All advice much appreciated for first partial mash

[Phill Chevsi]

Hi,
I've been using kits for about 6 months and am moving onto my first partial mash. I have been having minimal luck with finding help with a few things I need to get started. If anyone could help I would be very grateful.
1) what is a good basic recipe to start with e.g. An ale, IPA etc
2) how muh, and what kind of grains would I need
3) I've been told to use 2 cans of extract and 1 kg of grains. Not that I have the experience but this seems a little much for a 23 liter batch.

Againg any advice greatly appreciated

Cheers
Phill

[Tilt]

Good on ya for taking the next step Phil. Partials are great for gettting a feel for handling grains/ mash etc.

Your advice so far is pretty sound.

A fave partial recipe of mine uses two 1.5kg cans of unhopped pale liquid extract and 1kg of pale malt (Golden Promise or Marris) with 200g of a medium crystal. Mash the grains and add to the kits and water to 27 litres for a full boil.

Add 20g of Pacific Jade at 60minutes, 20g each of Cascade and Motueka at 10 and 30g each of these again as you stop the boil, fermented with a sachet of US05 yeast will make you a reasonable Pale Ale.

If you want to muck about with different recipes and get a feel for how they might turn out then brew software can help. Brewmate is free and pretty easy to get the hang of.

Cheers and good luck

[Chris Mills]

Here's an illustrated guide to how I used to do partial mash brewing. I've made pale ales this way and most of the gear you need is probably already in your kitchen.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambientspace/sets/72157623322655510/

Cheers,

Chris

[MrC]

Hi

Are you planning on moving away from kits altogether and performing a 60min boil.  You'll need extra gear (a big pot) if you gonna do that.

You mention partial mash but steeping grain might be a better place to start.  Here's a hoppy NZ pale/blonde ale recipe with extract, steeped grain hops that comes out quite nice.

Extract:

You can use two cans of extract but you will need to calculate and boil hops to control the bitterness

2 x 1.5kg Liquid malt extract

Or you can replace one can of extract with a kit and assume 20IBU of bitterness

1 x 1.5kg Liquid malt extract

1 x 1.7kg Pale kit (something like http://www.thebrewhouse.co.nz/webapps/p/88908/215726/556939 or http://www.thebrewhouse.co.nz/webapps/p/88908/215726/540906)

Steeping Grains (you'll need a steeping bag):

200g Carahell (http://www.thebrewhouse.co.nz/webapps/p/88908/215726/593406)

200g Pale Crystal (http://www.thebrewhouse.co.nz/webapps/p/88908/215726/591070)

Hops:

Use whatever hop pellets you like for flavour & aroma.  Riwaka, Cascade, Motueka are all good in a beer like this.  You can use just one hop or a blend

(http://www.thebrewhouse.co.nz/webapps/category/88908/215726/49237?f...).

If not using a kit, enough hops @ 60min to acheive a total of around 30 IBU for the entire beer (you'll need to calculate this using brewing software)

30g hops  @ 10min 

30g hops @ 10min

Yeast:

Safale US-05

The Process:

Here is the process for brewing with 1 x kit and 1 x can of extract.  You need to adjust it if using 2 x cans of extract:

Buy the grain crushed or crush it youself

Steep the grain in approx 2.L water at approx 70C for 30min (keep it under 77C)

Remove grain and bring wort to boil (don't squeeze the bag, just let it drain)

Start boiling for 20min  

Add 30g hops with 10min remaining of the boil

Add 30g hop at the end of the boil

Cool the wort down as fast as possible (cold water bath)

Add the work to the fermenter with the remaining extract and continue as usual...

[Grant R Baker]

With a kit you mix this kit with about 2-3 liters of boiling water, add dextrose or DME then top up in fermenter to 23litres.

 

This approach can be used with a partial mash thus removing the need to boil a 23l batch and cool it etc.. which unless you have the gear is impossible.

 

8L pot required

3L pot required

Grain bag (straining bag)

1 or 2 cans of pale LME (pale cos you are going to flavour and colour it with your Steeping grains, but Amber of Dark can also be used)

Steeping grains (Caramalts, Crystal, Black, Chocolate, Caramunich, Abbey etc Malts)... use Beer Smith or Brew mate to determine the style and how much to use... but 750 grams to 1.5 kilos would be my target...

Don't use Base malts for steeping.. (most home brew supply web sites will highlight these).. unless you want to do a long steep.

Some grains have a unique after taste and are often recommended against using too much.

 

Check out the Beer Smith web site for a lot of partial mash recipes (or all grain recipes where you replace the base malt with LME) Recipes   another site -> more Recipes

• In your 3L pot heat 2l of water to 72C. Remove from heat and place straining bag full of your Steeping grains into for 30-60minutes (the longer the more malt you will get). When you add the grains to the 72C water it will drop.. target temp is 66C to 68C but can be a litter higher).
• Slowly remove the grain bag when time is up and drain in a wire sieve over the pot.
• In your 8l pot add your cans of LME (or LME and Kit of your choice) and about 1 to 2 liters of water.. bring to the boil as the steeping grains are finished.
• Add your sweet water from the 3l pot and boil the whole lot for 60 minutes during which time you need to add your hops.
• Add hops at 60 minutes (start) for bittering and at 20 minutes (or later) for flavour and aroma. The timing is a counter down number from 60. Becareful when adding hops as the can cause the boil to overflow the pot.
•  When the 60 minutes is up add 5liters of cold water to your fermenter then put the boiled wort into it... top up to 23l with cold water. 
• Pitch your yeast and seal the fermenter.

Now because you have not boiled all of your wort/water for 60 minutes the added cold water can possible contain a bug.. this is exactly the same risk as when you make a beer from kit.. so don't worry about it too much. Always sterilize all your beer equipment.