1st Partial Attempt ... Water/grain Ratio?

[tdack]

Hi Guys,

I've decided to take the plunge and have a crack at my own partial (and my own recipe). Previously I've used partial kits put together by the LHBS and followed the instructions religiously with pleasing results.

I've a couple of questions before I start firing up the stove.

1. What is considered a normal amount of grain to use in a partial?
2. How much water should I use per kg of grain when doing the steeping part?

My proposed recipe is below and I'm looking at steeping the grain in about 4 or 5 litres of water.

Thanks for your advice.

10B-American Ale-American Amber Ale



Recipe Overview

Target OG:	 1.050 SG

Target FG:		 1.012 SG

Target ABV:	 5.0 %

Target IBU:	 28.8 IBU	

Target Color:	 37.5 EBC	



Fermentables

Ingredient						Amount	 %		 MCU	 When

Australian Amber Malt				 2.000 kg	 52.6 %	 18.4	 In Mash/Steeped

Australian Crystal 140				 0.300 kg	 7.9 %	 6.6	 In Mash/Steeped

Extract - Wheat Liquid Malt Extract	 1.500 kg	 39.5 %	 2.8	 Start Of Boil



Hops

Variety	Alpha	Amount	IBU	Form	When

US Amarillo	 8.2 %	 20 g	 12.6	 Bagged Pellet Hops	 60 Min From End

US Amarillo	 8.2 %	 20 g	 9.8	 Bagged Pellet Hops	 30 Min From End

US Amarillo	 8.2 %	 20 g	 6.3	 Bagged Pellet Hops	 15 Min From End

US Amarillo	 8.2 %	 15 g	 0.0	 Bagged Pellet Hops	 Dry-Hopped

 

[buttersd70]

Troy, like many things in brewing there are no hard and fast rules.

When you look at the MCU%, that is the contribution of each ingredient to the total fermentables. Personally, on the odd occasions I do partials, I aim for 50% from the grains, and 50% from the extracts....that has enough grain there to satisfy my AG sensibilities...I would say you could maybe possibly lower this to 33%, but any lower than that, and you may as well not bother. 50% (or a little more, or a little less to make the OG right) to me is a good compromise.

Water ratios can be fairly complex things, the ratio, in conjunction with other factors, effects the fermentability of the resultant wort and the amount of dextrins produced. But as a rough guide, 2 to 2.5L/kg for ales, and 2.5 to 3L/kg for lagers. Thicker mashes result in more dextrinous wort, and give more body, thinner mashes result in less dextrins and less body (in conjuction with grain bill, mash temp, and a few other things).

1.1 - 1.5 L/kg of grain will be soaked up by the grain itself. The more sparge water that is available for the grain, the more effective it will be at rinsing the sugars off the grains....for an AG you are a bit limited with this, because you can only use so much water, or you end up with a ridiculously large volume that then has to be boiled down to achieve your gravity....for a partial, you have more water available, because you are only using grain for half the total fermentable. So aim to use 2L/kg minimum for sparging.

Just on the recipe...

thats a hell of a lot of amber malt....its quite dry and biscuit like, and is not normally used in such large amounts....might I suggest changing to something like munich? Nice colour, good flavour, not as dry or intense....or use both, limiting the amber to about 5-10% total contribution.

 

[Herby_76]

Troy

I found this link useful when I started down the partial road:

http://byo.com/feature/1536.html

 

[tdack]

Butters,
Thanks for the comments, all very helpful. I feel a bit more confident about it now and think I'm on the right track.
I'll also visit the LHBS and grab some different grain as well. Can you suggest any references to learn a bit more about the different types of grains and their common uses?

Herby,
Thanks for the link, that has gone in the "brewing stuff" file and will be read during the next couple of lunch breaks.

 

[buttersd70]

Butters,
Thanks for the comments, all very helpful. I feel a bit more confident about it now and think I'm on the right track.
I'll also visit the LHBS and grab some different grain as well. Can you suggest any references to learn a bit more about the different types of grains and their common uses?

Herby,
Thanks for the link, that has gone in the "brewing stuff" file and will be read during the next couple of lunch breaks.

Both promash and beersmith have updatable files from their respective homepages with the grain descriptions. Failing that, one site that has excellent grain descriptions and specs is craftbrewer For the German malts, the weyerman site also has product specs and descriptions for their products. I've actually found very little info on the Aussie maltsters sites...shame aussie producers, shame.

Also Palmers how to brew, the grain descriptions are reproduced in the articles section here (but thats a bit americanised. Slightly different terminology, same stuff.)

 

[tdack]

Well I took the plunge. The recipe changed slightly, went with 1.75kg of Munich, 500g of Amber and 250g of Crystal.

After SWMBO gave me a ticket to operate the overlocker and sewing machine I had a pretty nifty grain bag that fits my 19L pot and a flash new hop sock.

