partial mash equipment

[VonRunkel]

I tried searching through the back posts, but I didnt make it that far....
I have my first partial mash kit on its way from northern brewer (a rye Pa), and after doing some reading im worried I dont have the right equipment.
I have a 5 gallon brewpot, a few different strainers, a 5 gallon bucket (or 2) and my lovely wife said I can buy, and I quote, "anything your heart desires", and while I would love to exploit this to the fullest extent, I know better.
So what else would you guys recommend I get? I was thinking one of those igloo 10 gallon (or so) coolers with a little spigot...
Thanks.

 

[jskinner10]

For partial mash beers you probably would want to go with a 5 gallon cooler. 10 gallon ones are nice for all grain but with the amount of grain you'll use in a partial mash you would probably have too shallow a grain bed in the 10 gallon one.

 

[House12]

Frankly, you have everything you need. With a five gallon pot and a five gallon paint strainer, you can mash your grains, pull out the grains, then add more water and extract. The only challenge with using what you have is mash temperature control. Some folks put the mash kettle in a preheated oven to retain the heat. Others just carefully watch it on the stovetop.

If you use a cooler for the partial mash, you'll want to stick with 3 to 5 gallons.
Figure out how much grain you'll mash and how much water you'll use per pound of grain, and this calculator will tell you how big your mash tun must be: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

 

[silverbowarcher]

I am doing partial mash beers currently, and have a 5 gallon round cooler as a mash tun. I have it equiped with a false bottom and a ball valve, and a sparge arm for fly sparging. Got the cooler at k mart for 20 bucks, and spent about $15 at the local hardware store for the ball valve and misc. fittings. Used the false bottom and sparge arm from my "Phills Lauter Tun." You can also build a mash strainer from pvc pipe, instead of a false bottom. A sparge arm is not really needed. I had one, so I installed it. Normally I mash 5 to 6 pounds of grain. This size cooler is great for partial mashes. Don't think I would go with a ten gallon, unless your looking to go all grain in the near future.

 

[VonRunkel]

Wow, thanks for the quick response guys. 10 gallons may have been excessive, I didnt even think about the grain bed. I am pretty excited that I dont need to go get a whole bunch of new equipment.
Thanks again.

 

[VonRunkel]

Oh, and a preheated oven? Genius! I am definitely going to give that a try.
I was also wondering how most people go about transferring from their kettle to the mash tun. I have a stoneware brew kettle and can't put a valve into the bottom, would a copper transfer cane work? And while im at it should I go ahead and build a copper pipe strainer instead of buying a false bottom?

 

[House12]

For the sake of simplicity, I would advise you to mash your grains in a big bag inside your 5 gallon kettle. That way you don't even have to worry about transferring wort until you're dumping to the fermenter.

If you get a big nylon paint strainer bag, put your grains in there and then bring the water and grains to about 150. As I said, you can even put that into the oven at your desired mash temperate (after your water/grains are already to that temperature). It would require no new material (except a ~$1.00 nylon mesh bag from the hardware store), would require no wort transferring, and will work just as well as a separate mash tun cooler will. As you start mashing higher and higher levels of grain, you may prefer to go with a cooler mash tun. But unless you're a big fan of DIY projects, a BIAB partial mash will make beer just the same as a mash tun with a false bottom, etc. but will be a bit simpler and will require nothing new. You could also do a nylon mesh bash within a 3-5 gallon cooler so that your mash temperature will stay constant. Then just remove/strain the grain bag, add sparge water if you'd like, then just dump it into the kettle.

 

[strambo]

I BIAB partial mash up to 5.5lbs grain in a cheap 3 gal pot. I stick it in my pre-heated oven to mash. Then I dunk sparge it for 10 mins in my 10 gal brew kettle, add the wort from the 3 gal mash pot and start my boil.

So, as stated, you can just no-sparge BIAB in your 5 gal kettle and be good to go. If it won't fit in your oven, you can wrap a sleeping bag around the pot while mashing (make sure the burner is off!).

Save the $ for buying all grain gear later. For me the beauty of partial mashing is it hardly takes more time and doesn't require more gear while allowing me more control over what grains I can use.

 

[VonRunkel]

Thanks guys, you have given me alot to think about.
I think I will definitely do the oven trick, but seeing as I already bought tye cooler and the copper, I will at least sparge through that contraption.
I am having a bit of trouble bending the copper though, I tried rolling it around things, heating it and then bending it, but to no avail. I guess I will have to go buy a tubing bender. And yes, I am a huge fan of DIY. And I figure if I slowly amass all the gear needed for all grain, when I finally work up the huevos to go all grain, I wont need to spend a while lot in one fell swoop.

 

[helibrewer]

Thanks guys, you have given me alot to think about.
I think I will definitely do the oven trick, but seeing as I already bought tye cooler and the copper, I will at least sparge through that contraption.
I am having a bit of trouble bending the copper though, I tried rolling it around things, heating it and then bending it, but to no avail. I guess I will have to go buy a tubing bender. And yes, I am a huge fan of DIY. And I figure if I slowly amass all the gear needed for all grain, when I finally work up the huevos to go all grain, I wont need to spend a while lot in one fell swoop.

I hate bending pipe, I used 3/8" copper tubing, cut slits on the bottom side and inserted it into stainless braid.

Rather than bend, you could use 45's or 90's to construct your curves.

 

[VonRunkel]

That is alot of fittings, and even more sweating of pipes. The first sweating I did looks like a kindergartner with 2 left hands and no thumbs was sweating the pipes... Not pretty
One of my friends said that the wall thickness on strait pipe is thicker than the wall thickness of the tubing that comes in rolls, which might explain why I can't roll this thing to save my life.

 

[bobbrews]

You don't need a cooler if you're only making approx. 3 to 4 gallons of beer. Mash in your kettle OR use a smaller, 2 gallon pot to mash in. You'll need some tin foil to wrap the kettle and a tight fitting lid to retain proper mash temps.

For a partial mash beer with approx 50%+ DME, you don't need to worry about mash temps. as much as all grain. You may need to adjust the mash temp. once or twice in an hour. But don't use the flame to reheat the mash. Instead, mash a tiny bit thicker and add hot water as needed to raise the wort 2-5 degrees. For a rye PA, I'd probably start mashing at 150 F and add hot water once.

 

[VonRunkel]

Awesome, thanks. I already have a cooler and some copper set up for my outlet and sparge arm, so you can call me impatient. ;-)
If I use the oven method should I preheat it to 150 and leave it there? Because that was my plan.
Side note, I decided against building an IC, so I bought a stainless one from Midwest brewing supplies.

 

[SharonaZamboni]

I kept my brew pot in the oven. I preheated it as low as possible for about ten minutes while boiling, then shut it off, since I was worried about overheating. The temperature dropped one degree in the hour the pot was in the oven.

 

[VonRunkel]

Thanks for the tip sharona, I wasn't even thinking about that.

 

[strambo]

I do the same as Sharona, preheat to 170 (lowest it goes) then turn it off as the pot goes in.