steeping grains like sun tea?

Can you do it this way? And if I did should I pre boil the water so it kills any bacteria? Cause I was thinking if trying this and when it came to the hops I would just dry hop any ideas or feed back would be cool on this one

You need to get the water to 150 to 160 degrees. I don't think the sun will get that hot enough.

What kind of grains?

My guess would be that it will get funky sour growth of sorts, depending on how long you sun it for. Grain, plus moisture, plus warmth equals compost...stinky compost!

Ahhh ok good thing I mentioned thus before trying it ya think I could try just extracted malts? Plus dme . Oh and I didn't puck any grains in particular I was just curious on a different form of steeping

decibelz said:

Ahhh ok good thing I mentioned thus before trying it ya think I could try just extracted malts? Plus dme . Oh and I didn't puck any grains in particular I was just curious on a different form of steeping

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What do you mean by this? Try extract with the sun tea method? I personally don't think using the sun is the best idea. I know that is really how beer was first discovered but to make good beer you need to get the water boiling.

Without doing any research or knowing anything about using the sun, all of this is my opinion

Well I was even thinking of using a black barrel that would attract heat . I was going to just add some water with a thermometer inside to see the temperature over a really hot weekend . Just to see how hot it gets first

What about frost brewing like Coors light or bud ice Molson etc.

+1 ..frost brewing is a clever way of saying lagering...it no way relates to the heat of the brewing process

Kinda see I was wanting to try steeping the grains like sun tea . I thought It would give it different. Characteristics to the flavor . Am i right since it would take a few days to steep . I was going to try it this weekend. Cause here in NJ its going to be like 90 all weekend

I think you will be surprised at what would be growing in your 'grain tea' after a couple days in the sun....

Well it would be sealed. Plus I was going to boil the water first before I added anything to it. To kill any bacteria.

To my knowledge that's a way to start a sasion...having the sweet wort and grains be in contact with the elements would either cause a wild fermentation or a sour wort beer.

Grain goes funky REALLY quick. Leave some spent grain out for 24 hours sometime in a "sealed" container...yuck. Smells like rotten milk.

I wouldn't try it, but if you do, do it with very little and see what happens.

What's a session?

Even with a sealed container..having wet grain in a Luke warm bucket for a cooked days will allow the grain to mold. That's why they dry grain after malting

decibelz said:

Well it would be sealed. Plus I was going to boil the water first before I added anything to it. To kill any bacteria.

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Those grains are not sterile and could contain any number of bacteria.

decibelz said:

What's a session?

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I ment saison..my phones autocorret likes to change brew terms

This thread is terrifying.

Grains contain very healthy and large colonies of bacteria. Typically, the bacterium will produce lactic acid in large quanities. This can be a good thing for some styles such as Berliner Weiss, but for most beers it is a very bad thing. Also, a few days would bring the fermentation far beyond anything palatable and would allow other bacteria to multiple to a point of spoilage. A few days in luke warm water and that grain slop will be difficult to distinguish from raw sewage. The smell will put you on your ass.

Ice or cold brewed is marketing.

Also, beer should really be boiled hard for at least 15 minutes to help sanitize both the vessel you are brewing in, the wort itself, and to break down and precipitate various compounds in the wort.

Not to be mean, but do some reading before you start brewing anything. Or maybe apfelhoochenwein is more up your ally...

If you don't convert the starches to sugar you won't have anything to ferment into alcohol. You're just going to have bacterial funk.

What are you trying to do, exactly?? You mention trying to get a different flavor out of it but you really won't. At best you'll have grain flavored water, and the only way to keep it from getting nasty is to cold steep it in your fridge and even then you'll only have days before it goes bad.

Tip: brew one successful batch following boring norms then get creative. Compare results.

Yup, stick to the basics before re-inventing the wheel (into a square).

I didn't read this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/steeping-grains-like-sun-tea-334622/

But I'm guessing you got similar response there as you did here?

FWIW, ignoring everything else, since the answers here have already covered them, the answer to your question is this:

To convert the sugars and starches in grain into a form thats readily fermentable by the yeast. All your "cold brewed" beers still mash the grain in this temperature range, and they all still boil the wort. They also add a step to pasteurize where after fermentation they reheat the beer to kill off any nasties so it will last longer on the shelf at your local market before you buy it.

jbaysurfer said:

I didn't read this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/steeping-grains-like-sun-tea-334622/

But I'm guessing you got similar response there as you did here?

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Oh, that's classic.... sub'd.

