Steeping grains vs Mini-mash

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solidghost

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I started reading up on steeping grains and somehow I found out about this process called the mini-mash. But being a beginner, I discovered that it can be rather confusing to understand the difference between the two.

Steeping grains is only for speciality grains and it tends to add flavour and body to the beer. The main bulk of the fermentable sugars still come from the malt extract that will be added in. But what is this minimash for? :confused:
 
Here's some articles on it.

http://***********/feature/986.html

http://***********/feature/1536.html

http://eegeek.net/content/view/80/39/

http://www.beerluv.com/2008/02/17/partial-mash-method/

http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/extract/pres.pdf

Basic brewing radio has some podcasts on it as well. Basicbrewing.com

September 14, 2006 - Making Ciders & Countertop Mashing
Ben Watson, author of Cider, Hard and Sweet: History, Traditions, and Making Your Own, joins us to introduce us to the world of homemade ciders. Also, Chris Colby of Brew Your Own magazine lets us in on his method of partial mashing using an unmodified two-gallon drinking cooler.
http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr09-14-06.mp3

October 4, 2007 - Countertop Partial Mashing Revisited
Chris Colby of Brew Your Own magazine gives us an update on what he's learned about doing partial mashes with a countertop cooler.
http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr10-04-07partialmash2.mp3


Also if you take a look at my "Old Bog ROad Brown Ale" Recipe, you can see how it evolves from an extract with grain recipe through a pm in a 2 gallon cooler, a pm in 35 gallon cooler and into a full AG recipe...(I need to update it because I also have it for a 5 gallon cooler using only 3 pounds of Dry Malt Extract, and the majority comes from grain.)

http://homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=61591
 
In a mini-mash you're converting starches in the grain into fermentable (or non-fermentable) sugars, in addition to extracting colors, flavors, aromas, and possibly a mouthfeel.

mini-mash is essentially all grain brewing, but on a smaller scale because you don't have the ability to boil 7 gallons at once, which is required for AG brewing a 5 gallon batch. You make up for the smaller 'mash' by adding extract.
 
Thanks for the very useful information guys!
I had thought that minimash is just like steeping grains! lol!
 
The thing is, unless I am horribly wrong, while what is happening on a chemical and enzymatic scale are different, the processes can (potentiallY) be near identical. Assuming you do not use a countertop cooler, then essentially all you are doing is maintaining a specific temperature, either on the stovetop or by putting your brewpot in the oven. The partial mash has the extra step of either batch-sparging your grains in an additional, smaller pot (and then adding that to your brewpot) or rinsing your grains with 170 degree water.

Am I missing something fundamental here? Once you remove the grains from the brewpot, leaving your "First Runoff" in your brewpot, you can just turn on the heat and get it to a boil, yes? You do not need to worry about too high of a temperature extracting tanins or anything because the grain is no longer in there. And as the wort comes to a boil you, be default, stop the enzymatic action.
 
Doing a partial or mini-mash will also allow you to use grains that MUST be mashed in order to obtain fermentable sugars.

I found it to be just as much work as all-grain, but was the only option open to my buddies and I until we got keggles (somehow, we wound up with three all at once!) and a chiller.
 
If you take the steeping grains and add an equal weight of 2-row malt, you have a mini-mash. Just a matter of holding the temperature around 152F.
 
Before I had a brew pot capable of handling the runoff from an all grain batch I would mash 4lbs or so of grain and use extract to provide the rest of the fermentables.
The quality of my brews improved considerably, until I acquired a 9 gallon brewpot and I have since only used extract when cultivating yeast.
 
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