How badly have I just screwed up? (Crushed MaltC)

my first solo brew (and first brew in almost 2 years). I am doing an english brown ale kit which included amber malt extract, dry amber malt extract, and crushed crystal malt 60L.

I think I was supposed to put the crushed malt into my muslin cloth bag (In my directions it says to pour the crushed grains into the bag, and I just didn't put 2+2 together). So when it came to add the malt extraxt syrup and dry malt extract I also included my crushed malt without putting it in the cloth bag. So I have the crushed malt floating around in my brew kettle now

Should I just abort the brew?

Don't abort. Just swirl the wort and fish out what you can with a slotted spoon. It will be fine.

GoatFarmersInternational said:

Don't abort. Just swirl the wort and fish out what you can with a slotted spoon. It will be fine.

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Thanks for the fast response. Should I fish it out now? Or after the boil period?

Also, if it isn't at a boil yet, turn down the heat until you have removed what you can. If you boil the grains you will get hazy beer.

I wasn't at a boil yet and was able to get most of them out I think

rmullins said:

Thanks for the fast response. Should I fish it out now? Or after the boil period?

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Sure thing. Usually with the steeping grains you want to take them up to about 165 or so (following your recipe), and hold them at that temperature for a little while, like ten minutes or so. Then you remove them and bring the wort to a boil, add your extracts and bittering hops.

The instructions call for 160-170 for 20 minutes.

I was just getting too excited and wasn't connecting crushed malt = crushed grains.

I wasn't expecting a perfect brew my first time out, but hopefully I was able to save it

I'm sure it will be great. I hope that I was able to help (and everybody panics during their first brew, and it almost always turns out fine. I wish that I had known about this forum the first time I brewed!)

Oh, and you might want to leave your computer to watch for boil overs...

You were definitely able to help. I've got my laptop right next to my stove here so I am posting and watching the brew kettle at the same time. I can still see some grains floating up as the brew cooks but it doesn't seem to be too much

The main problem you will get from boiling whole grains is tannin extraction which might make your beer taste a bit like very strong tea. However, if you got most of the grains out before the boil you should be OK.

Yea I got most of them out. And I happen to be a big fan of tea, so maybe it won't be too bad after-all.

Time to look into some new methods of chilling my wort (or splurging on wort chiller) because I didn't get it down as fast as I was hoping for