Could I make a simple Ale by only partial Mashing and not using additional liquid or dry extract?
If so, how much base malt would I need to replicate a 6lb jug or liquid extract?
I have a bunch of odds n ends and want to make a cheap beer, but if i could get away with PM the base malt instead of spending 20 bucks on a jug of extract id like to give it a shot
What volume are you able to boil?
6lb of LME is ~1.042 at 5 gallons.
9.5lbs of 2row is ~1.040 at 65% efficiency and 5 gallons. You need ~4 gallons of space to mash 9.5lbs of grain. And a big enough pot to boil 6+ gallons of liquid.
You can run some numbers at tastybrew.com
I have a 5 gal cooler dedicated to partial mashing…ive done several of the NB PM kits
I also can do full 5 gal boils
Looks like you are able to do some medium gravity AG brews then.
http://rackers.org/calcs.shtml/The calculator on the above site shows that you can mash 14lbs of grain in ~4.6 gallons of space at a 1qt/1lb ratio. 14lbs is ~1.060 OG at 65% efficiency.
12lbs is 4.75 gallons at 1.25qt/1lb and about 1.052 OG. 12lbs may be pushing it. Depends if the lid is included in the volume of the cooler.
So when you say i can do smaller AG batches…do you mean that if i can fit it in my mash tun i can go from there…treat it like a PM brew except there is no extract to add?
Thanks
Yes, looks like most of the NB kits are below 13lbs of grain. Things may be a tight fit until you figure out how much room there is in the cooler.
If you have not read it before, Denny has a good writeup on batch sparging.
http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/If you need some guidance with water amounts, MashWater 3.3 is helpful.
http://gnipsel.com/beer/software/beer-software.htmlIf you know of any AG brewers, sitting in on a brewday is always helpful. Remember, this to will be beer. And it’s not as difficult as we think.
Sure, but then it’s an all-grain beer. 
Not necessarily. There’s no reason you can’t do a partial-boil AG batch, as long as you’re willing to take the efficiency hit.