Learnt a few lessons along the way:

1. 19L pot and 2.75kg of grain isn't the best, probably need to use the esky and do the mash/steep and sparge in that then transfer it to the pot. I don't think I got the best sparge out of the grain.
2. Thermometers don't bounce on tiled kitchen floors, they just break.
3. Swiss Voile hop socks shouldn't touch the bottom of the pot during boiling or they get holes in them

Ended up transferring 6L of liquid after the boil. After chilling and topping up to 20L I had an OG of about 1.046. I figure the lower OG is due to my poor sparging.

Anyway, it tasted good out of the sample tube and when the hops sank it looked like the right colour. It's off and fermenting now so I'll see what it's like in a month or so from the glass.

 

[buttersd70]

good stuff, mate....if I read/remember correctly, 1050 was target....so 4 points down is not too bad. Probably right though, that it is a sparge issue....it usually is. Not that it matters, it will only improve as you get your technique down pat....
and taste is the main thing. :icon_cheers:

 

[Bribie G]

If you are using between one and two kg of grain in a mash I have found the pictured 9 L from decor (available all woolies stores etc) makes a great little mash tun when immersed in a water bath in an esky and can be batch sparged nicely into your pot via a big round mesh strainer, $4 from Sam's Warehouse.




I have been doing three sparges to end up with around 8L in the kettle. A bag would have been handy but at those quantities it's quite handle-able, even split it in two for sparging, still end up with the 8L.

 

[tdack]

Well I just racked it into a cube and I've got to say that I'm pretty chuffed. Came out of the fermenter really clear and tasted great out of the sample tube.

SG is down to 1.012. I ended up splurging on a WLP001 California Ale yeast. I figured it would either be a great success or a great failure, so go for success!

I also added 20g of Amarillo to the cube and plan on leaving it for 7 to 10 days before putting into the keg.

If the taste out of the sample tube is anything to go by I'm going to be hard pressed to keep this in the keg until Christmas.

Now I just have to work on separating the yeast from the hops in the couple of jars of goop I salvaged from the bottom of the fermenter.

 

[buttersd70]

If the taste out of the sample tube is anything to go by I'm going to be hard pressed to keep this in the keg until Christmas.

It could be worse......I sometimes drink pints out of primary. :lol:

 

[tdack]

Well, it went into the keg this evening after having 7 days in secondary, dry-hopped with 20g of Amarillo.

Very, very happy with the colour, nice and golden, extremely clear, no debris at all. My "dry hop sock" worked better than the one for the boil . Tastes pretty good too.

Thanks for all the help. Obligatory photo to follow once it's carb'd.

:icon_cheers:

 

[buttersd70]

I love it when a plan comes together.

View attachment 22789

 

[raven19]

It could be worse......I sometimes drink pints out of primary. :lol:

Butters, that is hard core! or you have run out of conditioned beer... either way good work!

 

[buttersd70]

Butters, that is hard core! or you have run out of conditioned beer... either way good work!

hehehe...one of the benefits of brewing English.....it only goes into secondary long enough to drop bright, anyway. Best enjoyed young, with sfa carb...

 

[bennyc]

Kind of on-topic, but what's the best way for cleaning hop-socks? I bought a 500 micron hop sock recently, and while I've soaked it in napisan, there still seems to be a bit of crud stuck in a few parts. Not sure that I need to worry too much given that it all gets boiled and sterilised, but any ideas?

 

[buttersd70]

Kind of on-topic, but what's the best way for cleaning hop-socks? I bought a 500 micron hop sock recently, and while I've soaked it in napisan, there still seems to be a bit of crud stuck in a few parts. Not sure that I need to worry too much given that it all gets boiled and sterilised, but any ideas?

I just rinse mine under running water then let it dry. I found that if you just rinse it without delay,maybe use a nail brush on the canvas strap thing just under the plastic if needed, thats all it really needs imo. If it gets left long enough for the crud to harden, I'll just boil it for a couple of minutes in water, that loosens it all up again, and then I rinse.

 

[tdack]

Well I've finally got room in the fridge for this batch, so I should be having a nice glass of it on Thursday or Friday.

I did batch #2 on the weekend. I spent a little more time on the mash and sparge process to ensure that I hit all the targets. Pre-boil gravity came out about 4 points higher than predicted, OG was on the money and volume post-boil was spot on. Efficiency came out at about 70% (up from 60% for batch #1).

Hop sock worked a treat for #2, no melted holes and the wort into the fermenter had considerably less crud in it. Bag for the grain was made from muslin this time around and larger than the last one.

All in all I'm really pleased with #2, it's fermenting away on harvested yeast from #1 (getting all those hops from #1 out of the yeast was a bit of a mission!).

Thanks for all the help guys, I feel a lot more confident about doing this, now I just have to work out what to do for #3