Gambrinus Honey Malt steep - did I just waste a pound of this?

I was doing an extract with specialty malt steep this weekend and I used a pound of Gambrinus Honey Malt and a half pound of Crystal 20L. I specifically asked the clerk at my LHBS if the Honey Malt had to be mashed and he told me I could steep it. Tonight I was reading the URL="https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malts_Chart"]HBT wiki page malt chart[/URL] and it says that it requires mashing. I steeped the malts in 2.5 gal of plain water at 155° for 30 minutes. So did I just waste the Honey Malt?

It will be ok. You extracted its flavor and all that, and when you're steeping, that's good enough. Honey malt does have some diastatic power. so you probably converted some sugar too with what you steeped at.

You didn't waste anything. You did what you were supposed to do.

It seems like honey malt is one of those grains that needs to be mashed but still makes it into steeping recipes. How many times do you see flaked barley or oats as a steeping grain? They actually need to be co-mashed with a base malt to be converted.

still got flavor/color from it

NB does this too, I believe ... their Cream Ale recipe has Gambrinus honey malt in it if I remember correctly.

I have read up a lot on this because I used a half pound of it in my last brew which was a baltic honey porter.

I am pretty sure you can steep it. Everywhere I read pretty much said its steepable. Sometimes people say its only mashable... it's just one of those things.

You can steep any grain and get the aroma/flavor/color. Some cases, you end up with a lot of starch as well. Some grains there isn't anything to be gained by mashing, but to consider them to be to only steeping grains isn't right. Honey malt isn't a problem.

dotnetdotcom said:

I steeped the malts in 2.5 gal of plain water at 155° for 30 minutes. So did I just waste the Honey Malt?

Click to expand...

One thing I never hear of homebrewers trying is
making a small sample of a steep and mixing it
with an already made beer to get an idea what the
flavor contribution is. You can mix it with an
all-malt, mild flavored beer like Michelob.
You can make a small steep by scaling down the
amount to 1oz of grain.


In this case with the honey malt, 1 oz is 1/16 of a pound, 1/16 of
2.5 gallons is 2.5 cups. So warm 2.5 cups or a little
more of water to about 160F. Put the grain in
a piece of coffee filter and staple a few times
to seal, put in the warm water.

Your original steep would have been diluted into
5 gal to make about 53 12 ounce bottles of beer.

So that means 2.5gal*128oz/53 = 6 oz per 12oz beer
or 2 oz per 4oz of beer or 4 tablespoons.

So you take 4 tablespoons of the steep and dilute
it to 1/2 cup with Michelob. I would taste the
Michelob before adding the steep so you know what
the difference will be.

You can do this with any mix of grains as well.

Ray