New Homebrewer - Walk Me Through Graff

[Bubbalu]

Hello everyone,
Being greener than this smiley at homebrewing (only made one batch of Apfelwein that is carbing up now), I ask once again for your wonderful assistance in my homebrew endeavors.

As afore mentioned, my homebrew experience involves mixing juice and sugar in a carboy and moving the lever on a capper and that is about it.

So....I am a bit lost on Graff, which I have chosen for my next challenge. I guess the good thing is that I know what all the ingredients are and my LHBS has them all, but I am confused on the actual brewing.

The first part of the recipe requires me to "Steep the 60L and torrified wheat in .75 gallons of water @ 155 degrees for 30 mins." I am assuming this means bring a pot of water to 155 degrees and then add the 120L malt (using cheap juice) and torrified wheat and then let sit for 30 min correct?

Next the recipe calls for "Sparge with .25 gallons 170 degree water and throw away grains." This means to add 170 degree water to the original pot and then remove the malt and wheat. However, should the 120L and wheat be in one of those hop/grain bags or just floating around in the water?

The "Add DME and bring to a boil." should be pretty simple at this point....Same with the adding hops.

I guess my big question is about the hop/grain bag because I am so new at this. Should a process like this be followed?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

I always hate asking these new questions for any of my hobbies, but alas, I find I must ask them so that I might learn and continue to progress...

-Thanks in advance for bearing with me, Bubba

 

[Fletch78]

Brew in a bag, yes.

The "steeping" process is actually a mash, the starches in the grains convert to sugars at 155 degrees.

"Sparge" means "Rinse"

So, you could remove the grain bag, place in a colander over the original pot and bring that liquid to 170, then teabag the grains for a few minutes in it. Or, bring another pot to 170 and teabag the grains in that one, then combine. The whole point of sparging is to get as much sugar out of the grain without getting tannins, which is why the temp shouldn't be over 170.


Does that help, or confuse you?

 

[Fletch78]

Also, I don't think you are supposed to mash or sparge with juice. The ph would screw it up.

 

[pimento]

The "steeping" process is actually a mash, the starches in the grains convert to sugars at 155 degrees.

No, it's not. A mash requires a base malt to convert the starches into sugars. Crystal malt has already undergone a special mash to convert its starches, that's why it's called a steeping grain. Torrified wheat does not have diastatic power and is simply to add some proteins for head retention.

No conversion takes place during a steep.

So....I am a bit lost on Graff, which I have chosen for my next challenge. I guess the good thing is that I know what all the ingredients are and my LHBS has them all, but I am confused on the actual brewing.

Steeping is exactly like making tea, You are soaking your grains in hot water in order to leech the flavors out. Afterward you pour some more hot water over the grains to get the last bits of flavor out.

Don't worry to much about exact temps, steeping is very forgiving.

The easiest method is to put everything in a fine mesh/muslin/cheese cloth bag, but you can also use a fine metal strainer or just throw them into the hot water and strain them out after.

Msheridan69 put some videos up on making graff if you're still concerned.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/user/msheridan69#p/a/u/2/w3I8yyCBjMA[/ame]

 

[Fletch78]

Bubba's recipe specifically stated to "steep" at 155... so I threw in the mash logic to help answer her/his questions in order to differentiate from the sparge. Questions... answers... all in context.

 

[pimento]

And the context was steeping, calling it a mash and claiming conversion happens simply confuses the issue and gives him incorrect information.

Actually I came here to post Msheridan69s video walk through, since the OP had asked to be walked through graff making.

Correcting you was simply a happy coincidence

 

[Bubbalu]

Thank you all for your responses but thank you for the videos especially, those should be stickied