% pale malt to non-malted adjuncts

[Unferth]

I'm doing a partial mash recipe and want to start experimenting with adjuncts, but I'm not sure about the percentage of malted grains necessary to mash non-malted adjuncts (diastatic power?)

Will this work:

2.5 # Pale Malt
1# Rye
1#Cornmeal
1#minute rice
.5# oats

4 gallon single infusion mash at 153F, and will be adding 2# Pale LME to boil to hopefully hit 1.050 or so.

 

[JayDubWill]

First I think you need to nail down a recipe that focuses on one adjunct. If your interested in rye, then explore some rye recipes, or check out the Cream of Three Crops recipe that features corn adjunct and is a pretty big hit. There is actually a pretty good thread on the Mr. Beer site that address adjuncts in extract batches fairly well.

 

[thadius856]

Holy moly.

That's going to be one rye-y, oat-y batch.

Why the fascination with large amounts of adjuncts? They're several times the cost of pale malts.

 

[billl]

While I agree you should simplify substantially, there is an answer to the underlying question. Each malt has a diastatic power. Take the diastatic power of each grain and multiply it by the weight of that grain. Add all those together and divide by the total pounds of grain. That is the total diastatic power of the partial mash. The threshold for conversion is 35, but you'll have better luck if you are much higher than that.

 

[Unferth]

Holy moly.

That's going to be one rye-y, oat-y batch.

Why the fascination with large amounts of adjuncts? They're several times the cost of pale malts.

Mostly because I haven't used them much before and i want to see how it effects taste.

Too much eh? What if I chopped the rice altogether and cut the corn in half? That would put the ABV divisions at around 2/3 malt 1/3 adjunct.

 

[Unferth]

While I agree you should simplify substantially, there is an answer to the underlying question. Each malt has a diastatic power. Take the diastatic power of each grain and multiply it by the weight of that grain. Add all those together and divide by the total pounds of grain. That is the total diastatic power of the partial mash. The threshold for conversion is 35, but you'll have better luck if you are much higher than that.

a votre sante! So... It should work then?

 

[billl]

Yeah, anything close to 50/50 "works". A 4 gallon mash wouldn't be ideal though. I suggest you try to be close to 2 gallons for the mash and use the rest to sparge. (6lbs x 1.25 quarts/lb = 7.5 quarts = 1.875 gallons) You are already diluting the enzyme potential with all the other grains, so you don't really want to dilute it with too much water too.

Honestly though, that recipe is a complete hodgepodge of ingredients. By putting them all into one batch, you aren't going to be able to tell anything about how each one tastes. If you want to learn about them, you will be much better served just using one at a time.

 

[Unferth]

Fair enough. Thanks for the feedback, bill. I will readjust.