Mini mash

[SchemieRadge]

I was reading in the thread above about using some pale malt to do a mini mash when you want to use a grain that must be mashed in an extract recipe... I'd never thought of doing that - it appeals since I don't want to get into mashing large amounts of grain just yet.

As an example I want to do a stout with 3kg LME, 400g roast barley & 400g flaked barley. I'd been ignoring the 400g flaked barley in the recipe because you need to mash that(? I think).

Can someone with a bigger brain than me explain how I'd work out what is the smallest mash size I can do based on the fact I have 400g of grain which requires mashing? And I believe I'd need to add pale malt to do a mash.. how do I work out how much?

Hope that makes sense..!

[stitch]

I think pale malt can convert the same amount again of another grain. So 400g pale malt will convert itself and 400g flaked barley. Might be best to use a bit more though.

[SchemieRadge]

Cool... so if I decided I was going to do a minimash with both the roasted barley & flaked barley, would I still only need around 400g of pale malt since the roasted barley doesn't need converting.. or should I stick to 800g pale to be consistent?

Also am I right in thinking it is 2.5L water per kg of grain?

[stitch]

I'm not really sure. I would probably go for 800g pale malt.

To be honest I never worked out how to do mini-mashes, I went from extract with steeped grains to all-grain.

Yeah anywhere from 2 to 3 litres of water per kilo of grain, it doesn't matter too much.

[SchemieRadge]

Can I check I'm going to do vaguely the right thing with this next brew.

I read you need 30 Lintner diastatic power to self convert grain..

So for the grain part of my stout recipe :
400g roast barley 0 Lintner
400g flaked barley 0L
250 Special B 0L
1000g Maris Otter 120L

That works out as for the batch (120+0+0+0)/2.05(total weight) = 58L so it should be enough to convert everything.

I've read that the lower the diastatic power the longer mash you need... not sure if I need to worry about this.

If I line a stock pot with voile, using 6L water and mash these grains for 60min at ~68C.. then throw some more water through the grain in a colander as a sparge.. then I shouldn't be too far off the mark?

(The recipe calls for another 2kg of extract so I have plenty of room to adjust gravity if my efficiency is bad).