a couple of questions

[bangers]

does a partial mash apply to most all grain recipies? I have the Home Brewers companion and feel ready to try an all grain brew, I,ve had a go at the malt extract methods described in the book and have read the post on partial mash instructions and in one recipein the book it states to use a single step infusion mash schedule is this the same thing?as it reads fairly the same but doesent mention an esky (american book) of course but I think I'm starting to undrstand it I suppose the only way to find out is to have a go eh?

[Kevnlis]

A single infusion mash is different from a partial mash, though a partial mash can be a single infusion mash.

What recipe are you trying to convert? If you are doing a full volume boil it could be as simple as substituting some of the base malt with extract.

[Chris]

A single infusion is basically the easiest method of doing a partial mash. No point really getting fancy when you are just basically making malt extract. I wonder if that will stir anyone up?

[Kevnlis]

You can make your malt extract Chris. I will stick to beer myself

[Chris]

I've never stuck to beer, but it has stuck to me a few times...

[bangers]

coriander amber ale .
910gs pale malted barley
450gs. 40 lovibond crystal/caramel malt
230gs. wheat malt
1.6kgs light dried malt extract
21.3gs.german northern brewers hops (boiling) 7hbu
28.4gs.czech saaz hops (flavour) 4hbu
14.2gs.german hallertauer hops (aroma)
14.2gs.czech saaz hops (aroma)
42.6gs freshely crushed coriander seeds
1g. powdered irish moss
ale yeast
thats the ingredients .
add crushed malts to 3.8ltrs of 76c water.the mash will stabilise at 67-70c hold temperature at the high end for 60mins(whats High end?)
sparge with about 5.7 of 77c water .add boiling hops and dried malt extract and boil for 60mins add flavour hops and irish moss boil for a further 15mins total boiling time is 75mins turn off heat add 28.4gs of crushed coriander seeds and aroma hops and seep for 2 to 3 minutes transfer wort to fermenterpartially filled with chilled water pitch yeast when cool .add 14.2gs crushed coriander seeds after primary fermintation,leave for at least one week before bottling.
well thats basicaly it! worth a try This is my first go at all grain so I'm a bit nervous

[Kevnlis]

The higher end of 67-70C would be 70C I guess?

Sounds like an interesting recipe! I hope you have worked out the AA of your hops vs what they used, do not go by weight when following the boiling and flavour additions, go by the HBU scale. This years European hops are VERY low AA!

[bangers]

ok kev I'm getting a little lost here mate AA's? I've noticed hbu written next to the weights wasnt sure what it meant so I've stuck with the weight measurements on my previous outings.I'm putting a fair bit of research before I have a go wanna be faily clear on the ins and outs of it all (remember my calcium sulphate saga )

[Kevnlis]

No worries, if you can tell us the AA % of the hop varieties you bought we can show you how to calculate the HBU. The AA % should be written on the packet of hops you bought.

AA stands for Alpha Acid and is the unit of measurement for the component of hops which causes the bitter flavour in beer. This is an important calculation to be sure you get a good balanced final product!

[bangers]

I havent purchased anything as yet (work, work,work no happy time for me ) the HBS that I go to has a very helpful gentleman by the name of Dave most of his stock is in bulk and he weighs to order what you need I'm hoping to go on the weekend and get what I need.I reckon he will give me a pretty good idea on the subject(over a couple of brews I hope) the best thing about the shop is some of the guys sitting around sipping a beer are vey helpful as well, its a great place to go! will give you an up date and as always thankyou again p.s. any good refernce books that you could recomend would be great too I've got the Home brewers companion by Charlie Papazian its a good start but i'm looking for something that explains grain brewing a little better>

[Trough Lolly]

An excellent primer, with pictures on a single infusion mash and batch sparge is here: http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/
Another good article on mashing is here: http://www.chezwallis.com/pensans/processes_mashing.html

And if you want a reasonable primer on step mashing and decoctions, Northern Brewer has a pdf article here: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/Hi-Res/advanced-mashing.pdf

Cheers,
TL