Accidentaly boiled my malts while trying to steep

I am making a pilsner urquell, with some grains and some extract. The grains were supposed to steep at 150 for 20 min. I accidently got them boiling, they boiled for about 2-5 min before I notices and I took it off the heat and cooled it with some iced distilled water. what is this going to do? Is my batch of beer ruined?

It should be ok, especially if you didn't have many grains. Boiling can release some tannins in the husk, so it's not something you want to do, but it shouldn't hurt it too much.

Well that makes me feel better. It's darn hard to keep my pot at 150, right now it's about 40 out so it cools real quick. thanks

great now the earth is gonna crack. JK you will be fine

Sounds like you need a digital themometer that beeps. Definately one of the best brewing gadgets that I ever bought. I got mine MoreBeer but you get them everywhere.

Maybe, what I really need is some higher tech equipt. I have a propane burner I salvaged from an old bar-b-que at the junk yard, a burner stand I made from a xmas tree stand and thats it. Oh i have a pot to boil my wort in. Turn the flame on, when it gets hot i move the pot, then put it back on the flame, then move it. Can't turn it down far enough to keep it at that low of a temp. LOL

hookturn said:

Well that makes me feel better. It's darn hard to keep my pot at 150, right now it's about 40 out so it cools real quick. thanks

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Are you sure the instructions dont say something like "steep to 150 or for 20 minutes" ?

I've had to steep a couple for my recent brews and neither one said to hold it at a temp... It was either up to a temp or for a duration of time.

if all you're doing is steeping grains, get yourself a small cooler, it doesn't need to be convertd to a mash tun or anything fancy. Just a small drink cooler. They're cheap and will hold your temp better than your current technique

It says steep at `150 for 20 min. Who knows???
Ya that's my next step. right now i have a few things i need to take care of that are more important than beer. Ya I know,,,, WHAT... more important that BEER?
I'm looking forward to moving on to full grain beer and I have some ideas about a mash tun. I have a friend that welds stainless to so one of these days I should have some equiptment that will make my beer making life a little easier.

BigJefe - like everything else in brewing, there's multiple ways to steep. Some times you put the grain in cold water and raise it to a temperature, some times you add the grain to hot water. Steep times vary, steep temperatures vary. Some steeps are more like mini-mashes.

Ya, well I guess I'm still in the nervous stage of brewing

Ive made about 4 batches and haven't had any come out bad so I guess i need to screw something up to find out what doesn't work

An easy way to hold temp is to use your oven. As you are getting your steep up to 150, turn your oven on it's lowest setting. When your steep hits temp, turn the oven off and pop the pot in the oven. The residual heat will keep the pot warm longer than having it out in the open on the stove and you won't have the tendency to overshoot your temp trying to regulate it with a burner.

I'm doing partial boils on the stove and found that if I bring my steeping water to 160-165 and kill the heat it never drops more than 10 degrees during the steeping

Great idea. Here's the problem. I had a really tasty batch of pale ale fermenting in my closet. Using the 5 gal plastic buckets with the spigot just an inch or so up from the bottom, you know the kind. It was sitting on the carpet behind the door, I was getting my bottles ready to fill, I had taken my last case of bottles to the bathroom to clean and pushed the closet door open (opens into the closet), well the door is about an inch higher that the rug. yep, the door came up over the spigot, pushed it down and when I came to get my beer, it was all over the closet rug.
I debated whether to run to the store a buy a wet vac so I could strain it a bottle it, but.... so now I am making my beer in the garage. I can't believe it, all my wife cared about was the rug?!!!! WHO CARES ABOUT THE RUG. Man that beer tasted sooo good I know it was going to be awesome. So no oven for me.

Sounds like a beverage cooler with a ball valve would be perfect for you. And it'll make an easy transition to partial mash brews.