Steeping Grains and OG

Hey all,
I'm trying to calculate my expected OG for an upcoming irish red recipe and I've realized that 2 of my 4 specialty grains are mash-only:

0.5 lbs Caramel 40 L
0.25 lbs Briess Special Roast
0.25 lbs Dingemans Biscuit
0.25 lbs English Chocolate Malt

6 lbs Gold Malt syrup

(Special roast and biscuit are mash-only)
OG = ((34×.5)+(34×.25)+(37×6))÷5 = 49.5 = 1.050
Target FG = 1.013
Expected ABV: 4.9%

My question is, if special roast and biscuit malt are not contributing to the OG during steeping, are they only there for color? Do they contribute to body or flavor in any way? Second, since the other two are steepable, how much of their potential gravity should they contribute? Last, what are you guys' opinions on steeping time/temp? I have only gone by the NB recipe guidelines of steeping 20 minutes or until 170F.

They will contribute to color and flavor, but almost nothing in fermentable sugars unless they are mashed with base malt. A 20 minute steep is fine.

So to clarify, you're talking about the mash-only grains right? The caramel and chocolate malts should pretty much get 100% of their potential gravity extracted, correct?

As for the 20-minute steep, how do you recommend going about that? Last batch I steeped I put the grain bag in around 120F and reached 170F in under 20 minutes so I pulled it out. Would you cut the heat and hold temp shy of 170F to get the full 20 minutes?

Thanks

frozt said:

So to clarify, you're talking about the mash-only grains right? The caramel and chocolate malts should pretty much get 100% of their potential gravity extracted, correct?

As for the 20-minute steep, how do you recommend going about that? Last batch I steeped I put the grain bag in around 120F and reached 170F in under 20 minutes so I pulled it out. Would you cut the heat and hold temp shy of 170F to get the full 20 minutes?

Thanks

Click to expand...

All the grains are steeped together- but the caramel has been "premashed" so to speak so you won't get more out of it in a mash.

You can steep however you like- but I always like to do it the same way and bring my water to 165 and then add the grains. Hold that in the 150-160 degree range (it'll drop a bit when you add the grains) for the time in the recipe.