Partial Mash Instructions

Methods, ingredients, advice and equipment specific to all-grain (mash), partial mash (mini mash) and "brew in a bag" (BIAB) brewing.

Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Kevnlis » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 4:37 pm

Rob C wrote:In the middle of a brew at the moment i have finished my mash and measured my preboil SG beersmith estimated 1.087 and i measured 1.044 can anyone suggest what went wrong here?

Cheers
Rob


My guess is you have not compensated for temperature? Calibrate your hydrometer for the temperature at which the wort was when you took the reading.
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Rob C » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 4:39 pm

Kevnlis Thanks i was thinking that would of been the problem all should be good then.

Thanks Rob
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Rob C » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 6:34 pm

http://www.myhomebrew.com/hc0.html Will this site be fine for converting the reading of the hydrometer?


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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Kevnlis » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 6:43 pm

Yeah mate that should do it. Good find there! I have not seen this before (not that I will probably ever need it...). :D
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Rob C » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 6:53 pm

Thanks i didnt get a temp when i did my pre boil gravity check but the final SG came out at 1.041 instead of 1.052 Will put down the same recipe again on the weekend and see if i can improve it this time.

Cheers
Rob
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Trough Lolly » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 7:12 pm

Hi Rob,
Re the gravity discrepancy - you won't have a 40 point differential based on temperature alone. I think your beersmith gravity took into account all of the malt and grains in your recipe and assumed that the lot would be in the small boil and as we discussed on your hefeweizen thread, you were going to hold back the wheat malt until the last 5 mins of the boil to improve the hop bittering potential of your partial mash recipe...

Anyway, that's all history now so congrats on another brew done and dusted!

Cheers,
TL
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Rob C » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 7:16 pm

Hi TL under the Extract in Beersmith i ticked add after boil. Then when i check the estimated pre boil gravity it changes lower than when i have it unticked. So im guessing it should be 1.087 without the extract?

Still should taste pretty good.

Cheers
Rob
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Kevnlis » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 7:17 pm

Funny thing, I am not sure what the temp of the gravity sample was. But if you plug in a calibration temp of 20C and then put in a gravity reading of 1.044 at 100C it comes out to 1.087 exactly :shock:
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Trough Lolly » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 7:21 pm

Kevnlis wrote:Funny thing, I am not sure what the temp of the gravity sample was. But if you plug in a calibration temp of 20C and then put in a gravity reading of 1.044 at 100C it comes out to 1.087 exactly :shock:


....and a fragged hydrometer! :lol:
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Trough Lolly » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 7:29 pm

Rob C wrote:Hi TL under the Extract in Beersmith i ticked add after boil. Then when i check the estimated pre boil gravity it changes lower than when i have it unticked. So im guessing it should be 1.087 without the extract?

Still should taste pretty good.

Cheers
Rob


Hmmmm, methinks a Beersmith guru needs to help you there - I'm a humble promash user!! Beersmith is presumably trying to give you a pre-boil gravity based on the grains you're using, the strike water to grist ratio, absorption losses and sparge volume into the kettle less retention and other losses.

Anyway, as I mentioned in the separate post, partial mash efficiency isn't a big deal - IMO, partial mashing is done to give a superior flavour profile to an extract based recipe and mash efficiencies, whilst possible to calculate, aren't the core driver here...Unlike the mega breweries, we don't have to lie awake at night fretting over mash extraction efficiencies when all that needs to be done is add a few hundred grams of grains or a kilo of DME! 8)

Cheers,
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Rob C » Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 10:09 pm

Thanks for the help guys this was my first partial mash so hopefully it will get better from here.

Im going to try get a bigger kettle over the next couple days and try a bigger boil with the same recipe.

Instead of using your method TL would it be worth doing a single infusion mash with a mashout and batch sparge?

Cheers
Rob
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Trough Lolly » Wednesday Mar 26, 2008 8:12 am

Hi Rob - you are on the right track....A partial mash is exactly that - a single infusion mash with an (optional) mashout and batch (or fly) sparge, with some malt extract added to top up the gravity.

If you left out the malt extract and simply reduced the size of the batch, you'd have an all grain beer...Then it just becomes a matter of scale and equipment size...

Cheers,
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby rwh » Wednesday Mar 26, 2008 9:07 am

Trough Lolly wrote:...with a partial mash, you need to keep an eye on temperature and the rest will fall into place.

No pun intended? :lol:
Rob C wrote:In the middle of a brew at the moment i have finished my mash and measured my preboil SG beersmith estimated 1.087 and i measured 1.044 can anyone suggest what went wrong here?

