okay so this leaves me asking more questions lol sorry
can I mash the specialty grains provided with my kits??
is there a difference between grains used for steeping and grains used for mashing???
maybe I already have the answer correct me if I am wrong please.
when mashing you use more of a 2 row, or pale malt as these have the most concentration of enzymes/starches to remove the most fermentable sugars.
where steeping you use grains that have been kilned longer resulting in less enzymes/starches/sugars but contribute more to flavor and color
is this correct???
....also how much more time is required to perform mashing?? is it based off the amount grains ???
steeping only requires 20-30 min.
Exactly.
If you look at a typical all grain recipe, you'll see something like this:
8-12 pounds of base malts (2-row, pilsner, malted wheat, maris otter, vienna, etc.)
.5-2 pounds of specialty malts (crystals/caramels, roasted malts, honey malt, etc.)
The base malts are light in color and produce the bulk of your fermentable sugars. The speciality malts tend to have a lot of color and a lot of flavor, but less fermentables.
When you have a extract + steeping grains recipe, you are replacing your base malts with extracts (which were themselves made from base malts by the extract manufacturer) and then steeping the specialty malts to pull out the color and flavor.
There is no difference between the specialty grains you are using for steeping and the specialty grains you would use in an all grain recipe. But, you can't mash specialty grains by themselves, generally. As you mention, they tend to have much less of either enzymes or unconverted starches.
A standard mash is 60 minutes long, though there are many variations on this.