also don't want to use it to make mediocre beer.

 

[nebben]

You could use the 3.3lbs extract and do a partial mash, just to rid yourself of the stuff, sure. The process would be the same as a full AG, only with less grain. The amount of water you'll strike with is still about 1.25 Qt per pound of grain. The thing that you'll need to figure out is how much warmer your strike water needs to be since in addition to the grains absorbing some heat initially, the cooler will too.

 

[Blender]

You need to determine your recipe and starting gravity first. Then you can mash the ingredients needed to make the beer with the extract. I would consider getting some brewing software which will greatly help in formulating and saving recipes.

 

[Killer_Robot]

+1 on the brewing software to figure out your needs. I did something similar recently (Mr. Beer kit plus enough grain to make it five gallons), though on stovetop so not totally identical. I looked over some recipes, and figured out what I had and what I needed from a little work in Beer Calculus.

If you heat the cooler up with some boiling water beforehand, how much heat your mash water loses becomes less an issue. Other than that, what nebbin said - PM is just like AG but with less grain.

 

[Krelja]

Type: Partial Mash
Date: 5/19/2009
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Ken
Boil Size: 5.72 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
3 lbs 4.8 oz Wheat Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 38.60 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 29.24 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 29.24 %
4.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 2.92 %
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (60 min) Hops 14.6 IBU
0.75 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.75 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Belgian Wit Ale (White Labs #WLP400) Yeast-Wheat



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.02 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 14.6 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 5.7 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: My Mash Total Grain Weight: 5.25 lb
Sparge Water: 6.35 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 170.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

the mash profile is what I'm having trouble with due to me just not knowing what the deal

 

[bighandsray]

Check out the sticky's in this AG PM section. They are incredible. I did about 5 of these PM batches you are attempting and I feel it has made my transition to AG really easy. I use Beer Tools software. Plug in your ingredients and it will do the rest as far as strike water hop quantities etc. With your mash profile you might I think you migt have a hard time converting the starch to sugar with all of that wheat. Maybe one of the experts here knows better. I remember my wheat PM I used wheat malt extract so the converting was not an issue. If you are worried about using up your extract I would keep it around for a bigger beer. Soon you will want to brew a bigger beer and you will not be able to fit all of your grain in that 5 gal cooler. Pour in some extract and no worries.