Cold-steep Roast Grains

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Happywanderer

Happywanderer

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Ok -

So I've been reading lately about the practice of cold steeping roast and specialty grains in an AG batch to do 2 things:

1) Keep mash pH where it needs to be
2) Reduce "harshness" from mashing roast grains

Need some best practice advice as I will need to do this for my next brew (no access to pickling lime).

1) Steeping mash thickness? I've read 1gal/lb .. I've read 2qt/lb... I've read 3.2qt/lb... pretty wild variety here.

2) Impact on OG? I am assuming pre-boil gravity will change wildly. How does cold-steeping effect OG (post-boil gravity).

3) RO water or tap (treated with Campden)?

4) Add to primary mash, add to boil at 60mins, add to boil at 10mins, add to fermenter?
 
Happywanderer said:
Ok -

So I've been reading lately about the practice of cold steeping roast and specialty grains in an AG batch to do 2 things:

1) Keep mash pH where it needs to be
2) Reduce "harshness" from mashing roast grains

Need some best practice advice as I will need to do this for my next brew (no access to pickling lime).

1) Steeping mash thickness? I've read 1gal/lb .. I've read 2qt/lb... I've read 3.2qt/lb... pretty wild variety here.

2) Impact on OG? I am assuming pre-boil gravity will change wildly. How does cold-steeping effect OG (post-boil gravity).

3) RO water or tap (treated with Campden)?

4) Add to primary mash, add to boil at 60mins, add to boil at 10mins, add to fermenter?
Click to expand...

1) I've usually done 2 qts/lb and have had success with this when steeped over night. I usually subtract 2 qts from my water volume when doing the steep.
2) OG shouldn't change wildly if you don't use a ton of water. Dark malts are mostly unfermentable, so your OG isn't going to increase. Again, account for the water you use for this beforehand, and you should be fine.
3) I would use RO water, but my tap water is a mess. Whatever you brew with should be fine. It isn't enough water to matter a lot as far as chemistry, plus you'll be adding it...
4) to the boil at 10 minutes. This will sanitize it.
 
I have cold steeped quite a few times. But it's basically just for color. I once steed 1 pound of black patent in 2 gallons of ice water for a black ipa for 1.5 hours.
Blacker than black black. But if you closed your eyes you would have never known it was there.

It's a lot of screwing around for color when some midnight wheat would have done the same thing with no extra work
 
You can also just add them at mash out for the same effect. I've been doing that for years. Smooth roastyness without any harshness.
 

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