Stove top Partial Mash

I went straight from kits to AG, but nowadays I am doing more Partial/Mini Mash brews than AG cos it is much quicker and easier and makes beer I cannot distinguish from AG. You can use any grains you like, because the presence of base malt in the mash converts the starches in any grains that need mashing. You get the benefits of AG brewing with the convenience and speed of extract brewing; it is effectively an extract brew with some base malt added into a temperature controlled steep. I make 12 or 13 litres usually, in a 15 litre stock pot, with a muslin bag and a colander. You could add more extract and hops and top up in the FV to a make a larger batch. Here's a quick guide to a typical brew - you can vary the brew length, the strength, and the ratio of grain to extract, obviously:

1. Heat about 4 litres of water to 70*C. You need around 2.75 to 3 litres per kg of grain.
2. Place a muslin or voile bag into the pot.
3. Stir in 1.5 - 2kg of grains. Adjust temp if necessary with cold or boiling water to achieve temp between 65 and 70C. Or gently heat the pot, but stir to prevent scorching the grains. I rarely need to adjust tbh.
4. Cover pot and wrap in towels, jumper etc.
5. After about 30 mins of the mash, start heating another 4-6 litres to 75*C in a separate pan if you have one.
5. After 45 - 60 mins of the mash pull the bag and place on a colander on top of the pot to drain.
6. Either dunk the bag in the other pot of 75*C water for a while and stir, or pour the water carefully through the grains. Allow all the water to drain from the grains.
7. Top up to 10-15 litres. Bring the wort to a boil. Once boiling, add hops according to your recipe schedule.
8. You can add the extract before the boil starts, or towards the end of the boil, or after you switch the heat off. I am now waiting til after the heat goes off, stirring the DME in, which helps get the temperature down, and doesn't interrupt the boil, and then often adding steeping hops at 80*C.
9. Cool in the sink. This volume will cool to about 30*C in about 30 minutes if you keep the water cold.
10. Transfer to FV via a sieve, top up to required level, and pitch yeast.

I reach flameout in about 2 hours, and get about 24 x 500ml bottles of good quality ale. I make stronger ales with extra extract, and bottle those in around 36 x 330ml bottles.



I'll add pics and recipe ideas in due course.

You can use this method to make larger batches, by increasing the amount of extract added, doing a partial boil, and increasing the hops. The link below explains this, with instructions to make a 19 litre batch, and explains the general PM method in more detail. I find the 24 bottles or so that I get is enough, and I can do a full boil or close to a full boil, and have a high percentage of the fermentables from the grain.

Further reading: http://beerandwinejournal.com/c-top-partial-mash/

Porter PM recipe 13 Litres

Batch Size (L): 13.0
Original Gravity (OG): 1.047
Bitterness (IBU): 43.6

0.700 kg Maris Otter Malt (30.96%)
0.500 kg Dry Malt Extract - Light (22.11%)
0.300 kg Crystal 40 (13.27%)
0.300 kg Munich UK (13.27%)
0.150 kg Brown Sugar, Dark (6.63%)
0.137 kg Chocolate (6.05%)
0.116 kg Black Malt (5.14%)
0.058 kg Roasted Barley (2.57%)

20.5 g Northdown (9.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes
9.6 g Fuggles (5.7% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes

IPA Recipe

Batch Size (L): 12.0
Original Gravity (OG): 1.051
Bitterness (IBU): 49.4

1.500 kg Pale Malt (66.67%)
0.600 kg Dry Malt Extract - Light (26.67%)
0.150 kg Caramalt (6.67%)

7.0 g Columbus Leaf (17.1% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
14.0 g Cascade Leaf (9.2% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (1.2 g/L)
28.0 g Columbus Leaf (17.1% Alpha) @ 2 Minutes (Boil) (2.3 g/L)

Thornbridge St.Petersburg RIS

Batch Size (L): 12.0
Original Gravity (OG): 1.073
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 7.25 %
Bitterness (IBU): 55.0

