Partial Mash to all-grain

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GamecockWayne

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What additional equipment is needed to go from a partial mash to all grain?

My first 4 batches were partial and I was interested in trying all grain.

What do you guys recommend? Should I stick with partial for a while longer to get the hang of it better?
 
I did two partial mashes before going to all grain. All you need is a big enough pot to do a full boil, plus a mash tun (unless you plan to do BIAB), and a way to heat that big pot (stovetop usually won't cut it).

Honestly, all grain is easier than partial mash, as you aren't dealing with the extract (getting it to dissolve, worry about scorching/darkeing, etc). However, it's less forgiving - if you screw up a partial mash and end up with low efficiency, the extract can save you. You get no such safety net in all grain.
 
If you are doing a full boil, I would also recommend a wort chiller. Not a necessity, but it certainly helps greatly when it comes to cooling 5+ gallons of wort.
 
I've never tried a partial boil with all grain, I'm not even sure how you would work it. I would try to find at least a 10 gallon kettle, you can find a fairly cheap aluminum one. With all the water you would need to mash and sparge properly, it would be hard to do a partial boil I would think.
 
I may have explained it wrong. I wasn't talking about doing a partial boil. I was wanting to cut a recipe in half and just do a 2.5 gallon batch.
 
I may have explained it wrong. I wasn't talking about doing a partial boil. I was wanting to cut a recipe in half and just do a 2.5 gallon batch.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, 5 gallon would work. Remember you'll have some boil off so you'll need to start with something higher than 2.5 gallons. Amount will depend on your system
 
What additional equipment is needed to go from a partial mash to all grain?

My first 4 batches were partial and I was interested in trying all grain.

What do you guys recommend? Should I stick with partial for a while longer to get the hang of it better?

2.5 gallon batches are easy and a 5 gallon pot is enough
my stove would only bring 3 gallons to a boil but would maintain a 4 gallon boil.
I just spit it between two pots and combined them when boiling.

You can jump to 2.5 gallons AG in a kitchen
you can also do 5 gallon big partial mashes in the kitchen. instead of a couple lbs of grain to convert, sub grain for 1/2 your extract, pull your runnings, boil them, use extract and top up water to make your OG and 5 gallon volume. Still technicly a partial mash partial boil but its forgiving and your mashing more.
 
Sounds like the only additional equipment I will need is a mash tun.

Would it be best to try out a BIAB first?
 
You can if you want, I went straight from extract to all grain. If you plan on going to all grain anyway, might as well start now
 
I bottled my first attempt at a BIAB partial mash today, it is a chocolate porter. I was really nervous about this one because I made so many rookie mistakes. The mash temp was to high, I didn't have a strainer to put the grain bag in for sparging, I had a boil over and I totally forgot to buy lactose to put in it. Despite all of those seemingly big mess ups the beer turned out really well. I just need to not devour it and let it sit so it can get even better.
 
My last two batches were AG, 3.5 gallon, full boil in a 5 gallon kettle. Pre-boil volume was 4.1 gallons, used Fermcap-s, rapid boil and no boil over.
 
What additional equipment is needed to go from a partial mash to all grain?
My first 4 batches were partial and I was interested in trying all grain.
What do you guys recommend? Should I stick with partial for a while longer to get the hang of it better?

A good reference book! Because not all grains are equal! I am joking (but not that much!).

It depends of the equipment you already have. I guess your kettle cannot accomodate a false bottom (it can converts a brew pot into a mash tun)? Some kettles also have the possibility to attach a bazooka screen inside. But if you don't want to invest too much, I would use two regular kettles. I would simply use a large one as a mash tun and a mesh grain steeping bag to filter. The other one to brew.

But you have to know that yeast, yeast strain and to control the temperature at which you ferment the wort (at different stages) will have a bigger impact on your beer than doing all grain vs extract (many homebrewers that I have encountered over the last 25 years don't know that).
 
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