Planning first PM - couple of questions

[54BelAir]

I am working out my first partial mash for this weekend. I have a 16 and 42 quart pots.

I would like to mash all of my specialty grains and as much 2 row as possible in the 16 quart pot. Then sparge by dunking the bag in the remainder of my water @ 170 deg.

I am planning on 50% efficiency. Does this sound about right?

How can I calculate how much grain will fit into my pot? I am sure it depends a little bit on the crush, but is there a rule of thumb that I can use? Say 1# of grain equals x number of quarts.

Thanks in advance.

 

[54BelAir]

I found this sticky, answering my own question. re posting here in case someone else has this same question.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-big-your-mash-tun-needs-123585/

 

[rjschroed]

Your partial mash sounds like a BIAB(Brew In A Bag) type set up. I do all grain batch sparge so I can't really guide you in the appropriate direction, but 50% efficiency seems a bit low. Check out the BIAB sticky here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/biab-brewing-pics-233289/

Although I'm sure that a lot of people would post their results if you asked I'd also search the forums for more information on the efficiency you can expect.

Easiest of all would be to just go ahead and do your PM part of your brew day and before you add any extracts measure your gravity and adjust your extract additions accordingly so you hit your target pre boil OG.

 

[54BelAir]

This has morphed into a BIAB from a Partial Mash. I had planned to mash as much as possible in my 16 quart pot and use extract for the rest of the of the gravity points.

The beer I am brewing is fairly small 1.039 OG, BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde. The 8.5 pounds of grain should fit perfectly. Even if I only get 50% I won't need to add much to hit my target.

This brew has taken on it's own life, and pushed me farther than I expected to be at this point. Next step building a mash tun.