This is an overview of my first time experimenting with partial mash brewing, with a single infusion mash and batch sparge.  The equipment consists of little more than my 2 gallon insulated mash/lauter tun and my remote-probe thermometer.  I was also experimenting with brewing software for the first time, rather than just following someone else's recipe - I used the free trial of Beer Smith, which calculated the strike water temperatures for me, and told me how much water to use for mash and sparge.

For this first try (a hefeweizen), I mashed a bit over 3 pounds of grain - approximately 1lb Pilsener, 1lb Vienna, 1/2lb Wheat Malt, and 1/2 lb Torrified Wheat.  These were all ground at the local homebrew shop, so they went straight into the MLT.  

Three pounds of grain in the MLT

First step is heating the strike water for mashing.  To reach a target of 154F when mashed in, the water was heated to 165F, as calculated by Beer Smith.  This was ridiculously easy with the thermometer I use, I just set the target temp to 165 and it beeps when the temperature is reached. 

Heating the strike water

Then I poured it into the MLT with the grain, screwed on the lid, stuck the thermometer probe down through the pour spout on the lid, and closed it gently against the wire.  

Mashing

The mash-in temperature ended up being 155F - I did end up using about 1 cup more water than Beer Smith instructed, so I'd say it's pretty close, considering.  I set the thermometer's built-in timer for 1 hour and walked away.

After 30 minutes, the temperature had fallen to 151F, a 4 degree drop.  It was pretty obvious that the lid was mainly to blame, because it's the only uninsulated part of the cooler, and it was noticeably warm to the touch.  I put a towel over the top at that point, and over the remaining 30 minutes its temperature only dropped 2 degrees.  I think I need to take the time to insulate the lid.

After the mash was complete, I heated the sparge water to 195F.  While it was heating, I drained all the wort from the MLT.  Then I poured in the sparge water - a little over 2 quarts.  I had a few issues here, first was that I started heating the sparge water too late, so the mash had even more time to cool, and second, I didn't mix up the mash at all when I poured in the sparge water.  As a result, the temperature didn't seem very consistent throughout - depending the depth at which I put the thermometer, the temperature ranged from 150 to 170 F.  Not knowing all that much about the process at that point, I just left it that way. 

Finally, after letting it sit for 10 minutes, I again drained the MLT.  That's it, except for cleaning up of course. 

Results

All the collected wort

I measured the specific gravity of the first and second wort.  After temperature correction, the first was 1.076 and the second was 1.068.  I don't know how these numbers stack up to typical values, and I don't know the actual volume of wort I collected because I poured it into a couple of containers of unspecified volume for temporary storage, but I'll measure the volume when I pour it back out to try and calculate the efficiency.

I do know that the conversion was pretty much complete, I tested a sample with a drop of iodine and it didn't turn blue at all, so at the very least, the mashing process worked.