steeping brown malt?

[steppenwolph]

Can I get away with steeping 0.5 lb of brown malt in an extract with steeping grains recipe? This would be for a 5 gal batch. The other grains include Crystal 80, 2 lbs, Carapils, 1lb, Briess Special roast, 0.5 lb, and chocolate malt, 0.25 lb. I got a little carried away with the steeping grains, I know, but it is all crushed and mixed now. So, can I steep it, or do I need to add some two row and mash it?

 

[smagee]

Why wouldn't you be allowed to steep it? You should be fine steeping it just as you would any other specialty grain. Admittedly, that *is* a lot, but so long as you have the capacity to steep them with enough liquid, go to town.

 

[steppenwolph]

Thanks for the reply. My LBHS guy says brown malt needs to be mashed, as does the Brewtarget 1.2.3. software I am using. I was just checking out to see if anyone has steeped it successfully, or if it would put too much starch in the wort. I am still in the figuring it out as I go stage.

 

[rustbucket]

i would think that it would need to be mashed or steeped... to get the intended use out of it.. i would throw some 2-row with it...

 

[LexusChris]

I'm pretty sure Brown malt needs to be mashed. It contributes starches, but has no enzymes of its own to convert it. So, mini-mash it with some 2-row if you want to include it.

Good luck!
--LexusChris

 

[smagee]

I'll defer to the crowd; I've never worked with it myself, and assumed that steeping would simply impart some color. That may not get its intended effect though, it would seem.

 

[AnOldUR]

That may not get its intended effect though, it would seem.

"Intended effect" is what matters. If your recipe is depending on it for fermentable sugars you'll need something with diastatic power in there. If you're only looking for some color and flavor contributions, steeping would be enough. It's your recipe, so it's your call.

 

[steppenwolph]

"Intended effect" is what matters. If your recipe is depending on it for fermentable sugars you'll need something with diastatic power in there. If you're only looking for some color and flavor contributions, steeping would be enough. It's your recipe, so it's your call.

Thank you all, gents. All the brown malt needs to do is provide some flavor and color, so it looks good for steeping. I was wondering if having unconverted starches in the wort would be a problem. Its only half a pound, so I was thinking this would not produce enough starches to noticeably affect the brew, but I wanted to ask to be sure.

 

[jonmohno]

You can get starch haze. If you added just a little base malt and steeped it another 15 min you probably would have a mini-mash. It is also possible to get conversion within a half an hour also therefore it being a mini-mash.Good stepping stone to partial mash right here, just a little more time and some base malt and you can add some differnet character.This malt is listed under color malt in Midwest's and Palmers is listed as needs to be mashed. With a small amount i wouldnt sweat it.I would throw some base malt in and steep it longer and maybe you wont get starch haze. Looks like your beer will be dark enough to not matter though.Ive only used it in small amounts also but i always do partial mashes or all grain now.

 

[steppenwolph]

@jonmohno: The beer should be a little dark for starch haze to be an issue, but I've read about excess astringency resulting from unconverted starches in the wort. That is my main concern.

I had wanted to keep this brew simple, but we're past that now. How much pale two row would I need to do a mini-mash for this brew? A pound or two?

 

[jonmohno]

My guess would be an equal part of base malt would work.If your doing a pound or two your getting into a higher gravity beer if thats what you want,the more base malt the higher the abv.About a pound or so of base malt would keep it still simple. Why so much carapils.Just wondering?
1.25# of base malt=1 # of liquid malt extract so you could reduce your extract if you wanted to stay with your abv.
Just looking at a malts chart looks like you could use special roast for steeping as a substitute,looks like it slightly less color than brown malt.

 

[smagee]

With that small an amount of brown malt, anywhere from .5-1lb base malt will give you enough enzyme to convert it. I still say you'll be fine steeping so long as you don't care about starch conversion, but mashing it won't really add much work to it anyway. I wouldn't swap brown for special, as the latter will bring some different flavors that wouldn't really be ideal for a brown.

I'd just toss a pound of 2-row in and expect slightly higher OG as a result. If you're mashing, be sure to plan to keep the temperature in the vicinity of 150F (as opposed to typical steeping temp of closer to 170F) so you get proper conversion.

 

[steppenwolph]

OK, I am going to drop a pound of extract out of the recipe and add in some pale two row and mash it. Although I tend to agree with those who say that it won't hurt to simply steep it, my eventual goal is to do all grain. So this will be a good practice session.

@jonmohno: the reason for the carapils is that I was combining two recipes from this month's issue of Zymergy. One was for something called Janet's Brown Ale. It is a big beer, with on OG up around 1.090. It was an extract version that just had a couple steeping grains. Then there was this gold medal winning brown ale recipe, also in the same issue, and I just took the stepping grains from that and mixed it with the extract from Janet's, and the hop schedule from Janet's and that is the recipe here:


8.0 lb LME
Brown malt, 0.5 lb
Crystal 80, 2 lbs,
Carapils, 1lb,
Briess Special roast, 0.5 lb,
Chocolate malt, 0.25 lb.
Pale two row malt, 1.5 lb

Hops:
1.5 oz. Northern Brewer, FWH
1.0 oz. Northern Brewer, 60 min
1.0 oz. Northern Brewer, 15 min
1.0 oz. Willamette, Dry hop

Mash grains 30 min @ 152 F, sparge at 170 F, then per usual for an extract brew.

Pitch two packets Danstar Nottingham, rehydrated.

Color should be around 27 SRM
IBU's should be around 50.

What do you all think?