Steeping Black Malt In Secondary..... Foam Over?

[tmonk1]

So that pretty much sums it up. hate the acrid roast/burnt note from black malts, have tried all the dehusked ones too, was trying to see if i could do a steep in secondary to pick up color and just the lightest bit of flavor possible from some midnight wheat.

Pulled off a gallon, added 1/2 oz milled midnight wheat and..... started foaming over and out of the carboy.

Maybe the acidic nature of the wheat is causing a reaction and co2 is releasing? otherwise i cant figure it out, we're at room temp, there shouldnt be that much dissolved co2 in the beer. weird.

In any case, once it settles i'll dry hop and see what happens. but curious what the hell is going on here....?

 

[Miraculix]

So that pretty much sums it up. hate the acrid roast/burnt note from black malts, have tried all the dehusked ones too, was trying to see if i could do a steep in secondary to pick up color and just the lightest bit of flavor possible from some midnight wheat.

Pulled off a gallon, added 1/2 oz milled midnight wheat and..... started foaming over and out of the carboy.

Maybe the acidic nature of the wheat is causing a reaction and co2 is releasing? otherwise i cant figure it out, we're at room temp, there shouldnt be that much dissolved co2 in the beer. weird.

In any case, once it settles i'll dry hop and see what happens. but curious what the hell is going on here....?

Huge and rough surface area of the malt is almost forcing the co2 out of solution. Next time try to soak the black malt over night in cold water instead and add the liquid to the end of the boil for five minutes.

Did a Schwarzbier like this with ten percent dehusked roast barley. Very little roast character in the final beer but dark as the night

 

[bucketnative]

As @Miraculix says, it's all about nucleation sites in the grain that you dunked in the beer.

I have a question, as miraculix has done this in the past... Are there no worries about infecting the beer with organisms from the unpasteurized/boiled grain? If I were to do it, I would plan on cold steeping the grain, but then doing a quick boil on the extract to sanitize prior to adding it to the fermenter. Is that unnecessary?

 

[Miraculix]

As @Miraculix says, it's all about nucleation sites in the grain that you dunked in the beer.

I have a question, as miraculix has done this in the past... Are there no worries about infecting the beer with organisms from the unpasteurized/boiled grain? If I were to do it, I would plan on cold steeping the grain, but then doing a quick boil on the extract to sanitize prior to adding it to the fermenter. Is that unnecessary?

Just do the cold steeping the day before you brew and dump the dark liquid into the boil for the last few minutes! I know that people say black malt is almost clean but I would be to scared to use it without heating it...

 

[Yooper]

Don't put malt in fermented beer! It's loaded with lactobacillus. You can cold steep it, and bring it to a boil, but it needs to be boiled before adding it to beer.

 

[bucketnative]

Just do the cold steeping the day before you brew and dump the dark liquid into the boil for the last few minutes! I know that people say black malt is almost clean but I would be to scared to use it without heating it...

OK, thanks for clearing that up, because the OP is taking beer out of the fermenter and steeping grains in that prior to returning it to the fermenter.

 

[Miraculix]

OK, thanks for clearing that up, because the OP is taking beer out of the fermenter and steeping grains in that prior to returning it to the fermenter.

Uh, I overread that part. Sounds like a really bad idea to me!