1st Partial Mash and efficiency

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Covrich

Covrich

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Had my first go at a partial mash today it was based on a Hobgoblin clone

2.5kg maris otter
1.5KG of DME
130gr chocolate malt
200gr carapils malt
200 gram crystal

fuggles and styrian hops

I perhaps was a bit OTT with my actual mash QTY since I only have a 15 liter pot.. I put the approx 3KG grain in about 8 liter of water which I mashed at about 69-66ºc.. for 60 mins

I then pulled the bag and let it drain and sat the bag in about 5 liters of hotter water 79 ish for 10 minutes which I again drained and added to the sparged water to the wort which I was at the time bringing up to boil.. I then .. slung the grains.. boiled with hop additions as per instructions.. at the end of boil I added my DME although I think i lost a bit as it can get a bit sticky!!

cooled and then racked with cold water..

Using brew mate it said the OG shoudl have been about 1052 but I was about 1045..

Not too disappointed at its my first go and the wort actually tasted really good.

I just wondered if I did something wrong perhaps or ways I could improve efficiency in furture (perhaps a larger pot so not quite as thick mash). did the thick mash hinder it perhaps.. and shoudl I have sparged a second time and longer..

I must admit I did feel a touch pressured for time I tried not to cut corners but perhaps I should have been a bit more patient.. I tried not to do anything like squeeze the bag ect..

Thanks for any advice in advanced
 
Brewmate sets an efficiency which not everyone achieves. You can alter that figure.

That said, the main way I can suggest to improve your efficiency is to use more sparge water. 5 Litres is not much, using more will definitely help. The mash converts the sugars but leaves a lot behind, sparging rinses the sugars out and needs sufficient water to do the job effectively.

If you mashed with 8 and sparged with 5 your boil will have started with about 10 litres. You could have used a lot more, unless your boil pot is not big enough. If so, you could put some in another pan.
 
Yes You're right.. I didn't realise the grain took on so much water after I took the bag out.. so with that in mind I didn't anticipate the amount to sparge, I could have easily added a couple more liters to the sparge water maybe I should get a bigger pot though and then I could sparge in the 15 liter pot.

How much water would you recommend I sparge with that sort of grain and did I use perhaps too much for a 15 litre pot?

Thanks very much

Regardless I seem to have made a decent beer which I hope will come good.
 
Yes the beer will be fine.

I sparge in another pot, but you could use a bucket or something. Sparge with as much water as you can to make your wort up to the amount you can boil. You will lose approx a litre per kg of grain.

So if you mash with 8 litres, that leaves about 5. You could boil 13 in your 15 litre pot so sparge with 8. More would be better but 8 is decent. You can add DME if your OG is below target.
 
Thanks, useful information and things to be learnt..

Will probably invest in a second pot also Perhaps a bigger one to allow a less thick mash and use my 15l as a large sparge pot.
 
pintofmild said:
Hi chaps,

Also a longer mash wont hurt, I leave mine for a couple of hours and achieve 80%+ extraction rate.

Regards
Click to expand...

Now I know how it works ect I may well do that.. I thought I would constantly have to micromanage the temp but I didn't, as it is I can mash and leave it (I have a wireless thermomemter) which means I can probably mash before I kick the kids to bed well in advanced so I dont have to worry about a time schedule
 

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