davidgaeta said:
I am preparing an english nut brown ale and I added my specialty malts to the wort and it started to boil almost instantly. I thought that I was supposed to leave the malt in the wort pre-boil and take it out as soon at it started to boil. I left it in after the boil started and turned down the heat. I wondered if this would affect my fermentable sugar level or if it would be alright. What about the taste also, would this play with the character of the brew?
thanks-
dg.
Not sure what you're up to, but I know this much: it ain't right.
Boiling grains =
bad news bears. 
I'm assuming, because of lack of explanation, that you're doing extract batches w/ steeping grains. The steeping process is done
prior to the boil. The process of steeping grains involves steeping specialty grains in 165f +/- water for 30 mins+. This extracts very little sugar; the steeping process is mainly meant to pull out flavor and color from the grains. As a rule, you should not surpass 170f during the steeping period.
Then, after the 30 mins or so, the grains are REMOVED from the water and DISCARDED. THEN, you use that water, which has been flavored and colored by the grains, as the basis for your boiling wort. Start the boil, add the hops and extract, etc.
If you boil grains, you will end up with a very tannic, harsh, weirdo beer. Now, I know you didn't mean to boil it, but if you were that close to a boil, then, you're doing the same thing. Didn't matter if you were actually boiling or not...if you were at 210 or so, you were in bad news bears territory. Once you get above 180f (if you were around boiling, then you were well above that), you start to extract tannins from the grains, which is bad for your beer. Do you know how long the grains were sitting in 180f+ water?
The process of MASHING, which is very different from steeping, actually uses heated water (around 153f) to activate the enzymes in the grains, which convert the starches to fermentable sugars. In this process, you also do NOT boil grains. You "steep" them in 153f +/- water for 60+ mins, then DISCARD them.
Sorry for the caps, but I just wanted to iterate my point powerfully. Good luck with your beer...and remember, keep that steeping water below 170f.