1.300 kg Dry Malt Extract - Light (43.24%)
1.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (33.26%)
0.223 kg Torrified Wheat (7.42%)
0.134 kg Chocolate (4.45%)
0.108 kg Crystal 120 (3.59%)
0.108 kg Roasted Barley (3.59%)
0.075 kg Brown Sugar, Dark (2.48%)
0.059 kg Peated Malt (1.97%)

17.0 g Galena Pellet (14.1% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes
5.0 g Perle Pellet (6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes
17.0 g Magnum Pellet (14.1% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes
5.0 g Sorachi Pellet (11.8% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes
17.0 g Vanguard Pellet (5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes

Black RyePA (Great recipe this)

Batch Size (L): 12.0
Original Gravity (OG): 1.065
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 6.39 %
Bitterness (IBU): 58.0

1.000 kg Dry Malt Extract - Light (35.52%)
1.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (35.52%)
0.340 kg Munich UK (12.08%)
0.181 kg Crystal Rye (6.43%)
0.113 kg Chocolate (4.01%)
0.113 kg Roasted Rye Malt (4.01%)
0.068 kg Black Malt (2.42%)

14.0 g Chinook Leaf (12.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes
12.0 g Centennial Leaf (13.5% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes
12.0 g Simcoe Leaf (13.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes
12.0 g Citra Leaf (14.4% Alpha) @ 1 Minutes
14.0 g Cascade Leaf (9.2% Alpha) Dry hop
14.0 g Centennial Leaf (13.5% Alpha) Dry hop

This looks great! Like speed brewing!

Thanks for this. I'm about ready to make the move from kit brews and this looks perfect. Going to try your IPA recipe I think.

Let me know how it goes. You can scale the brew length using brewing software like Brewmate to any quantity you want to make. This method is just about replacing a percentage of base malt with extract to scale the mashing operation down. Any recipe can be easily adapted. I scale down the brews to 9.5 litres now cos I have a new ten litre FV and I can halve the ingredients from all the 19 litre recipes on the web. Anyone can make beer this way with a 15 litre pot ( about £16 from Wilko) and a piece of muslin. I have a mashtun but rarely use it now, 6 hour brew days aren't easy to fit in and my beer is just as good with a high proportion of grain.

I'm intending to do my first partial mash tomorrow! Just wondered if a 12 ltr brew is too small for a 25 ltr FV? I.e. Too much headspace giving a chance of infection. Also, when you dry hop, do you put them in at the start or after a few days? Your IPA recipe. Thanks.

Dry hops in after the ferment has calmed down.

Dry hops in after the ferment has calmed down.

Great thanks.

The reason being that lovely hoppyness will be carried off into the air by the carbon dioxide made during fermentation.

Have brewed two of these recipes now. The Black Rye PA (I know!!!) is amazing. Mine,s only been bottled a few days, but I was desperate to try it (no willpower!!) a really flavoursome brew. I did make a hop tea for this 3 days before bottling.The first brew I did was the IPA, in my enthusiasm of my first grain partial, I managed to add too much Caramalt, it tastes great though. I have done another IPA which I scaled up to 20 ltrs and that was bottled yesterday. Thanks Partial to Mash for the great recipes and the write up. I'm just a bit hooked now!!!

Really chuffed that you've tried the recipes and that you like them! Thanks for the feedback.

Plenty more recipes, let me know what you're after.

Hey P to M! Great to see you on here. It's funny that I've just bought some Old Peculiar this afternoon to try against your Black Rye PA, I am shocked to find how watery the OP is against your Recipe. I'll be brewing some more very shortly as I only have 3 bottles left! It really is a crackin brew, my mates love it so a real winner. What was strange was that the IPA brew I did with too much Caramalt by accident turned out very very nice, in fact very similar to a local micro brewery,s favourite.Thanks again mate.

I devised that black rye recipe myself, was delighted how well it turned out. Not many people have tasted it!

