What's the difference between a steep and a mini mash?

I have a recipe that calls for Munich, and I was told you can't steep it...gotta mash. What's the difference and how does one do a mini mash?

Thanks

When you mini mash, you are going to hold the grains at a set temp(150-160) for a set period of time(1 hour). The difference between this and a full mash is that you are going to perform the mash with a smaller volume of water(2 gallons or so), then add more water + extract to achieve your final 5 gallon volume. In a full mash, you would mash will the full volume of water to go into the boil. You will also be using base grains in a mini mash, not just 'flavoring' grains. Your base 2 row grains need to go through enzymatic conversion to create sugars.

Steeping involves sticking the specialty grains(crystal, caramel, chocolate, +many more) in the smaller volume of water and heating the water up to 160 or so, then removing them. This provides the flavor of the grains by steeping them like tea, but not the sugars through the starch conversion of mashing. Then, in steeping you'll add your extract which will provide the bulk of the sugars. Steeping with base grains(2 row) will not achieve a decent efficiency and you won't get enough sugars out of them to make any difference.

Steeping is no different than making tea, you're just dissolving compounds in the grain that give you color, flavor, body, etc.

Mashing is a chemical process wherein the naturally occurring enzymes in the grain convert starches from the grain into fermentable sugars.

The technique isn't radically different between the two, just with mashing you need more temperature control. For steeping, you just need to hold the grains in hot water, keeping them below 170F, for some period of time, often 20-30 minutes. For mashing, you do the same, except you need to keep the water at a particular temperature between 148-158F, and hold the temperature steady for an hour or so.

Mashing is just a specialized form of steeping, really. In pure steeping, you do not care about enzymatic activity, so concentration is not much of an issue, nor is time or precise temperature.


TL

damn i wish i would have read this about 5 days ago.. ha ha

So I also read the same about munich but my LHBS said that i could steep it so instead of challenging him i just said okay and had him package the Munich with the rest of my grains that I am using for an extract recipe. Should i put all of the grains in the same bag (since i cant separate them) and hold the temp at 150 or so for 30, then up the temp to 170 for an hour?

I want to get the Munich in there too as the recipe calls for it, but i cant separate it out.

NNatic said:

damn i wish i would have read this about 5 days ago.. ha ha

So I also read the same about munich but my LHBS said that i could steep it so instead of challenging him i just said okay and had him package the Munich with the rest of my grains that I am using for an extract recipe. Should i put all of the grains in the same bag (since i cant separate them) and hold the temp at 150 or so for 30, then up the temp to 170 for an hour?

I want to get the Munich in there too as the recipe calls for it, but i cant separate it out.

Click to expand...

No, you should put them in water that is about 160 or so, and add the grain bag and try to keep it at 153. Use 1.5 quarts per pound of grain. (Adding the grain brings down the temperature of the water). After 45 minutes, lift out the bag, and pour 170 degree water over the grainbag (up to 2 quarts per pound of grain), "rinsing" thoroughly. Or, follow Deathbrewer's method.

Yes Munich has to be mashed no matter what your LHBS is t(s)elling you. Try to steep it at 155F for at least 45 mnutes then rinse it somehow with 170F water.