Partial Mash Question

[jonno19]

I am intending to brew a partial mash Robinsons Old Tom using the recipe in Graham Wheeler's book. However I'm only intending to do a 12l brew initially, and i've used the beer engine to work out the quantities for the same. My query is that as the wort has a high OG in the boil i am concerned about getting the right amount of hop utilisation. I am considering only putting in half the malt extract initially then putting the rest in towards the end of the boil. Any comments / recommendations on this would be gratefully received!

[soupdragon]

Hi jonno

Have a read of Graham's posts in this thread viewtopic.php?f=3&t=42263

Seems that your utilisation might not suffer as much as you might think

Cheers Tom

[jonno19]

Thanks Tom,

It's a bit heavy reading, but the way I read it is that in general it seems to be hop utilisation's not affected by OG. I'm wondering if I'm over complicating matters, I should just brew with the ingredients I've got and see what happens. I've adjusted the ingredients to allow for the difference in volumes so we'll see what happens!

Thanks again.

Jonno

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Go with the ingredients you have.

You should really boil all the malt extract for the whole duration.

[soupdragon]

Hi Jonno

Generally speaking you'll make something drinkable with any old ingredients you care to chuck in the pot. I recently did a trial with dried malt extract that I got from work. I sort of knew before hand that it wasn't really brewing grade but it's turned into drinkable beer ( just ). I won't be using it again but non the less the only way to find out was to try it for myself.
As Runwell-Steve says, give it a go with what you've got. At least then you can adjust Graham's recipe to suit your personal taste. If 10 people brewed the same recipe you can guarantee it'd be a fluke if 2 beers came out the same

Cheers Tom

[jonno19]

Thanks lads

With it being my first non-kit brew I wanted to try and make it reasonable. I've got lots of theoretical knowledge but am still lacking a bit on the practical side. Once the Old Tom's in the cask I'm planning on doing a Batemans Victory, but on a full brew length as per Graham Wheeler's book, so hopefully that should be a bit more straight forward.

I'll let you know how I get on. Might be a while though because I think the Old Tom needs a fair bit of conditioning (both in the cask and bottle) and we're not planning on trying it until around Xmas!

All the best for now.

Jonno

[soupdragon]

I bet you try it after a week

Cheers Tom