I like gray areas. It’s hard for me to respond to a question without qualifying my answer with “Well, it depends…” Were I ever to run for public office (and trust me when I say this will never happen), such uncertainty on my part would no doubt be among my opponent’s most effective weapons. I simply don’t see most things in black and white.
This is probably why I’m so partial to partial-mash brewing. Straddling the line between all-grain and extract-with-specialty-grain approaches, partial-mash is a hybrid method that offers the convenience of extract brewing with many of the benefits of an all-grain brew day.
The partial-mash technique involves nothing more than conducting a small mash, the runoff of which is added to an extract-based batch. Malt extract supplies most of the fermentable sugars, while the miniature mash delivers malt complexity and, in some cases, characteristics that extract and specialty grains alone cannot achieve.