steeping procedures

ok, so my first batch is happily doing it's thing in the secondary right now, everything went fairly smoothly apart from the slow initial fermentation. I am just wondering if my steeping procedure was correct given that I followed a book's directions and have seen other people posting different strategies elsewhere.
1) placed 0.5lbs of grain into a ziplock bag, beat it to within an inch of it's life. didnt pulverize it, just made sure most kernels were cracked open
2) placed the grain into a grain sock and dumped it into 2 Gal of cold water in my brew pot
3) turned the heat on and got it up to just below boiling point and let it sit there for about 15mins
4) removed the grain sock and turned up the heat until it boiled good and proper, dumped in the LME and DME, carried on with the brew as per usual.

is this thoroughly incorrect? was I wasting my time doing it this way?

Not quite how I would have done it....but it depends on the beer you are trying to make.

Generally I get my water to about 145 deg before putting the grains in. Then, I steep for about 45 mins at this same tmep - not boil.

You want to remove it from the heat when you add the extract.

Then put it back on the heat, get to boiling temperature and add your hops as necessary.

Shmohel said:

Not quite how I would have done it....but it depends on the beer you are trying to make.

Generally I get my water to about 145 deg before putting the grains in. Then, I steep for about 45 mins at this same tmep - not boil.

You want to remove it from the heat when you add the extract.

Then put it back on the heat, get to boiling temperature and add your hops as necessary.

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thanks for the speedy response. ok, so I did everything as you said, other than really leaving it at the sub-boiling temp for possibly too short a time and starting them in the pot from the get-go. I didnt let them boil, removed them prior to the brew. i guess I'll have to wait and see!

Your method is fine...that's essentially the same method Palmer recommends, as well as many others, and it's certainly a lot less hassle than straining and sparging. I might have let the grains steep for 30 minutes, but I can't imagine that making much difference...it's just that 30 mins is the minimum increment of time in my world.

Relax, have a brew.

El Pistolero said:

Relax, have a brew.

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I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before.....

just finished reading one of your earlier threads about baby poo and visiting friends. I'd rather this thread didn't deteriorate into that.

El Pistolero said:

Your method is fine...that's essentially the same method Palmer recommends, as well as many others, and it's certainly a lot less hassle than straining and sparging. I might have let the grains steep for 30 minutes, but I can't imagine that making much difference...it's just that 30 mins is the minimum increment of time in my world.

Relax, have a brew.

Click to expand...

one more thing - is cold conditioning really that helpful and how should I go about it? I am a stickler for clear beers, dont want much stuff floating around in there. If I did, I would have taken up fish tanks instead. I've added gelatin to my secondary and it seems to be pulling loads of yeast out of solution, will be careful when I rack into my bottling (primary) bucket as well. Do I put the secondary in a fridge for a few days or do I bottle and then throw some in the fridge after 2 weeks. I'm confused.