Chocolate Malt: To mash or not to mash

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Bradinator

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Hey,

To get the most out of specialty malts such as chocolate or black patent, am I better off to include it with my mash or steep it separately? Do you get much body out of these modified grains?
 
Hey,

To get the most out of specialty malts such as chocolate or black patent, am I better off to include it with my mash or steep it separately? Do you get much body out of these modified grains?

All of the grains go into the mash together, you don't separate it out and steep it alone.

You can get a ton of body and sweetness (and roastiness, etc) out of the specialty grains.
 
Yeah, what yooper said. The only grain I often don't consider mashing is whole roasted barley. I know some that add that at the end of the mash to just get color. However, I am lazy and my grain books are usually mixed together when I buy them, so I mash it all.
 
To get the most out, mash it.

Some of what you are getting out of roasted grains is possibly negative, depending on what you are going for. Some ways around this are to steep as you would in extract brewing (Gordon Strong mentions this in his book, I've never tried this), use dehusked roasted grains such as carafa (I do this), cold steep dark grains (I do this) or add them at the end of the mash before vorlaufing (fairly common, but I do not do this).

The two I use are quite effective at getting a smoother character, but I think in some beers including most stouts that you may want that slightly harsh edge and so I just mash it all. I use carafa or cold steep for continental beers, which are never harshly roasty, or if I am using smoked malt as I think burnt character plus smoke character comes off as ashy.
 
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