pumpkinstein

[rewster451]

I started a pumpkin beer, and above my concerns about the use of pumpkin it was also my first use of grains. The information I got led me to do it this way, but I hadn't yet found this site:

Crush grains slightly and toss into cool water. Slowly raise the temp to 158 over the course of thirty minutes. Hold it at 158 for thirty minutes, strain. Also, I am unsure of the use of the word sparge. I'm a newbie and also kind of an idiot; sorry for the mundane questions.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Sparge: rinse.

 

[Darth Konvel]

Sounds about right. What kind of grains were you using?

"Sparge" essentially means "Rinse". Sparging is the act of rinsing the grain in one fashion or another.

edit: bah, HB beat me to it

 

[rewster451]

I was using crystal malt and black patent....
What is a stuck sparge?

 

[homebrewer_99]

Go ahead...Lupus...

But in the meantime here's a link to definitions:

http://www.bodensatz.com/staticpages/index.php?page=glossary

 

[Darth Konvel]

Oh, Oh, my turn

On the malts: Sounds good. You don't need to worry too much about the exact temperature you steep specialty grain at, so long as you don't go too hot.

Struck sparge: When your grains "clog" your flow of water while you sparge.

 

[sdent]

What would be the benefit of slowly raising your temperature rather than all at once?

 

[david_42]

Some of the enzymes start working as low as 90F and historically brewers stepped the temperature from 90 to 120 to 140 to 158 (or there abouts). Almost all malts today have been processed (fully modified) to eliminate this requirement. Palmer (the Engineer's BrewMaster) has a detailed chapter on what stepping did & why we don't do it any more.