boydak

Recipes 

I am an extract brewer who uses specialty grains. Can someone tell me the difference between specialty and base?

Milled and unmilled?

Why must i mash some and just steep others?

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Beer Wench Brewing Co.

Clonefarmer

Recipes 

Base grains need to have the starches converted to sugar during a mash.
Specialty grains just need to be steeped to remove flavors.

Grains store much longer whole, usually bulk grain is whole and needs to be milled at home.
Milled is crushed and ready for use.

This list show what grains need to be mashed Malts Chart

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"Just remember Scooty Puff Jr. sucks!"....Philip J. Fry

boydak

Recipes 

So a base grain that has been milled still needs to be mashed to convert the starch to useable sugars?

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Beer Wench Brewing Co.

llazy_llama

Recipes 

Yep.

67890

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jescholler

Recipes 

Awesome list Clonefarmer! I'll be using that extensively in the future.

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Harsh Bitterness Experiment

Primary: Not until fall :(
Bottle: English Barleywine, Bird Dog Brown (ABA), Skull Splitter IV APA
On Deck:

boydak

Recipes 

Some of the base grains on the above list come in the kits from AHS and the directions say to steep?

Am I just adding startch?

__________________
Beer Wench Brewing Co.

Clonefarmer

Recipes 

Steeping at 155F will convert some of the starches. Since almost all of the fermentables in a steeping kit come from extract it's not as crucial to do a proper mash and sparge. As you get more base grain like in a partial mash or all grain it becomes more important to mash and sparge properly to get fermentables.

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"Just remember Scooty Puff Jr. sucks!"....Philip J. Fry