Question on specialty grain addition in AG brew schedual

Hey, guys. I'm amping up to try out my first AG brew and ran across a question as i was reading Designing great Beers by Ray Daniels. In the section discussing water ph adjustments it mentioned that specialty malts such as crystal roasted ect. often reduce the mash ph to acceptable levels if you're water is just a little higher in ph than distilled water. My question is that as an extract brewer I've been steeping specialty grains for about 30min at 150-155 and now I'm unsure as to whether i should continue to do this when i do my first AG brew or if some specialty grains are better added to the mash-tun than steeped before the boil. Obviously things like flaked oats would create run-off issues so I'm unclear as of now whether in AG specialty grains are always added to the mash-tun, if they are still steeped in the brew pot, or if some grains are still steeped in the brew pot while others are now added to the mash. Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I've never heard of anyone doing a steeping, AG batch. The reason you use steeping grains in extract or partial mash brewing is to get characteristics of those malts that you cannot find extract for (i.e. no such thing as Crystal 60° Extract).

You should use all of your grain in your mash. The only reason I can think of off the top of my head to differ would be adding darkly roasted malts to the mash late in order to pull color, but little flavor/aroma over. This is fairly common for small batch brewing of dark/black ales/IPAs. Even then, you're adding them late, not steeping in the BK.

Hope it helps.

Crystal/caramel and dark roasted malts can be either mashed or steeped. Mashing won't convert much if anything from them, but some (like me) just find it easier than dealing with them separately. Grains which you need to mash to get fermentables from, like, specifically the rolled oats you mention, but also more lightly roasted malts like biscuit, obviously need to be added to the mash.

Re your pH question, I honestly don't sweat it that much. I use 5Star pH 5.2 in my mash water, but don't do anything else - I don't even measure my pH.

thanks for the advice. clears up quite a bit of confusion for me. In my previous extract endeavors, I'd really just used flaked oats as a source of body, mouth-feel, and head retention...i forgot in AG i actually can start using them as fermentable sugar as well :cross: Hopefully i get all my ridiculous lack of thinking cleered up before i get into making my first batch or I'm going to end up with something very odd indeed

weaselburner said:

thanks for the advice. clears up quite a bit of confusion for me. In my previous extract endeavors, I'd really just used flaked oats as a source of body, mouth-feel, and head retention...i forgot in AG i actually can start using them as fermentable sugar as well :cross: Hopefully i get all my ridiculous lack of thinking cleered up before i get into making my first batch or I'm going to end up with something very odd indeed

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No worries brother. It's good to ask questions and even more important to understand the answer, not just know it. I think Capt Damage did a nice job of adding some other info that is critical to how grains are used.

I'm sure the first AG batch will be awesome. Cheers!