Clarification on steeping grains and full boil

So I will be doing my first full boil extract brew.

Steeping grains consist of 1lb carapils and 1lb crystal 40l.
Is it best practice to steep in about 1 gallon of water at 160 and then add to about 5-6 gallons in my kettle for the boil?
What if I just put 1 gallon in my boil kettle, get up to 160 and add the grains for ~25 minutes, then top off when I remove the grains?
Is one method better than the other?

Also, the recipe calls for a 90 minute boil, meaning more boil off, what would be a good starting volume? 7 Gallons?
I am using the bayou 11 gallon kettle.

I've steeped both ways you mentioned and couldn't tell a difference. For 2 lbs of grains, I think you are "supposed" to use 2 gallons of water. Personally I like to steep on the stove while my boil kettle heats up, that way when I add the water from the steeping grains the boil kettle is already close to boiling.

Yeah, you can put them in your main pot and steep then add water, but if you arent going to sparge with more hot water when you top up, then go to 2-2.5 gal for the steeping to extract a bit more from the grains. As far as the 90 min boil, you will boil off a bit more...I cant vouch for the best start volume as I usually do 60 minute boils, but ther eare some brew calculators that should be able to figure that out for you.

I've been doing full boils. Is it bad to steep with my full 6.5-7 gallons??

Srceenplay said:

I've been doing full boils. Is it bad to steep with my full 6.5-7 gallons??

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It's not "bad", but you could have some tannin extraction, at least in theory, due to the higher pH of that much water in that small amount of grain. It probably doesn't matter a bit, to be honest though.

I just always recommend doing it with a smaller amount of water, not so much because of any risk of tannin extraction, but because of the types of grains. Say you have crystal malt and chocolate malt. Those can be steeped, no problem. But what if you have crystal malt and Munich malt as your specialty grains? Then you need to do a mash.

In order to avoid trying to figure out when I could steep and when I could mash, I just always started using 1.25-1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain and keeping it at 150-155 for 45 minutes. Then, I'd lift up the grainbag into a colander and pour 170 degree water over it up to my boil volume. That did the trick for both a mash and a steep, and I never had to change my procedure. It's actually the easiest for me.

ampsman said:

So I will be doing my first full boil extract brew.

Steeping grains consist of 1lb carapils and 1lb crystal 40l.
Is it best practice to steep in about 1 gallon of water at 160 and then add to about 5-6 gallons in my kettle for the boil?
What if I just put 1 gallon in my boil kettle, get up to 160 and add the grains for ~25 minutes, then top off when I remove the grains?
Is one method better than the other?

Also, the recipe calls for a 90 minute boil, meaning more boil off, what would be a good starting volume? 7 Gallons?
I am using the bayou 11 gallon kettle.

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I probably wouldn't do a 90 minute boil with an extract recipe unless you had a specific reason to do so. But if you're going to do 90 minutes, you can probably plan on losing 1-1.5 gallons per hour. I'd probably start with 6.5 gallons, just in case I boiled off less, and then top up with water at the end of I was short on volume.

Yooper said:

I probably wouldn't do a 90 minute boil with an extract recipe unless you had a specific reason to do so. But if you're going to do 90 minutes, you can probably plan on losing 1-1.5 gallons per hour. I'd probably start with 6.5 gallons, just in case I boiled off less, and then top up with water at the end of I was short on volume.

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The recipe calls for a 90 minute hop addition, I wouldnt normally do a 90 minute boil for extract.

Also, is it a good method to get your water up to temp (~160) and then add the grains, kill the heat and put the lid on for 25-30 minutes?
Or should the lid not be on?

ampsman said:

The recipe calls for a 90 minute hop addition, I wouldnt normally do a 90 minute boil for extract.

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You don't need to boil a hop addition for 90 minutes- you'll get minimal increased IBUs vs a 60 minute addition.

Leaving the lid on during the steeping is a great idea- you want to lock in as much heat as you can during the steeping/mashing.

Yooper said:

You don't need to boil a hop addition for 90 minutes- you'll get minimal increased IBUs vs a 60 minute addition.

Leaving the lid on during the steeping is a great idea- you want to lock in as much heat as you can during the steeping/mashing.

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Gotcha, you just saved me 30 minutes standing in the cold tonight!!