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kepling5001 · 10-04-2012, 03:13 AM

Long story short I made my first beer kit yesterday that was a kit for an stout. The directions (I know I shouldn't have even looked at them) said to put the steeping grains that came with the kit into a Muslim bag and keep it in until right before the boil...so I did that. I finished the boil, cooled it down, pitched the yeast, took a reading with the hydrometer and was pretty much right on (1.055). The beer is now bubbling happily in my swamp cooler at around a steady 65 degrees. I am no expert but the smell does smell a little bitter maybe dry?.. but I'm guessing this is the hops I added right at boil and more I added at 55 mins into the 60 min boil. I read that you aren't supposed to steep those grains over 170...so I guess my question is how bad is my beer going to turn out? Thanks guys for any help

Realized this actually wasn't that short lol oh well

**menerdari** · 10-04-2012, 03:17 AM

Time will tell, but being as it is in a stout you may not be able to tell.

kylevester · 10-04-2012, 03:20 AM

Wait, the directions said to put your grains in and heat the water and then take them out right before the boil? Are you sure? If so, never buy from them again.

You probably pulled out a lot of tannins and will have a very roasty and likely bitter stout. The bitterness will be from the grains if you heated them up all the way to 200+ deg.

Could you post the whole recipe?

Cheepbeer · 10-04-2012, 03:22 AM

I left grains in too long too... on purpose.... but you seem to have done the right thing by steeping and removing them before the boil.... I dont get the problem

**beergolf** · 10-04-2012, 03:26 AM

Time will tell.It being a stout. you may be OK.

But that muslim bag may hurt the beer..........."...

kylevester · 10-04-2012, 03:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheepbeer

I left grains in too long too... on purpose.... but you seem to have done the right thing by steeping and removing them before the boil.... I dont get the problem

Big difference in steeping, say 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes, at 165ish and leaving the grains in while heating to boil and removing right before hand. The latter is what I took his post as saying.

Steeping longer at appropriate temps will pull more color and flavor out, but tannin extraction is not impacted much. Too high of a temp pulls those bitter compounds out of grains and makes for an unpleasant beer.

kepling5001 · 10-04-2012, 03:27 AM

The full recipe is at http://www.homebrewers.com/category/aatdvarks.beermakinginstructions/

It says

1. Fill your brewpot with 2.5 gallons of water. Place the specialty grains inside a muslin bag & tie. Add the bag to the brewpot. Turn on the heat. Remove the bag just before the water boils. Discard the grain bag.
2. Turn off the heat and add all of your liquid and/or dry malt extract to the brewpot while stirring. If adding other sugars, (i.e. honey, brown sugar, malto-dextrin, Belgian candi sugar, rice syrup, corn syrup) add them now. Do not add priming

kylevester · 10-04-2012, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kepling5001

The full recipe is at http://www.homebrewers.com/category/aatdvarks.beermakinginstructions/

It says

1. Fill your brewpot with 2.5 gallons of water. Place the specialty grains inside a muslin bag & tie. Add the bag to the brewpot. Turn on the heat. Remove the bag just before the water boils. Discard the grain bag.
2. Turn off the heat and add all of your liquid and/or dry malt extract to the brewpot while stirring. If adding other sugars, (i.e. honey, brown sugar, malto-dextrin, Belgian candi sugar, rice syrup, corn syrup) add them now. Do not add priming

Yeah, I've never seen that before. Follow How To Brew by John Palmer or posts here on standard mini-mash techniques.

I hope it turns out good for you. Good luck!

kepling5001 · 10-04-2012, 03:38 AM

The steeping grains were probaly in the pot for maybe 20 mins and the water wasn't boiling just yet when I took them out but it was pretty close

. How much damage will these tannins do and should I dump and restart or just let it go and see what I get?

Frodo · 10-04-2012, 03:42 AM

I boiled a whole pound of grains in my boil kettle once (couldn't figure out how to get them out, using a "new" idea I had that wasn't thought through), and didn't notice a single negative result in the finished beer. I wouldn't purposely do it again, but I think tannin extraction from high temps with a fairly minor amount of grain is wayyy overrated.

edit: just to be clear, I BOILED THEM FOR 60 MINUTES in the boil - didn't see the tannin extraction boogyman after it.