Partial mash and recipe

[STMF]

Hello,

I am a relatively new home brewer. I've done a couple of extract brews, a couple partial mash and a couple full grain brews.

I find extract brews a bit boring but with my equipment, it is a little too struggling to make bigger full grain brews. So I have to compromise.
Therefore, I have decided to focus for a while on partial mash brews and have a few questions that it would be much appreciated if anyone has the opportunity to answer.
The plan is to make a small boil (around 8-10 liters) and fill up with water afterwards (18-20 liters) in the fermenter.

So far the most tested around a bit and did not plan a lot before I brew, mostly to learn the process. The results have been everything from undrinkable to the great.

Now my goal is to plan a little more in advance in order to adjust the different brews to see what happens with the result.


My plan is as follows:

1.35 kg Pale Malt
0.35 kg Red Wheat Caramel Malt
0.30 kg Crystal Malt (20L)
3.00 kg liquid maltextrat (un-hopped).

Starting with 8 liters of water
Mash in 66 degree C for 60 minutes
Mash out in 75 degrees C for 10 minutes
Sparge with 1.5 liters of 75 ° C water.

Boil for 60 minutes with the following hops:

60 mins 50g Centennial
30 min 50g Cascade
5 min 50g Centennial
5 min 50g Cascade

Cool and add water so it will be approximately 20 liters.

Yeast: SafAle US 05 or SafeAle S-04

4-7 days fermenter 1
7-10 days fermenter 2

Dry Hops
4 days 50g Centennial
4 days 50g Cascade

Is there something that is completely off the wall and that I should really think about whether I want to do?

I also wonder if it matters if you boil malt extract or pour in directly into the fermenter.

Thanks alot in advance

Stefan

 

[joshesmusica]

Hello,

I am a relatively new home brewer. I've done a couple of extract brews, a couple partial mash and a couple full grain brews.

I find extract brews a bit boring but with my equipment, it is a little too struggling to make bigger full grain brews. So I have to compromise.
Therefore, I have decided to focus for a while on partial mash brews and have a few questions that it would be much appreciated if anyone has the opportunity to answer.
The plan is to make a small boil (around 8-10 liters) and fill up with water afterwards (18-20 liters) in the fermenter.

So far the most tested around a bit and did not plan a lot before I brew, mostly to learn the process. The results have been everything from undrinkable to the great.

Now my goal is to plan a little more in advance in order to adjust the different brews to see what happens with the result.


My plan is as follows:

1.35 kg Pale Malt
0.35 kg Red Wheat Caramel Malt
0.30 kg Crystal Malt (20L)
3.00 kg liquid maltextrat (un-hopped).

Starting with 8 liters of water
Mash in 66 degree C for 60 minutes
Mash out in 75 degrees C for 10 minutes
Sparge with 1.5 liters of 75 ° C water.

Boil for 60 minutes with the following hops:

60 mins 50g Centennial
30 min 50g Cascade
5 min 50g Centennial
5 min 50g Cascade

Cool and add water so it will be approximately 20 liters.

Yeast: SafAle US 05 or SafeAle S-04

4-7 days fermenter 1
7-10 days fermenter 2

Dry Hops
4 days 50g Centennial
4 days 50g Cascade

Is there something that is completely off the wall and that I should really think about whether I want to do?

I also wonder if it matters if you boil malt extract or pour in directly into the fermenter.

Thanks alot in advance

Stefan

first off, i would highly, highly suggest two things. 1) go buy beersmith, or at the least, for now use one of the free online recipe calculators. 2) find a style that you want to brew and find a proven recipe for that style. there was just a few articles published on here that gave a list of the top recipes from this site. this will ensure that the problem in the end (if there is one) isn't the recipe.

why do you plan on boiling less? space in the boil kettle, or insufficient chilling equipment? if you have to top off, i would suggest trying to boil as much as you possibly can (without any boil-overs).

are you using the BIAB method? if so, you don't really have to sparge, and you can just do the full amount of water that you want (using one of the calculators to figure out how much water to use and what temp to have the water at in order to hit your mash in temps).

