A few weeks ago I posted that I was going to step away from the brew sculpture and conical fermenter and do an extract batch in a bucket. Well since then I have done 2 more partial mash brews and it has been really enjoyable.
I don't have a ton of time these days and when I do an all-grain batch it takes a long time - on most days to much time. Still, I have that brewing itch just about every weekend and partial mash seems to be the answer. This weekend I came home from work on Friday, put the kids to bed and then knocked out an ESB recipe that I had been working on. If I had to build this into my all-grain schedule it would be a long time before I got to it.
In some ways I think I owe my rediscovery of partial mash to Brewing TV. I have been inspired seeing those guys do an extract one week then all-grain the next...
To sum up, if I have seven hours to burn on a Saturday - I'm breaking out the full set of gear, but now I have given myself the option to knock out an extract batch in three hours on a thursday night before bed if I want to and that is a lot of fun too!