Steeping Carapils

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puravida286

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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:
 
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
 
puravida286 said:
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.
 
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
 
david_42 said:
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.

This is what I think also
 
puravida286 said:
Does unconverted starch mean that I won't get the full "head retention/body adding" effects of the carapils?
nope. it just means you won't get fermentable sugar.... it rasies both OG and FG.

-walker
 
I think that the carapils is "stewed" to converd starch to dextrins before kilning. For htis reason you should not get too much unconverted starch and should be able to steep it. This is the article Walker referenced and where I am drawing this conclusion from. I could however, be very, very wrong. It happens all the time http://byo.com/mrwizard/776.html Also, dextrose is glucose is corn sugar, so adding dextrose will only add fermentables
 

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