Steeping grains and using the grain water later

If you are brewing a recipe that uses extracts and specialty grains, is it possible to steep the grains for the prescribed time, save the grain water and then create the wort later by resuming the process.....or should everything be done at once? Ordinarily I would do it all at once but I was wondering if I could perform the process in two stages if necessary. I'll give you an example of why I might want to do that. On Thursday evening I play in a golf league. I was thinking I could steep my grains before I go to golf. At the same time I would smack my yeast pack to get that going. Then when I get back from golf I can create my wort using my grain water and then pitch the now-room-temperature-and-activated yeast. Doing that would save me the time required to steep the grains after I get home. It's not a huge amount of time, probably about 45 minutes. Generally speaking it's not something I plan on doing frequently, I just want to know if it's even possible / recommended.

I've not heard of anyone doing this before, but I think it would okay to leave the grain water untouched for a few hours while playing golf. Just be sure to remove the spent grain and get a good boil going. You will lose sometime in having to boil room temp. wort as opposed to steeping temperature wort.

Another thing you can try, is to steep the grains in a smaller pot while bringing your water volume (less the amount in the steeping pot) to a boil. Once the grains are done steeping, you can add the grain water to the boil kettle.

Good Idea Pie Man

Multi-Tasking.

Pie_Man said:

I've not heard of anyone doing this before, but I think it would okay to leave the grain water untouched for a few hours while playing golf. Just be sure to remove the spent grain and get a good boil going. You will lose sometime in having to boil room temp. wort as opposed to steeping temperature wort.

Another thing you can try, is to steep the grains in a smaller pot while bringing your water volume (less the amount in the steeping pot) to a boil. Once the grains are done steeping, you can add the grain water to the boil kettle.

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Thanks! Your suggestion is something to think about - makes sense and probably saves as much time.