extract recipes with grains?

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jourelemode

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im new to brewing and i've only been been using kits with malt extracts...i've been looking at other people recipes cause I wanna try new things and I see some recipes that use malt extracts, then I see they have several pounds of some grains also like caramunich, chocolate, special b, aromatic and biscuit...do they just steep these grains in the nylon bag??? sorry for the dumb question...cause I thought extract was nothing but extract stuff like powders and liquids
 
there is extract brewing and there is all grain brewing. And then there are a couple of things in between.

Extract with specialty grains is probably what you are seeing in these recipes. The fermentables almost all come from extract liquid or powder, but then some fresh grainy tastes, color, and flavor is added with the use of some specialy grains that do not need to have starch conversion done on them. Those kinds of grains can just be steeped in hot water (155*F or so) for a while before you bring it to a boil and add the extract. Crystal malts, roasted malts, and quite a few other grains exist that fit this "can just be steeped" catagory.

The other in-between method is partial mashing. Some of the fermentables come from extract and the remainder come from a mini-mash of 2-row and other grains.
 
There are partial mash recipes and recipes with steeping grains. With a partial mash you do a small mash to get half your wort, then use extract for the other half. Basically you bring a few gallons of water to 170F, mix in the grain, let it rest for an hour, and strain out the wort. This wort will account for part of your boil, then you make the rest of the wort with the extract. Similar to partial mash is steeping specialty grains. To do this, you take about 8-16 ounces of specialty grains (grains that do not require mashing, like crystal, chocolate, cara-pils) and steep them for a half hour, then add your extract and more water to get your boil volume.

I'd start with steeping specialty grains first, as it is a great way to improve body and flavor of extract beers. Then, to be honest, once you've got the equipment and a few solid brews under your belt I'd go all-grain and skip partial mashing. It's really not as difficult as it sounds. Watch some youtube videos and see how other people do it. I didn't understand what the texts were talking about until I actually saw other people doing it.
 
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