Adding grain to fermenter

[Brew_Meister_General]

I'm aiming to add 300g of dark crystal malt to my fermenter and wanted a second opinion on whether to treat it like I would a standard mash:

Steep at 70c for 30 minutes
Boil for 90 minutes
Ice bath for cold break
Add to fermenter (but without splashing)

 

[bja]

Boiling it for 5 minutes should be fine.

 

[cubalz]

I am very curious as to why you would want to do this. Seems to me that it should have been added to the original grain bill and mashed in.

 

[Kampenken]

Yeah, that's why I clicked on this thread. Some new process I haven't heard of and am interested.

 

[brewcat]

It seems you would want to just steep it and add the liquid. But why?

 

[TheBigLebrewsk1]

Pasteurize and Sterilize, and any other "-ize"

 

[Brew_Meister_General]

Either way I decided to cold steep the malts for 24 hours, boil for 5 minutes and then add that to the fermenter.

The aroma and flavour has definitely increased, but so has a bot of an unpleasant bitterness that I hope dissolves once its ready to drink or after some ageing.

The reason I didn't mash was because my attempt at caramelisation during the boil didn't deliver the toffee flavour i wanted. Next time I'll boil a small amount at the start rather than the whole thing for 3 hours.

It was for an ordinary bitter of 3.3% (a little lower than my target of 3.6%).

 

[HollywoodTK]

You're not going to get toffee flavor from steeped grains...
Interested to see what flavors you do get though

 

[Kampenken]

I thought this was interesting and something to try, so I searched here on adding toffee flavor, found and thought I'd share:

"Last quad I did, during the boil I blackened some raisins in a pan with some wort. THen deglazed the pan with more wort and added everything back in. Great toffee dark fruit flavor."

and...

"There's also toffee flavored extract (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XWKHZO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) that you could add post-fermentation. Getting the right flavor profile can be tricky with extracts...too much and it'll ruin a beer."

and....

"One poster recommended taking table sugar, spreading it out on a baking sheet and baking it in the oven until it melts and starts to brown. The longer you bake it, the more flavor you will get.

Another poster recommended cooking a sugar water mixture to create caramel and adding that to the beer.

I assume I am also going to have to up the crystal malts (probably C120 since I have it on hand) to get some flavor that way as well. "

 

[Brew_Meister_General]

Another poster recommended cooking a sugar water mixture to create caramel and adding that to the beer.

Well that was my original intention, I even fried some sugar just to see what taste it would deliver and it was perfect. The issue what that supposedly I would have to invert the sugar (separate sucrose into glucose and fructose) using citric acid and ammonium carbonate before caramelising as described in in Randy Mosher's Guide to Home Brewing.

However this doesn't really make any sense to me as sugar is just glucose but I thought I'd play it safe and steep some crystal 400 to get more classic flavours like dark fruit and coffee along with the toffee.