Move from Extract to Mini-Mash

Steep crushed grains (base malt for diastatic power and other malts for additional flavors/texture) in muslin sack in 148 to 160 F water using 1.0 to 2.0 qt of water/lb of grain (sparging optional). Make up remainder of fermentables with extra light DME or LME.
= mini/partial mash

Not too different from Extract + Steeping and not worth its own book. Read about all grain brewing for principles of mashing and use extract to make up remaining source of fermentable sugar. Additionally there is brew in a bag brewing which puts all the grain in a muslin bag in a single vessel at a much higher water to grain ratio than mentioned above. It works well.

 

^^^^ THIS. You don't need to over complicate it. Process-wise, you're just increasing your steep time from 15 minutes to about an hour. The same 150-155F temp is fine. Your grains will be more diverse that go into the muslin bag/paint strainer bag. Your bag MUST contain base malt.

 

OOOOOOR you could start looking at the Boil in a bag method which is an all grain method without all of the additional equipment. You just need a bigger boil pot ( 8-10 gallons ) and a big ass strainer to sparge if you choose to do so. Im looking at this method right now .. pretty cool. Check out some youtube videos... many people on here will probably have opinions on the method along with the pros and cons.

 

I was doing partial mash with extract for awhile. I would sub out most of the base malt for lme, and use some 6row to convert my specialty grains. BOOM, minimash gravy. Like everyone else said, get solid with the principles of mashing, and you're golden.

 

The ease of my breaking into mini-mashing, and the success of those beers is what got me into all grain. It's not that hard. Don't fear the grains.

There are some full procedures on my blog, but you really need to develop your own for your own equipment and situation.

Always use some base malt. That way you're never too worried about whether your specialty grains need mashing or can be steeped. Don't skimp on the base malt or the grains, seriously, it's easier than you think. At one point I did a mini-mash with over five pounds of grains. That's when I decided to just build a mash tun and be done with it.

Oh, and full boil. Yes.

 

For a full boil, you need a bigger pot than the volume of the wort you want to boil. Otherwise it will boil over. Also, for a 5 gallon batch, you need more than 5 gallons of wort, because a significant amount of it will boil off. (This is true for partial boils as well as full boils, i.e. the amount that went into the kettle, plus the top off water, will be more than 5 gallons.)

 

EDIT: (LOL, vikeman says in two sentences what I spend all day saying)

Full boil means boiling every bit of your wort and not adding any top-off water. You cannot boil five gallons of wort in a five gallon pot. For one thing, you will boil off some of the liquid as steam, so to get five gallons into the fermenter, you need to start with 6+ gallons. Also, you will boil-over if you don't leave some space at the top of the pot. I used to use a five gallon pot, and to accommodate a full boil I would make 3.5 gallon batches. This worked well, BTW, there's nothing that says you have to make five gallon batches. Many of us just make five gallon batches because it's convenient for the typical sized equipment that's commonly found for sale. I still use the pot too, I use it to heat up the sparge water in my five gallon system. When my upgrade to ten gallons at my bro's house is complete, I will still use the pot for Mr Beer sized test batches at my house.

Full boils make better beer for a variety of reasons (I'm not going to list them, but it's true). If you aren't doing full boils already, I would highly recommend that you start doing so. You can make up to 3.5 gallon batches with your pot*, IMO. Another option would be to split your boil into two pots (split up the hops too). Yet another option is the turkey fryer option, one which I use and it works great. It came with a pot plenty big enough to do 5 gallon batches (boil volume easily 6.5 gallons, although boil-overs can still occur, so you still need to pay attention). Since most stove-tops aren't really powerful enough to do a full boil on 6+ gallons of wort, moving outside might be a good option. Make sure whatever you do that you get a good rolling boil without a lid. A lid can help get it up to temperature, but you want to boil without the lid (blows off DMS, I believe).

*even then, you will need to start with about 4-4.2 gallons of wort, and it's easy to boil-over, so you must pay attention and be careful. 3 gallon batches would give you a little more leeway.

 

You can split your entire wort between two pots and boil them. It's pretty convenient, actually, if you are brewing on a stovetop with two decent burners. This will give you the benefits of a full boil. This is the essence of my AG process. Even if you stick with extract beers, I think it is useful to do figure out a way to do full boils.

 

Since I like trying so many different styles of beer .. I have decided I will start doing 2.5 gallon batches and boil in a bag method with a cooler for a mash tun .. Still going to sparge the grains from a large strainer and I wont need to buy an additional equipment since the total boil can fit in my current 5 gallon pot. In my opinion I am going to move to all grain with smaller batches for the additional cost of a large bag that will fit in my cooler.. Move to all grain is now complete.

 

These two are good...
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/
http://morebeer.com/themes/morewinepro/mmpdfs/mb/MiniMashBrewing.pdf

 

Any brewing software will tell you that, but roughly 4# DME = 5# LME = 6.5# Base Grain

 

It really depends on the type of grains, and on mash efficiency you're getting. C&P'd from an old post...

Depends on what you would assume the mash efficiency for the all grain recipe to be. Let's say it's 75%. And say your pale malt has 36 points per pound per gallon (PPG) theoretical potential.

75% x 36 = 27 PPG

Pale LME is about 36 PPG (depending on brand).
Pale DME is about 44 PPG (depending on brand).

So your rule of thumb for LME would be 27/36 = .75
And your rule of thumb for DME would be 27/44 = .61

But again, the big factor here is your assumed mash efficiency for the grain.

 

Quick threadjack question - I know full boil is preferable, but what do you do if you overshoot your OG by quite a bit because of an unexpectedly high efficiency?

 

Add hops.

 

What if you don't make IPAs because you don't particularly care for them?

 

Pitch more yeast. Other than that, let it ride. One of my favorite beers was a happy accident as I went from 65% efficiency to 85% due to grain crush and proper recirculation. I still brew it the "accidental" way to this day.