steeping grains

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trainfever

trainfever

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I am brewing a Holiday Ale which includes grains. The directions say to sttep the grains for 2 minutes. I was wondering, when you steep grains, do you just lt them soak for the 20 minutes or do you dip them like you would a tea bag to get the most flavor/color?

Also there is crushed chocolate in the ingredients, there are mixed with a black patent malt. Is this regular chocolate and would this also be steeped with the other grains? I assumed that since the malt was a grain and that the chocolate was mixed with it, that it would also be steeped along with the other grains.

The is a Brewers Best kit and all the instructions seem to be generic with all their kits.
 
trainfever said:
I am brewing a Holiday Ale which includes grains. The directions say to sttep the grains for 2 minutes. I was wondering, when you steep grains, do you just lt them soak for the 20 minutes or do you dip them like you would a tea bag to get the most flavor/color?

Also there is crushed chocolate in the ingredients, there are mixed with a black patent malt. Is this regular chocolate and would this also be steeped with the other grains? I assumed that since the malt was a grain and that the chocolate was mixed with it, that it would also be steeped along with the other grains.

The is a Brewers Best kit and all the instructions seem to be generic with all their kits.
Click to expand...

I usually put my steeping grains (in a grain bag) in the water right away and let them steep while the water is warming up. I would pull it out right before it started boiling. That would usually work out to about 20-30 minutes.
The chocolate will probably completely dissolve, so it is irrelevant when it goes in or how, although, if you want a strong chocolate presence, you should probably wait until the last few seconds of the boil to put it in.
 
Oh well too late. I thought the crushed black patent was a grain and since the crushed chocolate was mixed in the same package, I steeped them along wih the other grains. Hopefully it will still turn out alright. Thanks for a quick reply.
 
Couple of things:

1) My steeping process is to heat 1.5 gallons of water to 160 degrees, then add grains (in a grain bag) and let them sit for 20 minutes dunking occassionally. After 20 minutes I remove the bag and let it drain into the kettle; I do not squeeze the bag as this may extract tannins.

2) Is it chocolate or chocolate malt? There is a malted specialty grain called chocolate malt and I would be willing to bet that is what the ingredient list is referring to here. In that case it is just another grain to be steeped with all the others.
 
In one package, there was Crushed Crystal malt. In another package was 4 oz of Crushed chocolate and 4 oz of Crushed Black Patent. I steeped them altogether for 20 minutes.
 
trainfever said:
In one package, there was Crushed Crystal malt. In another package was 4 oz of Crushed chocolate and 4 oz of Crushed Black Patent. I steeped them altogether for 20 minutes.
Click to expand...

Sounds like it was chocolate malt to me, especially if it was in the package with the Black Patent. I think you'll be fine.
 
I had a stout kit from them that mixed black patent and roasted barley together in a package, I'm willing to bet the chocolate referred to is chocolate malt, not actual chocolate. It seems to me from the couple kits I've used that they usually have the crystal malt separate but then include other specialty malts mixed together.
 

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