Maris otter for steeping?

Hello! I am branching out from the kits and putting together my own recipe. I ordered some unmilled Maris Otter grains with the intent to use them as steeping grains. Do I need to mill them or crack the grains with a rolling pin? Suggestions?

rolling pin takes forever and is a pain, try to find a mill, your LHBS should have one

Maris Otter needs to be mashed, not steeped. Steeping it will only give you starches in your beer.

LKABrewer said:

Maris Otter needs to be mashed, not steeped. Steeping it will only give you starches in your beer.

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+1. steeping and mashing aren't too different tho. you just need to pay more attention to your volume and temps. steep the MO in about 1.5qt/lb around 154F for at least 45mins and you're mashing. use lower temps (146-150F) for less body and more fermentables, higher temps (154-160F) for more body and less fermentables.

A pound or less isn't too bad with a rolling pin. A coffee mill works good for steeping too, since you keep the grains in a bag, the fine grind is OK.

Just don't let the temp ever get over 170 while you're steeping or you'll start getting harsh flavors.

You might want to check out canned Muntons extract - I think it has Maris Otter in it, but can't remember.

Great information! Thank you!

Maris Otter is usually your base malt - like your extract - so a pound (or whatever you ordered) won't make much difference in your recipe, unless you've bought 8-10 pounds.

and then....you need a mill.
great hobby, huh?

I've tried the rolling pin approach and it didn't work well for me, the grain was too hard so I was only cracking a few grains here and there and they were actually leaving indents in the rolling pin! So I ended up fininshing it off little bit at a time with motar and pestle. There are theads on here which indicate that cofee grinders handle the job pretty well for this situation where grain is steeped or mashed in bag. Blenders might do the job ok too.