Steeping Carapils
 

I'm using carapils for the first time on my IPA that I will be brewing next week and recently saw on howtobrew.com that this grain must be mashed. The problem is that AHS mixes my grains in one muslin bag so I have 8oz of carapils mixed with 1lb of my crystal 20L. Will I get any of the good stuff out of carapils if I steep them? Or do I have to learn how to mash the whole bag :drunk:

anybody? steeping carapils? yay or nay?

You can steep both Carapils and Crystal

You can steep carapils, but you'll have a heap of unconverted starch in the wort. Crystal, you'll get about 1/2 the sugars steeping as you would mashing. I'd find 2 pounds of 2-row and do a mini-mash.

Can I do a mini mash with just the crystal and carapils? Or do I need the 2-row

To do a true mini mash you need the 2-row. Carapils and crystal malts have no enzymes to convert. You need the enzymes from the 2-row or else its just steeping.

I think you could use a diastatic malt extract to convert the starches. Not sure how effective it is...

How about adding powdered Amylase enzyme to the mini-mash?

FYI:

I'll have to dig the article up, but I believe it was from BYO (maybe "ask the wizard"?)

Anyway, the article stated that there is some general confusion in the homebrewing world about what CaraPils actually is, but that you can simply look at the name to figure it out.

Cara = Cara(mel) = Crystal
Pils = Pils(ner) = light colored malt

Essentially, CaraPils is just a VERY light colored caramel/crystal malt. Thus, it does not need to be mashed with 2-row.

Anyway, just my $0.02... if you go looking around, you'll quickly find resources that say it does need to be mashed.


-walker

This is what I think also