what kind of liquid extract is it? there are all kinds available from pilsner to dark. and what do you mean by red wheat caramel? do you mean red wheat, or do you mean caramel wheat? there is a difference between the two.

you can just add the LME in the last minute of the boil, or just add it right when you finish the boil.

that is a lot of hops, which is ok, it's just a little bit bitter for my preferences, and is even more along the lines of a double ipa bitterness level. i see it sitting right about 79 IBUs as is. i would personally either move the 30 min addition added on to your 5 min addition, or you could look into a technique called a hopstand. you basically add more hops after you end the boil and let it sit there for 20-30 mins before chilling down to ferment temps. there are two ways to do this, one is to just throw it in, but you'll get more IBUs out of this. the other is to cool it down to below 80C and then throw the hops in and then let it sit. This will prevent any more isomerization of the hop oils, which means you don't get more ibus out of them. this is what i would do. in which case your hops schedule could look something like this:

25g centennial - 60 min
50g cascade - 5 min
50g centennial - 5 min
50g cascade - hopstand (cool to below 80c, then let sit)
this will give you around 60 IBUs.
then stick with your dry hop schedule.

skip the fermenter 2 thing for now. for this style of beer it doesn't seem necessary, you can just leave it in fermenter 1 for a couple of weeks.

also what are your ferment temps like? you'll definitely want to have those in the 16-17C range for ambient room temps (around 18C actual temp inside the fermenter). if you don't have any ferment temp control, look into the swamp cooler method, or just let the beer sit in your primary fermenter for like 3 weeks so that way it has time to condition a little.

 

[zippy84]

I think Palmer advises to pour the extract into the boil about 5 mins from the end, simply to pasteurise. He attributes the 'extract twang' to high gravity boils that also affect or inhibit hop utilisation. Although before I read this I've done partials and boiled with half of the lme with no negative effects (to my novice palate)

Why are you secondary fermenting? I dry hop in the primary. For a ferment less than 3 weeks there's really no need to secondary.

 

[joshesmusica]

I think Palmer advises to pour the extract into the boil about 5 mins from the end, simply to pasteurise. He attributes the 'extract twang' to high gravity boils that also affect or inhibit hop utilisation. Although before I read this I've done partials and boiled with half of the lme with no negative effects (to my novice palate)

Why are you secondary fermenting? I dry hop in the primary. For a ferment less than 3 weeks there's really no need to secondary.

pasteurization happens nearly instantaneously at near boiling temps. even if he cooled to do the hopstand down to 161F/72C, he could pasteurize it in 15 seconds.

if you're only doing extract you want to add a portion (1/4 to 1/3) at the beginning, and the rest at flameout. but since this is partial mash and he's already got that portion from the mash, then he can just add all the extract at flameout.

 

[STMF]

Thank you for your replies!

Did download Beersmith and my plan is to buy it (still on trial). There are so many settings and Im not sure I have done all of them correctly.

I do like a really hoppy beer like LaGunitas or Mordus Hoperandi. I figure I would want something between APA and IPA.

The reason to boil as little as I do is as you say due to equipment, both during the boil and for the cooling. I will probably upgrade all my equipment in time and step by step but I am stuck with this for now.

Yes, I plan to use a BIAB method and light malt extract but might switch the 3 kg liquid to 2.5 kg dry. I might try the hopstand later but probably not this batch. My fermenting temp is 19 degrees Celsius. Unlike the first batches I made, Im not in the same kind of hurry and I dont rush it out of the fermenter to bottle it.

Again, thanks for the answer.

/Stefan

 

[STMF]

Oh and I forgot, I mean Red Wheat.

 

[joshesmusica]

Yeah there are a lot of things to adjust on beersmith at the beginning. It takes a little time to get your numbers typed in correctly according to your set up, but once you do, it makes life much easier.

