Mini Mash Questions

I'll be mashing my crystal (1.5-2 lbs) for an IPA tomorrow and I'm uncertain how I want to try to do it.

Having steeped my grains before I used more water than you should for mashing, but was easily able to maintain 151-157* for 30 mins. I tried doing that with the correct amount of water and mashing like that, but had a hard time with the temp.

I've heard about heating the oven, but I'm not certain how far off the temp may be, and I'm not sure if my floating thermometer can handle the oven.

I have a 2 gallon Igloo water jug and feel heating it up and then doing something like a BIAB would possibly be the better way to do this.

Thoughts?

rodwha said:

I'll be mashing my crystal (1.5-2 lbs) for an IPA tomorrow and I'm uncertain how I want to try to do it.

Having steeped my grains before I used more water than you should for mashing, but was easily able to maintain 151-157* for 30 mins. I tried doing that with the correct amount of water and mashing like that, but had a hard time with the temp.

I've heard about heating the oven, but I'm not certain how far off the temp may be, and I'm not sure if my floating thermometer can handle the oven.

I have a 2 gallon Igloo water jug and feel heating it up and then doing something like a BIAB would possibly be the better way to do this.

Thoughts?

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What other grains are you using? If you're not using other grains, you're not "mashing" as mashing requires grains that require conversion.

For grains like crystal, chocolate malt, etc, you just steep them. Holding them at 150-160 degrees for 20 minutes (in a grain bag) is fine. I've always just heating the water up to 165 or so, then dropped in the grain bag and stirred well. Make sure the grain is loose in the bag, and not packed in the bag tightly. Cover, and let it sit on the stove. After 20 minutes, lift out the grains and let them drain and then throw them away. That's it!

This go around there are no other grains. Just LME and DME.

Prior (honey wheat) I was told I needed to mash my honey malts.

According to howtobrew it shows the sugar difference between mashing and steeping 30 mins with crystal shown. I'm a bit confused now??? Will I not extract all of the sugars? I entered my recipe with the idea I was getting them all (34 instead of 14 for the C15 and 22 for the C40).

rodwha said:

This go around there are no other grains. Just LME and DME.

Prior (honey wheat) I was told I needed to mash my honey malts.

According to howtobrew it shows the sugar difference between mashing and steeping 30 mins with crystal shown. I'm a bit confused now??? Will I not extract all of the sugars? I entered my recipe with the idea I was getting them all (34 instead of 14 for the C15 and 22 for the C40).

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Crystal is "premashed" so to speak, when made. So there isn't any reason to mash it, and the only reason it goes into a mash at all is because it's easiest to toss it in with the other grains. There are several other specialty grains made like crystal, where they are premashed and so the sugars are crystalized and available via steeping.

Mashing is holding a prescribed malt for a prescribed amount of time at a prescribed temperature, in order to cause an enzymatic reaction that makes the starches in the grain turn to fermentable sugars. With crystal malt, that can't happen (as there aren't any enzymes, plus the crystal is processed differently), so steeping is the correct method.

You simply steep the crystal for 20 minutes in 150-160 degree water, to make a "tea" from it, called liquor. That's it! Easy peasy.

Will 60 mins give me the full amount of sugars vs 20-30 mins? I certainly don't want a weak IPA. It's designed to be a lower gravity (~5.9%) as it is.

rodwha said:

Will 60 mins give me the full amount of sugars vs 20-30 mins? I certainly don't want a weak IPA. It's designed to be a lower gravity (~5.9%) as it is.

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Well, no. I don't know why you're getting different amounts in your software, but crystal malt is crystal malt.

You can steep it for three days, and won't get any more out of it than in 20 minutes.

You'll get your fermentable sugars from the extract you're using. If you want a higher OG, you'd need to use more extract.

The software shows that it'll give me 34 ppg of sugar. Howtobrew shows it gives 14 for light and 22 for pale crystal if steeped for 30 mins.

rodwha said:

The software shows that it'll give me 34 ppg of sugar. Howtobrew shows it gives 14 for light and 22 for pale crystal if steeped for 30 mins.

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Ah- he's talking about unconverted starches. But you shouldn't have those issues, and I never have. Lighter crystal malts are processed for less time than the darker crystals, but even so I've never had any positive starch tests when steeping them. Don't worry about it!

If you ever want to mash, you'll need some base malt along with the other grains. But for steeping crystal, you'll be perfectly fine. You've got what? 1.5 pounds of crystal? The difference between those to figures isn't much at all, anyway, and you're talking about a difference of .002 or so anyway in a 5 gallon batch. (10-12 total gravity points in 1.5 pounds of crystal difference) Not worth worrying about, even IF you had unconverted starches (which you don't).

OK. Thanks!

For future reference (and now so I can adjust my recipe) should I enter the number shown in the book or go with the numbers given by software (hopville), which is ~34 ppg?

rodwha said:

For future reference (and now so I can adjust my recipe) should I enter the number shown in the book or go with the numbers given by software (hopville), which is ~34 ppg?

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Hmmm, let's see. I typically get 6 points out of 1 pound of light crystal in 5 gallons. So, that's..........about 30 ppg? So, 34 wouldn't be far off.

Awesome!