ayoungrad

Recipes 

That sounds more to me like what happens with crystal malts. There is definitely some "burning" of the grain that goes on with roasted malts. But, given what you have said, maybe its only to the husk of the grain?

Apoxbrew

Recipes 

the rest of the process doesn't have anything to do with the efficiency of the cold-steeped wort because it's an entirely separate volume of wort from the main volume.

however, for those curious, here was my entire process:

Friday Night - boil 2.5 gallons of water, cool, add 5lbs dark grains, cold-steep for 36 hours.

Sunday Morning - Mash 21lbs of grain (149 for 90 minutes). Collect wort from mash as normal. Boil for 60 minutes adding hop additions at various times throughout boil. At 30 minutes, add cold-steeped wort to main wort and continue to boil for remaining 30 minutes. Cool as usual, rack to carboy, and pitch yeast.

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Apocalypse Brewing
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On Tap - The Tunguska Event, Cream Ale
On Tap - Devastated Sky, CDA
On Tap - Fallow Fields, Autumn Ale
On Tap - East Creek Sour Wheat, Sour Wheat Ale
Fermenting - Nothing :(

Apoxbrew

Recipes 

i did not use iodine... so your theory is a very real possibility! thanks!!

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Apocalypse Brewing
Go ahead, raise a pint and embrace the chaos...

BrewNano - Exploring Nano-Breweries, One Interview At A Time

On Tap - The Tunguska Event, Cream Ale
On Tap - Devastated Sky, CDA
On Tap - Fallow Fields, Autumn Ale
On Tap - East Creek Sour Wheat, Sour Wheat Ale
Fermenting - Nothing :(

Northcalais40

Recipes 

So what volume of wort did you end up with? 26 lbs of grain yields ~936 potential gravity points. Divide by your volume in gallons to get a OG at ~100% efficiency. Divide your measured OG by this and you'll get a reasonable approximation of the brewhouse efficiency. If it is more than 60%, then yes this method is reasonably efficient.

hopsalot

Recipes 

Interesting, post your results

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ChuckO

Recipes 

Might be interesting to find the SG of the steeped grains only, before adding it to the boil.

TromboneGuy

Recipes 

That's what he said was at 1050 in the OP.

rcrabb22

Recipes 

This technique is discussed in Gordon Strong's book, Brewing Better Beer on page 43.