Minor cold steep dilemma?

[mprowland]

I doubled up on my specialty grains(roasted barley and chocolate malt) for what I thought was total of 2.5 lbs. When I got home I realized that my LHBS also doubled up my crystal malt as well and threw it in the same bag as the dark grains. I now have 4.5 lbs. in one bag. Can or should I cold steep all three? I realize I'll probably need around 2 gallons of water to do so.....or should I just repurchase the correct amount of specialty grains in SEPARATE bags! Thanks for any input....Mark

 

[BargainFittings]

So what did you end up doing?

 

[mprowland]

I repurchased the grain in separate bags. I threw the crystal in the mash and cold steeped the dark grains for 24 hours at room temperature. I did double up on my dark grains. I'm having a hard time getting a drinkable brown or dark beer so I didn't want to take any chances. If this one turns out decent, I'll probably make the same thing again and cold steep my original mixed dark grains/crystal. I'm about to keg it so I'm anxious to see if it turned out decent. I just made a brown where I added the dark grains in the last 5 minutes of the mash. So far, it's much better than any other brown I've made.

 

[BargainFittings]

Have you checked your local water profile?

Are the darker malts overwhelming your darker beers?

 

[mprowland]

I've used known good "city" water, store bought spring water and I now use R.O. with BruN'water; none of which made a difference. The issue is that I don't taste enough of the darker grains. There seems to be an astringency that covers up any chocolate or roastiness flavors. I think I'm finally on the right track now. The last brown I made seems to be getting better by the day. I've made this same recipe 5 times now and it normally gets worse with age. I've dumped this recipe the last 5 times I've made it. This has been a miserable process of trial and error. I think I see the light though!

 

[newtobrew1981]

Have you tried throwing them in the boil kettle in Muslin bags preboil