Partial Boil with All Grain (May not be what you think)

[cearum]

I'm looking to save myself from brewing outside during the winter (I'm lazy and no garage). I was thinking of making a light ale, around 2.5%. I figure I don't need to boil all the water at once so then I can use my stove. I could mash with half the water and get a stronger wort, then dilute with water in the fermenter. The end result should be around O.G. 1.029 but the half size says around ~1.06X. Does anyone else see a flaw in my logic/reasoning?

You might be thinking, just do an extract boil, well I have all these grains so it would essentially cost me just the yeast and hops. Which I might already have the hops, so just the yeast.

 

[Conservidave]

Certainly not a traditional method buy hey, necessity is the mother of invention and in the end you still have beer

 

[LarryBrewer]

Use good quality water to top off with.

2.5% ABV is pretty low, so be extra careful with sanitization during racking / packaging.

 

[Nosybear]

I'm looking to save myself from brewing outside during the winter (I'm lazy and no garage). I was thinking of making a light ale, around 2.5%. I figure I don't need to boil all the water at once so then I can use my stove. I could mash with half the water and get a stronger wort, then dilute with water in the fermenter.

I do very big partial mashes in a 5 Gal cooler then partial boils (3.5 - 4 gal) on the kitchen stove. Works fine! A 2.5 ABV ale seems very weak - even a Colorado supermarket beer is 3.2! I've mashed up to 9# of grain in my tricked-out Igloo, augmented with malt extract (my homebrew shop goes through it very quickly) and gotten upwards of 8% beers. My next brew will be a Grodziskie at around 3.8% ABV and It'll be an all-grain batch. Or you could add some sugars and get a light-bodied ale of fairly high ABV. The partial boil method works well. I, too, am waiting for more warmth before using the banjo cooker outside but while I wait, the partial method produces some really good (as in award-winning) beers.