Advice on mini mash

Rairch

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I've recently got back into brewing and enjoying the mini mash method as it fits into a hectic week schedule quite well.

Banged out a Malt Miller APA kit and just bottled their liquid punk clone.

APA 2 weeks old and fridge for 2 days... Nice drop. Bit more time and should be alreet.

Looking to do a few other styles and after some advice really.

Read around and seen some good all grain to partial mash conversions I could use. For a 21L batch, looking to mash say 1kg grain and add 3kg light LME for a rough 5% ale.
Once mash is a go, into a preheated oven she goes. Kept temp very well over the hour.

Next brew day will be an imperial stout plus some form of hoppy red ale.

For the red ale I'm looking to mash:
500g CaraRed
250g Crystal
60g (ish) malted barley
Plus 3kg light LME.

Seems possible to keep the light LME and just mash speciality grains and 1/2 hour boil to create a broad range of styles.

So, question time:
Does anyone regularly brew this way, and if so, what advice / tips have you got to aid a fellow mini masher on his journey?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers
 
I did a few mini mashes when transitioning between extract and all grain brewing. I found that it takes just as long as an all grain brew, gives you less control over the final product and costs more. The only negative I found to going straight to all grain was the cost of a larger mash tun and kettle.
 
I would increase the 2-row malt from 60g to something around 500 grams. 60g just does not provide enough diastatic enzymes to convert the crystal and cara malts. Those malts don’t have any enzymes for conversion.
 
I've recently got back into brewing and enjoying the mini mash method as it fits into a hectic week schedule quite well.

Banged out a Malt Miller APA kit and just bottled their liquid punk clone.

APA 2 weeks old and fridge for 2 days... Nice drop. Bit more time and should be alreet.

Looking to do a few other styles and after some advice really.

Read around and seen some good all grain to partial mash conversions I could use. For a 21L batch, looking to mash say 1kg grain and add 3kg light LME for a rough 5% ale.
Once mash is a go, into a preheated oven she goes. Kept temp very well over the hour.

Next brew day will be an imperial stout plus some form of hoppy red ale.

For the red ale I'm looking to mash:
500g CaraRed
250g Crystal
60g (ish) malted barley
Plus 3kg light LME.

Seems possible to keep the light LME and just mash speciality grains and 1/2 hour boil to create a broad range of styles.

So, question time:
Does anyone regularly brew this way, and if so, what advice / tips have you got to aid a fellow mini masher on his journey?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers
Bubba is right: It won't save you time. You still have to rest the mini-mash for 60 minutes, same time as it takes to rest a full mash. Partial mash conversion efficiency is generally about 50%, although you might get more (or less) out of it depending on how you conduct the mash and how well you can control the temperatures. I only see one problem: None of the malts you mention have any diastatic powder, except for the malted barley and there's not nearly enough of that to make a difference (you can make that extract up with LME without the need for a mini-mash). The remaining grains can be steeped.

I started with extract-steep recipes and you can make great beer that way. As to boil length, extract has already been boiled so anything more than a few minutes of boil to sanitize the wort is for hop conversion. Take the short boil time into account when you calculate your recipe and you'll be fine with this procedure.

Mini-mash is when you're using grains that actually need to be converted such as pale malts, Munich, Vienna and so forth. Looks like the procedure you have in mind is fine for mini-mashing.

You can steep the grains in water or reconstituted extract, your choice. Some think extract makes a better wort.
 
I would increase the 2-row malt from 60g to something around 500 grams. 60g just does not provide enough diastatic enzymes to convert the crystal and cara malts. Those malts don’t have any enzymes for conversion.

I need to disagree with you Bubba. the Starches in Crystal and Caramel malts were converted during the stewing process. The only conversion going on in this recipe is the self conversion of the malted barley.
 
Thanks for all the quick responses.
Some great advice, appreciated it.
I'll get reading on conversion and sort a better recipe out by checking out the partial mash recipes on here.
Will stick to the 2 hour brew days for a while, then look to step up later in the year.
 
I need to disagree with you Bubba. the Starches in Crystal and Caramel malts were converted during the stewing process. The only conversion going on in this recipe is the self conversion of the malted barley.
Crystal malts can be steeped. However, when mashed, a Crystal 60 will yield 25 ppg as opposed to about 18 mph if steeped. There's a good table in the Palmer book with this data.
 
Even if this is correct, it's hardly worth the process for someone that wants a 2 hour brew day. Pretty close to the point of diminishing returns, IMO. Can you refer to which of Palmer's books and where this data comes from?
 
Even if this is correct, it's hardly worth the process for someone that wants a 2 hour brew day. Pretty close to the point of diminishing returns, IMO. Can you refer to which of Palmer's books and where this data comes from?
Yes, it's in "How to Brew", chapter 18.

I prefer to do a mini-mash when making an extract batch. It takes about the same time as steeping.
 
Thanks. Must have missed that. Will reread the chapter.
 

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