Perhaps you could give us some more information? Of course I can think of heaps of ways that it could have gone wrong, but I'd really just be speculating. Start with giving us the recipe you followed, as well as the mash schedule that you used (volumes, times, temperatures, etc). The more detail you can give us the less we'll be guessing.
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Rob C » Wednesday Mar 26, 2008 5:09 pm

Hey rhw here is what i mashed.

1kg of pilsner malt
1kg of wheat malt
0.25kg carapils

I added 5.87 of water at 72.4c and mashed for 60 minutes target temp was 66 which came up close at 65 so i adjusted it.

Sparged the way TL mentioned at the start of this thread.

Cheers
Rob
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Trough Lolly » Thursday Mar 27, 2008 8:50 am

Rob C wrote:In the middle of a brew at the moment i have finished my mash and measured my preboil SG beersmith estimated 1.087 and i measured 1.044 can anyone suggest what went wrong here?


Rob C wrote:Hey rhw here is what i mashed.
1kg of pilsner malt
1kg of wheat malt
0.25kg carapils

I added 5.87 of water at 72.4c and mashed for 60 minutes target temp was 66 which came up close at 65 so i adjusted it. Sparged the way TL mentioned at the start of this thread.
Cheers
Rob


Did you adjust your preboil SG reading to allow for the temp of the extract you measured? Many hydrometers are calibrated to 20C.
How much sparge water did you use and what temp was it at when you sparged/drizzled the water over the grains?
Did you measure / can you estimate the pre-boil volume?

Your dough-in / strike temp and mash rest temp look fine although it's possible you over diluted the mash when you "adjusted" it - did you stir the mash well at the start to avoid doughballs in the mashtun (lumps of grains that have a dry centre and thus don't convert the available starches), resulting in an inefficient mash and starch laden hazy beer. A stiff, porridge like consistency is ideal for the mash.

Cheers,
TL
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Rob C » Thursday Mar 27, 2008 5:05 pm

Hi TL no i did not adjust my preboil SG but from a guess of what the temp was at that time it would still be a tad low.

I did give the mash a realy good stir a few times through the 60minutes.

I will try this recipe again on the weekend with a couple adjustments and see how it turns out this time.


The brew i did the other day is fermenting along nicely, Just another question with hefe's do you guys prefer to primary ferment for 7 days the 2ndry for another 7? Or will just bottling or kegging be fine after fermentation has ceased?

Cheers
Rob
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Kevnlis » Thursday Mar 27, 2008 5:12 pm

Rob C wrote:...another question with hefe's do you guys prefer to primary ferment for 7 days the 2ndry for another 7? Or will just bottling or kegging be fine after fermentation has ceased?


Ferment and drink in as little time as possible :D

Nothing better than a wheat for a nice quick enjoyable grain to brain experience! :twisted:
Prost and happy brewing!

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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Rob C » Thursday Mar 27, 2008 5:13 pm

No worries ill just keg once fermentation has stopped. :D :D :D

Cheers
Rob
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby Finnagann » Tuesday Feb 16, 2010 3:19 am

Thanks for puttin that down!

I'd love to start on a road to the dark side but there seems to be a few different ways of PMing and I'm a little confused :?

I've been reading Charlie Papazian's PM instructions (The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing 3rd ed) and he has a 4 stage mash process: 56 C for 30 min, 65-68 C for 45 min, 70C for 10 min and finally raise to 75C just before sparge.

Is this process dated? Unesessary?
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Re: Partial Mash Instructions

Postby warra48 » Tuesday Feb 16, 2010 6:04 am

Finnagann wrote:Thanks for puttin that down!

I'd love to start on a road to the dark side but there seems to be a few different ways of PMing and I'm a little confused :?

I've been reading Charlie Papazian's PM instructions (The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing 3rd ed) and he has a 4 stage mash process: 56 C for 30 min, 65-68 C for 45 min, 70C for 10 min and finally raise to 75C just before sparge.

Is this process dated? Unesessary?


No, it's not necessary.
It can be done, but there is no need to complicate the process.
A single infusion mash in the range of about 64ºC to 68ºC is fine.
Even those of us who brew AG will mostly do a single temperature rest infusion mash, rather than multiple rests or decoctions at differing temperatures.
For sparging, Trough Lolly's method works well and is easy.
Keep it simple for your first few, until you are familiar with your processes.
Multiple rests are OK if you understand why you wish to do them, but single infusion mashes turn out beer just fine!
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