I really like caramalt in pales ans IPAs. And vary the amount. I'll post some more partial recipes here when I get chance.

Looking forward to more of your recipes. I've done a couple of 13ltr AG's too which is good as the DME is quite dear. Anything you have with a good amount of Caramalt will be good for me! Cheers.

Yes I am doing 10 litre AG batches myself, as well as occasional larger partial mash batches. I think a kg of DME isn't prohibitive though, my LHBS does it for £6 and I can get it a bit cheaper online when I do a bulk order. AG brews are beautifully inexpensive though, for sure, and I manage to do 10 litres in a 15 litre stockpot. My latest partial mashes have been around 20 litres - I do a 10 litre AG brew and add extract at the end, additional hops to the boil, and cold water in the FV.

No, DME isn't that bad. I just meant that doing a small batch in my 15 ltr pot is possible/cheaper with just grains. I understand your point about using it and liquering back though, great way for me to get a large batch of Black Rye PA. I have some left, about 2kgs, from my bulk order from MM.

Here's one I made earlier that went down well:

ALL Grain 12.5 Litre:
Original Gravity (OG): 1.046
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.77 %
Bitterness (IBU): 30.5
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 65
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

2.000 kg Maris Otter Malt
0.250 kg Dextrose
0.200 kg Caramalt
0.100 kg Torrified Wheat
0.030 kg Chocolate

14.0 g Challenger Leaf (8.9%) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
14.0 g Bobek Leaf (4%) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
14.0 g Bobek Leaf (4%) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)

3 g Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
Single step Infusion at 67°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at approx 18°C with Safale US-05

25 Litre PARTIAL MASH version: OG 1044 ABV 4.6%
Make the above AG, but double the hops, Dex, Caramalt, TW and Choc, and add 1kg light DME at flameout.

This one is loosely based on Orkney Dark Island:

12 litre ALL GRAIN:
Batch Size (L): 12.0
Original Gravity (OG): 1.049
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.83 %
Bitterness (IBU): 35.7
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

2.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (79.21%)
0.225 kg Brown Sugar, Light (8.91%)
0.150 kg Wheat Malt (5.94%)
0.075 kg Chocolate (2.97%)
0.075 kg Caramalt or Crystal 20 (2.97%)

14.0 g Challenger Leaf (8.9% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
7.0 g Cascade Leaf (9.2% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
14.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (6.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
14.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (6.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (0.6 g/L)
3.0 g Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 67°C for 75 Minutes.
Fermented at 18-20°C with Mauribrew Ale 514


24 Litre PARTIAL MASH version:
As above, but double the sugar, wheat malt, choc and pale crystal, and the hops, and add 1.2kg light DME.

I called this one Black Stuff and it was good:

12 Litre ALL GRAIN version:
Original Gravity (OG): 1.053
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.07 %
Bitterness (IBU): 43.8
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

2.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (72.73%)
0.170 kg Crystal 120 Dark (6.18%)
0.170 kg Crystal 75 (6.18%)
0.170 kg Wheat Malt (6.18%)
0.120 kg Black Malt (4.36%)
0.120 kg Chocolate (4.36%)

14.0 g Chinook Leaf (12.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.2 g/L)
14.0 g Brewers Gold Leaf (6.9% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (1.2 g/L)

Single step Infusion at 67°C for 75 Minutes.
Fermented at 18°C with Safale S-04

24 Litre PARTIAL MASH version:
As above, but double the crystal, wheat, black and choc, double the hops, and add 1.3kg light DME.

Some great looking recipes there mate, thanks, will get on with one soon. I have 2 brews brewing at the mo. So when there's space in my fermenting cupboard it'll be done. Thanks for taking the time to post.

Rob.

This thread is looking really good! Good work Partial and Robdob

I strongly recommend anyone to try the Black Rye PA recipe, it's really good.
I will do these new ones but Bobek hops are a new one to me. Ah, just found them on MM's site.