Partial Mash With Extract

[sgw86]

Hi All,

Having moved to doing Extract beers with Specality grain over the past 6 months I want to start moving towards Partial Mash to introduce Grain on my way to AG. Having read that people use Eskies to mash in this is probably the best method for me at the moment. I did find a 10L esky at Bunnings that I think would be ideal as I will not be mashing large amounts of Grain as I want to do 50/50 Grain/Extract.

OR am I better off just following the 20L Stovetop All-Grain method by Nick JD at http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=44264

This is the Esky I am thinking: http://www.bunnings.com.au/products_produc...ooler_5081.aspx

My main pre-requist is I want to keep it simple and not have to fork out for new equipment. I currently complete my Extract with a 20L stockpot (BigW) and then top the fermeter up with chilled water to bring it up to 21L for fermentation.

Having read a fair few posts I think I have a fairly good idea of what is required in mashing and then having extract make up the remainder. I am hoping some people could provide feedback/suggestions.

My first Partial I would really like to nail a Australian Lager that is easy drinking. Again never having used grain that needed mashing not too sure on recipe ideas but here goes.

Partial/Extract Lager

- 1.5kg Joe White Pilsner Malt
- 1kg Briess Golden Dry Malt
- 500g Dextrose
- Pride of Ringwood bittered to 20-25 IBU

- S-23 Fermented @ 12C

These are the steps I have in my head, though would appreciate any feedback/corrections etc.

- Heat 4.5litres (ratio 3:1) to 66C (I guess I need to allow a temp drop once the grain gets puts in?)
- Tip 66C water into esky and then add Pilsner Malt into grain bag and put in Esky immersed in water.
- Put lid on esky and leave for 90mins to mash at around 64C (should I be swirling the grain bag around every so often?)
- After 90mins lift grain bag out and allow to drip.
- Pour collected wort from Esky into stockpot ready for Boil.
- Place grain bag into collander and then pour 4.5litres of 70C water over the grain and allow to drip into esky
- Pour sparge water from Esky into stockpot.
- Top stockpot up to achieve a 12L pre-boil volume
- Bring to a rolling boil and then add hops as per usual....tip into fermenter after cool down period and top fermenter up to achieve a 21L fermentation volume.


Hopefully the above makes sense. Thanks for your help in advance.

Cheers,

Sam.

 

[fawnroux]

G'day Sam,

If you are interested in the all grain route, have you considered buy a bigger esky and mashing more grain and using less extract? With a 20 litre pot, you could do a few kg of grain and then just top up with a little extract to account for the water you put in later. That's what I did when I first started all grain. I still use a 20 litre pot now for full, all grain, 20 litre batches. I just boil from 18 litres, usually down to about 15. I then top up with water for 20 litres in fermenter. I just account for a higher gravity in my boil with my hop additions.

Something to think about if you are keen on all grain. Why bother buying another esky/mash tun later?

- Heat 4.5litres (ratio 3:1) to 66C (I guess I need to allow a temp drop once the grain gets puts in?)

If you have some brewing software, you should be able to use it to calculate your strike temp. Other wise there is a simple formula to work it out. I can give it to you if you want it.

 

[mondestrunken]

My main pre-requist is I want to keep it simple and not have to fork out for new equipment. I currently complete my Extract with a 20L stockpot (BigW) and then top the fermeter up with chilled water to bring it up to 21L for fermentation.

Why not just buy a $5 grain bag and try a BIAB batch with 1-2kg of base grain mashed with your specialty grains? That's what I did a couple of months ago. You'll be surprised how similar it is to what you're already doing.

Then if you want to get an esky later on you can!

 

[stm]

Hi Sam

Yes, you are on the right track but you don't need the esky, just use a grain bag in your pot for the mash. I do partials (standard batch size around 23-24L in the fermenter) in my 15L pot, so your 20L will be fine. Or you can do All Grain as per Nick JD, but that gets you only about 17L of beer comfortably. The grain bag is polyester swiss voile from Spotlight, sewn to fit inside your pot (open cylinder shape), as described on many threads here.

10L water (quite a watery mash for BIAB) to about 70degC, place cake rack into pot, then bag, then mix in the milled grain (for me, usually around 2.5kg), to get to a mash temp of say 66.
Wrap up in sleeping bag or blanket for an hour then off with the blanket, on with burner and heat to 77 while stirring constantly.
Lift bag up and allow to drain a bit and then dump bag into a bucket for a further rinse with hot water and drain - then pour this liquid back into the main pot as well.
Top up to 13L (in my case, because its a 15L pot) then boil for an hour with hop additions as per usual.
Add the LDME (about 1.2 - 1.5kg depending on your target OG) with a few mins to go.
Flame out, then cool down in water bath or with chiller (or no-chill).
Pour cooled wort into fermenter then top up to 23/24L with pre-chilled tap water.
Pitch yeast.

 

[sgw86]

Hi Sam

Yes, you are on the right track but you don't need the esky, just use a grain bag in your pot for the mash. I do partials (standard batch size around 23-24L in the fermenter) in my 15L pot, so your 20L will be fine. Or you can do All Grain as per Nick JD, but that gets you only about 17L of beer comfortably. The grain bag is polyester swiss voile from Spotlight, sewn to fit inside your pot (open cylinder shape), as described on many threads here.

10L water (quite a watery mash for BIAB) to about 70degC, place cake rack into pot, then bag, then mix in the milled grain (for me, usually around 2.5kg), to get to a mash temp of say 66.
Wrap up in sleeping bag or blanket for an hour then off with the blanket, on with burner and heat to 77 while stirring constantly.
Lift bag up and allow to drain a bit and then dump bag into a bucket for a further rinse with hot water and drain - then pour this liquid back into the main pot as well.
Top up to 13L (in my case, because its a 15L pot) then boil for an hour with hop additions as per usual.
Add the LDME (about 1.2 - 1.5kg depending on your target OG) with a few mins to go.
Flame out, then cool down in water bath or with chiller (or no-chill).
Pour cooled wort into fermenter then top up to 23/24L with pre-chilled tap water.
Pitch yeast.

Hi stm,

Thanks for the method mate of Partial with Extract. I actually have started reaing through the 20L AG Post by Nick as you suggested and am quite impressed at the instructions and also feel comfortable to be able to do this.

What I really want to do is try and get 20-21L into the Fermenter. I know that 17L is still great (though I usually leave 1-2L in the fermenter when kegging so I don't get the yeast cake into it).

Thanks again mate.

Cheers,

Sam.

 

[stm]

In that case, you can either use my method (which is about a 50/50 partial) but up the grains and lower the LDME because you can do that with the bigger pot, or use Nick's method and then add some LDME (but no longer all grain). Either way, you end up with basically the same method. If you want to go all grain with at least 21L batch size but with a 20L pot, you go to Maxi BIAB, which is more stuffing around but do-able. There are some threads on this if you search.