What Is First Step To Partial?

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

brendanox

Active Member
Joined
5/7/11
Messages
28
Reaction score
0
Hi,
I'm relatively new to homebrewing. Started around a year ago.

At the moment I use Fresh Wort kits with fresh White Lab yeast. And have been happy with results.

I want to eventually get into all grain. And I've looked into BIAB but unfortunately don't have enough room where I'm living at the moment.

I was wondering if what I could add to my current set-up that would enhance my brews?

Any suggestions welcome B)

thanks!
Brendan
 
It really doesn't take much to start out with BIAB, all I had in the beginning was about a 35L pot and a bucket.... as long as you start out simple and follow a straight forward recipe its pretty hard to go too wrong.
 
Hi,
I'm relatively new to homebrewing. Started around a year ago.

At the moment I use Fresh Wort kits with fresh White Lab yeast. And have been happy with results.

I want to eventually get into all grain. And I've looked into BIAB but unfortunately don't have enough room where I'm living at the moment.

I was wondering if what I could add to my current set-up that would enhance my brews?

Any suggestions welcome B)

thanks!
Brendan

MiniBIAB
 
I'm a 'kits and partials' brewer as I simply don't have the space and time to have a full AG set-up.

I would say steps to partial are as follows:

1) get some sort of insulated container of around 10 litres preferably with a tap; and a grain bag.
I got a 9 litre Esky drink cooler from Bunnings, not cheap but works beatifully. It takes about 2.5 kg of grain.
2) read a book or some internet resources on brewing with grain to learn about what's going on.
3) get a couple of metres of food grade clear plastic tubing so you can transfer wort between vessels
4) get yourself a 15 litre stainless steel boil pot from K-Mart or Big W
5) get yourself a thermometer from your LHBS.
6) organise yourself a recipe. I use plain malt extract and source grain in 1 kg packs from the site sponsors.
7) start brewing with grain. Make sure you always add the water to the grain at 75-80 deg C, NOT boiling.

Some pH papers and small amounts of carbonate and sulphate to help reduce pH a touch wouldn't go astray either.
After soaking and sparging the grain, carefully transfer the wort to the boil pot, bring to boil and add hops.

Don't get too hung up on effieciency early in your learning, just get the lovely flavours out of the grains and let the extract bring the abv, higher efficiency will come with practice. Soon, proper mashing gets as easy as riding a bike, practice makes perfect.

I started with only 1/2 kg of grain in a brew. Now I'm using up to 2kg
and pushing the volume limits of my equipment. I need to duplicate it now to move onwards.
 
Some pH papers and small amounts of carbonate and sulphate to help reduce pH a touch wouldn't go astray either.
After soaking and sparging the grain, carefully transfer the wort to the boil pot, bring to boil and add hops.

Carbonates will raise pH. Presuming you meant chloride in the form of calcium salts but I wouldn't worry too much about that for the first partial mash.

Other advice is good although if I had space limitations, I'd look at single vessel setups like BIAB or mini BIAB, including high gravity brewing.
 
Thank you all so much for your help. :beer:

BIAB isn't an option because of space restrictions. But thanks Nick_JD because mini-Biab does actually look feasible!

Thanks heaps for your comment RobboMC! I've read quite a bit on the internet about brewing with grain so I have a bit of a handle on it. Can you suggest a recipes you've used that you liked?
 
Not sure why biab isnt feasible due to space, it is just one pot or urn, takes up very little space.
Nicks method is great, if you bet a 19 l bigw pot you can get around 12 l batches or go the maxi biab if you want bigger batches.

As far as recipes go depends on your tastes, anything by tony and youll get a great beer, plenty of others to pick from.
Cheers
sean
 
Thank you all so much for your help. :beer:

BIAB isn't an option because of space restrictions.

That's exactly why BIAB (or mini) is an option as it uses a minimum of space - certainly compared with the downsized 3 vessel system mentioned by Robbo.

All you need is a pot which can be whatever size you can feasibly fit or want to brew, preferably a tap (although some do slow chill in the pot - I can't recommend for or against) and a bag that folds away.

Rest of the equipment is stuff you will need and presumably already have, regardless of method - some form of temp control (be it a controlled fridge or just a laundry sink), something to ferment in and something to package in (bottles of kegs).

Certainly not trying to stop you doing partials. I did them for a bit, made some good beer and learned a lot in the process.
 
Its just as easy to partial as go the whole hog. Spend a bit more for a burner and pot, and you will not look back.

Scotty
 
I remember for me, it was just that extra bit of the learning curve that I needed to get my head around mashing, efficiencies and so on. I only did a few before I realised I was mashing almost a full grist anyway but it did give me that extra bit of confidence to make the step.

I have fond memories of my (short-lived) partial days.
 
Thanks everyone for more help.
Yeah,, after your suggestions, esp Manticle, i think instead of going partials I will try mini-biab. Thanks!

Basically I have no backyard. And all the BIAB vids etc i saw were massive pots on outside burners. But mini-biab is totally doable. Actually looks like less equipment involved than partial. I may stuff up the first brew or two, but that's all part of the learning curve. Looking forward to it!

Will now have to look into the equipment

Cheers for your help guys :super:
 
Plug Dr. Smurto's Golden Ale (in the recipe database) into BeerMate (download it) and then scale it back for a MiniBIAB.

Did you mean BrewMate? I found an app called beermate. it's pretty useless though :rolleyes:
 
I don't mean to be defending partials, but full BIAB and full boils provide the challenge of
dealing with 25 litres if hot wort.

I can safely lift 10 litres into a bath of cold water, 25 litres is impossible to shift and therefore
a chill method is needed. And the experiences of aiming to do a proper mash on 1.5-2 kg of grain
will eventually lead to AG one way or another.
 
I don't mean to be defending partials, but full BIAB and full boils provide the challenge of
dealing with 25 litres if hot wort.

I can safely lift 10 litres into a bath of cold water, 25 litres is impossible to shift and therefore
a chill method is needed. And the experiences of aiming to do a proper mash on 1.5-2 kg of grain
will eventually lead to AG one way or another.

Agreed, there is a big step up in equipment (and issues like moving around 25L) from BIAB partials to full BIAB. I'm very happy with my BIAB partials, with the only equipment being a cheap 15L pot and swiss voile bag, and bits and pieces like big spoon, bucket, sleeping bag for the mash insulation. Can boil 12 or 13L on the stove no probs and then easy to chill the wort in an ice bath. I mash 2.5kg of base malt and spec grain, add hops during the boil, and then add LDME (around 1.2-1.5kg) at the end of the boil. Wort into the fermenter, top up to 23 or 24L with chilled water, add yeast, then into fermenting fridge.

Minimal equipment and no worries. And great beer!
 
I used to lift 56lts of wort from the ground up to the boiler on a BBQ when I had 1 burner and gravity fed I cant say it was the best thing and I hurt my back doing it one day why I bought a pump 2 days later :p. I see where you come from if you want to use what you have then partials are alright but I dont see why you would do a full mash to extract just part of the fermentables. I moved to doubles and tripples as it takes me 20 -30 mins more on a brew day and I can do 2 of the same and 1 of another beer as I do a side by side with my old single rig (well only use the MT and sometimes 20lt pot if needed
 

Latest posts

Back
Top