Question about steeping grains and full boils

Hi all,

I have done some searches and can't find an answer for this. I am going to be moving to full boils on my next brew. I have read a lot of information about using less water when steeping grains to get the full benefit.

So when doing a full five gallon boil, do you steep the grains in a gallon or two of water and then top off to six gallons and bring to a boil? This would seem to be the right way to do things, I guess I didn't know if this would dilute the flavor of the steeping. . .

Thanks for any advice?

I just did a full boil last month for the first time. I basically steeped on the stove with about 1.5 gallon of water to make it easier. As soon as that started steeping I cranked up the propane burner on my 4 gallon or so of water in the boil kettle. When the 30 min was up the water was about 190 or so. I added the steeped grain water and it was boiling in about another 10 minutes. I don't know if this is correct but I figured it would save time because I didnt have to wait 30 minutes to then start heating up 5.5 gallons of water.

Steep with about a gallon per pound of steeping grains, then put the resulting liquid (you'll lose about 8 oz. of water per pound of grain to absorption) in the brew kettle and top up to your full boil amount (which will be the batch size + enough to make up for evaporation...which for me is about 3 quarts per hour of boil).

I've been doing full boils for a few batches now and I just steep in the full amount. I have had great results so far.

Could someone please explain what benefits steeping grains in a smaller amount of liquid would have? I've seen this brought up on a couple occasions but without a definitive answer.

I always steeped my grains in the full boil volume. I don't understand why you wouldn't want to do it this way. Someone enlighten me?

From what I've read, and someone more knowledgeable than I will hopefully correct me if I've been misguided, the one gallon per pound is to keep the pH in the range to get the maximum from the steeped grains without extracting tannins from the hulls.

I think I may have read that in John Palmer's portion of Brewing Classic Styles, but it may have been on the web somewhere.

I never used less water to steap my specialty grains and never had any issues.

There's still some debate about this topic, but the general idea for grains is the same as for coffee -- If you use less ground coffee, but the same amount of water, you get bitter coffee. The thinking is that if you use more water with the same amount of grain, you could extract bitterness the same way.

But, like I said, it hasn't been proven (as far as I know).

Just in case, I steep in 3 quarts per pound of grain.

Troubs said:

I've been doing full boils for a few batches now and I just steep in the full amount. I have had great results so far.

Could someone please explain what benefits steeping grains in a smaller amount of liquid would have? I've seen this brought up on a couple occasions but without a definitive answer.

Click to expand...

Rick500 said:

From what I've read, and someone more knowledgeable than I will hopefully correct me if I've been misguided, the one gallon per pound is to keep the pH in the range to get the maximum from the steeped grains without extracting tannins from the hulls.

I think I may have read that in John Palmer's portion of Brewing Classic Styles, but it may have been on the web somewhere.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's pretty much correct. Also, some grains are meant to be mashed and if you "steep" with 1.5 quarts per pound of grain at 153 degrees for 30-45 minutes, you're actually mashing them.

That said, if the grains are strictly steeping grains (crystal malt for one), I doubt you'd really risk much tannin extraction by using a more dilute steep. Still, if you want to be perfectly safe, you should use no more than 2 quarts per pound of grain in your steep, and then top up to your boil volume with water after the grains are removed.

Thanks everyone! Great topic!