Oh I'm not new at this I just was curious on if that would work that's all. So far everyone loves what I've created . And reading up on brewing... Well what are we doing right now lol if this site wasn't a learning tool and a place where people can bounce things off each other then what's the point of this site then anyways??? Right???

decibelz said:

Well I was even thinking of using a black barrel that would attract heat . I was going to just add some water with a thermometer inside to see the temperature over a really hot weekend . Just to see how hot it gets first

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Your answer is "not hot enough".

I love how your all so rude. Like come on give me a break for being opened minded . I'm not new at this it was just curiosity . I've brewed some sick high gravity ales and not once have I had a compliant on any of them and its a wide spread of ages that have tried them so please don't Hodge. Especially when you don't even know me or gave tried any of my brews . .... This is just sad

Hey Decibelz,

Grains have to be converted into sugars, that's why the specific 150-160 F temp is needed.

I think you could sun-steep adjunts like orange rinds or something like that (not sure how well it would work though) but the base malts are basically either grains that need to be converted or a mix that is ready to go that won't really change from sitting in water all day.

Sometimes only half the answer is given, and you are totally coming from a new direction so that's probably the miscommunication here. This is a newbie zone so it's easier to get your creative thinking. Unfortunately this particular idea with malt probably won't work.

I think what you're looking for is called "cold steeping."

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/cold-steeping-specialty-grains-334341/

It's generally used to extract color, but not astringency, from highly kilned malts. According to some of the "toast your own" threads, even something as light as 20L spends about 1/2 an hour at 300 degrees, so I would think most of the molds and bacteria would get cooked. Of course, grains aren't usually kept in sterile conditions, so they may get re-contaminated, but I don't think specialty grains are the bacteria bomb people are making them out to be.

I say give it a try. If you're able, I'd try brewing two batches back-to-back with the same grain bill. One would be with specialty grains steeped in the traditional manner and the other with the "sun tea" method. I'd check on the "tea" every evening and if it starts to get funky, either start over with a shorter time period, or boil it right there to keep it at an acceptable level of sourness until you can brew.

One other potential drawback I could see is that the sun might tend to bleach the "tea" such that you may not get the color you're looking for. But that might be a potential benefit, depending on how you look at it.

decibelz said:

I love how your all so rude. Like come on give me a break for being opened minded . I'm not new at this it was just curiosity . I've brewed some sick high gravity ales and not once have I had a compliant on any of them and its a wide spread of ages that have tried them so please don't Hodge. Especially when you don't even know me or gave tried any of my brews . .... This is just sad

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Classic.

Watch these videos to understand why specific temps are required

wilserbrewer said:

My guess would be that it will get funky sour growth of sorts, depending on how long you sun it for. Grain, plus moisture, plus warmth equals compost...stinky compost!

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It is God awful stinky compost. The nauseating odors from the pig farm near where I grew up plus the putrid smell of the dairies where I live now combined can't compete with the stench of rotting spent grain. .

But in the end it does make fantastic soil!

Dan said:

It is God awful stinky compost. The nauseating odors from the pig farm near where I grew up plus the putrid smell of the dairies where I live now combined can't compete with the stench of rotting spent grain. .

But in the end it does make fantastic soil!

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I am totally convinced.

I remember when I was little my parents had some pigs and they would dump grain and water in a trough in the summer. When it started foaming they knew it was ready to feed the hogs. When I started brewing I realized that they were actually making beer! Just not anything I would want to drink....

Dan said:

It is God awful stinky compost. The nauseating odors from the pig farm near where I grew up plus the putrid smell of the dairies where I live now combined can't compete with the stench of rotting spent grain. .

But in the end it does make fantastic soil!

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Oh for sure, it's great for the garden, but man does it reek if you let it sit and compost first.... the lacto makes it smell like a mutated pile of nuclear baby vomit. Great for my wife's flowers, though, although I'm thinking our Columbine plant may be a bit sensitive to lactobacillus, a couple of the leaves had colonies that looked like they were on a petri dish.

decibelz said:

Oh I'm not new at this

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with all due respect, if you knew what you were doing this wouldn't have even entered your mind because it doesn't make one bit of sense.

Several posts seem to be confusing mashing with steeping. Grains that need to be mashed certainly need to be held in a certain temp range for a certain period of time. Some grains have already gone through another process that converts the sugars - like holding them at hot, dry temps. For those, you are just dissolving the existing pre-converted sugar in water.

So, theoretically, you could steep at suntea temps for an extended period. As others have eloquently pointed out though, there is a high chance of there being a bunch of bacteria creating a nasty funk instead of tasty brew.

If you want to try, a pound of crystal is pretty cheap, so go ahead. The worst thing that happens if that you have to throw it out. If it ends up smelling and tasting fine, a 60 minute boil is gonna kill any bacteria in it.