As I said, if you're doing biab, just make sure you get a good crush on your grains (or at least have them double crush it if they can't adjust their gap) and calculate correctly in order to get the full volume the you want to boil in there. No sparge needed. Makes your life easier. Mash out isn't technically needed either, but since I'm raising the temp of the wort anyways, I just leave the grains in until it hits 75, then take them out and squeeze the hell out of the bag into another pot while the main wort is reaching a boil.

Top up isn't a bad thing, just make sure you go to the volumes tab on beersmith and type how much you'll be topping up with. I would say 60 ibus is in the middle between an apa and IPA. Knowing that's what you're going for I would still recommend the hop schedule I mentioned. And honestly I hop stand isn't difficult at all, you could just toss that amount in as you're chilling it down even. Or toss them in and leave it for 20 mins before you start to chill. Just type it in as whirlpool addition on beersmith and for how long you'll leave it and it will do the extra ibu math for you (it will only be a few more). You'll thank me later if you do this super easy step.

 

[zippy84]

pasteurization happens nearly instantaneously at near boiling temps. even if he cooled to do the hopstand down to 161F/72C, he could pasteurize it in 15 seconds.

I thought this too. I'm not really sure but who could argue with the man himself?

 

[chickypad]

I do like a really hoppy beer like LaGunitas or Mordus Hoperandi. I figure I would want something between APA and IPA.

This might be your biggest problem with topping off. I'm not sure the exact mechanism (solubility?) but there is a maximum IBU that you can reach in wort, I've heard that number commonly quoted as around 100. So if you can only reach 100 in your boil, then top off the batch from 2.5 to 5 gal, you're diluting your IBU's to only 50. The software may be calcuating 79 IBU in the final beer but it likely wont' be real.

 

[joshesmusica]

This might be your biggest problem with topping off. I'm not sure the exact mechanism (solubility?) but there is a maximum IBU that you can reach in wort, I've heard that number commonly quoted as around 100. So if you can only reach 100 in your boil, then top off the batch from 2.5 to 5 gal, you're diluting your IBU's to only 50. The software may be calcuating 79 IBU in the final beer but it likely wont' be real.

It will be real enough because he should see the ibus drop drastically when he types in top up water. At least it's been my experience that it will change once that happens.

 

[chickypad]

It will be real enough because he should see the ibus drop drastically when he types in top up water. At least it's been my experience that it will change once that happens.

That was my point. That you can't get a 79 IBU beer topping off by 50%, you can only get up to about 50 IBU.

 

[toxdoc49]

I also have a question about a partial mash recipe. Not so much the specifics, but the ingredients. I found a partial mash recipe for something called Piggish IPA. The directions are good for a beginner like me. What I wanted to ask is whether what I plan to buy for this recipe is close or same as what they specify, since I am not completely familiar with types of grain. So here is what they call for in the recipe as far as grain:

4 1/2 lb 2-Row Pale Malt
1/2 lb 40L Crystal Malt
1/2 lb Carapils/Dextrin Malt
1/2 lb Wheat Malt
4 lb, 1 oz Briess Golden Light Dry Malt Extract (DME)

Here is what I found to buy:

Briess Caramel 40L malt (is this the same thing as 'crystal' malt?)
Briess 2-row brewers malt
Briess Carapils (described as a dextrin malt)
Rahr white wheat malt


From NB. Will my list of malts address the recipe adequately? The rest of the recipe is more straightforward to me. Thank you for advice.

 

[Lefou]

The ingredients you found are just fine and match what you want. Briess has an extensive line of malts to choose from.

 

[chickypad]

Here is what I found to buy:

Briess Caramel 40L malt (is this the same thing as 'crystal' malt?)
Briess 2-row brewers malt
Briess Carapils (described as a dextrin malt)
Rahr white wheat malt


From NB. Will my list of malts address the recipe adequately? The rest of the recipe is more straightforward to me. Thank you for advice.

Yes those are the correct malts.

 

[toxdoc49]

The ingredients you found are just fine and match what you want. Briess has an extensive line of malts to choose from.

Thank you!

 

[toxdoc49]

Yes those are the correct malts.

Thank you!