Why partial mash?

[bucfan1234]

I have done pre-hopped extract, extract plus specialty grains, BIAB, traditional all grain, but Saturday was my first partial mash brew day.

The reason, I had a leftover can of Breiss Pilsen LME that I wanted to get rid of so I threw a quick Kolsch recipe together. I thought, this will be a an easy and cheap way to get rid of the LME. So I got some 2 row pilsner and 6% wheat malt and away I went.

Beersmith said to mash the the grains for 90 mins. I decided that I didn't want to babysit so I BIAB'd in my cooler mash tun. 90 mins later I transfer back the the pot and mashed out. Got good efficiency, great.

All this accomplished I topped the kettle and started the full volume boil, added the hops per my schedule in a hop bag. Then I had the joy of pulling the boiling kettle off the heat and getting the hop bag out of the way to stir in the darned extract, which has become my least favorite brew day activity.

Put the IC in the kettle and finished the boil. Chilled, transferred and pitched.

Total time including the mash was about 5 hours, about the same as regular all grain batch.

So the question I have been asking myself is, why partial mash?

 

[Yooper]

Well, first, you didn't have to mash for 90 minutes because "Beersmith said to". YOU set up the profiles and things in Beersmith, and a 45 minute mash would have easily been more than enough. But that's still only a 45 minute savings.

The reasons for partial mash would be for someone who can't do a full boil, for example. Or a full mash, due to space or equipment restrictions. Or for an extract brewer to save some money, as grain is far cheaper than extract. Also, partial mash beers usually taste better than full extract beers.

 

[smurfjuice]

Maybe add the extract pre boil ... :beard:

 

[bucfan1234]

Fair point about the mash time. I saw the guy on brulosophy only mashed a pilsner for 15 minutes and wound up with beer.

Interesting point about space and cost. Cost was the one reason I kept coming back to.

If I had this brew to do over again, I probably would take your advice and mash for a shorter period (though I had good efficiency) or just go all extract.

 

[bucfan1234]

Maybe add the extract pre boil ... :beard:

That would certainly have made it easier, but I have started to favor late additions for extract.

I had already planned to boil more vigorously than usual since I mashed the pilsner malt and was only boiling 60 minutes, and I didn't want the extract to darken.

 

[smurfjuice]

10-4 ...

 

[Calder]

I partial mash. I do it because I choose to boil on my stove, and can't boil more than 4 gallons. I can get 80% efficiency with 8 lbs of grain, so for most beers I'm not adding much extract.

There is no reason a PM should take any longer than an AG batch, and is probably shorter (but that depends on equipment for heating and cooling the different volumes).

I add my extract after the boil is over, so no need to interrupt the boil. There is plenty heat to dissolve and sanitize the extract.

I have a burner and pot I could use for full boil, but I'm happy with my process today, and moving outside to boil seems like a lot of extra work to me.

 

[jwalk4]

Yup.

I thought my brewing was done for the winter because I generally brew outdoors to keep my better half happy.

Thanks to partial mashes, I can keep making beer throughout the winter months!

 

[bucfan1234]

Ok, I get it. I was doing it wrong.

I see how it could be worked into the rotation.

 

[brewcat]

I started doing partial mashes because I wanted certain flavors from grains that needed a base malt to convert. Also at the time I didn't have the equipment to do a full mash.

For me it was the next step in going all grain. It gave me a basic understanding of the mashing process. My first all grain batch then felt natural.

 

[Jim311]

This is why I decided I might as well go all grain after make a partial mash. I realized it was all of the work of all grain but with the added cost of extract!