Newbie Beer Kit Question

[KopyKat]

I just bought my first ingredient kit from Austin Homebrew Supply and they have three choices - Extract, Mini-Mash and all grain. I bought the extract for my first attempt and when I looked in the sack, there was an 8 lb tub of extract and a 1 1/4 lb bag of grain. I asked the checkout clerk if I had gotten the wrong thing and he said no. I was under the impression that extract recipes were all extract and no grain.
Question: Do all extract kits have grain as well as the extract?

 

[Orfy]

There are several types of kit.

Extract. - 100% extract (usually using hopped extract)
Extract and mini mash - Mainly Extract with some specialty grain (Sometimes with hops)
Grain and extract - Some extract, Some base grain and some Specialty grain and usually hops
All Grain - Base grain and specialty grain and hops

The mini mash bit of the kit is soaking (steeping) of the he grain to add flavour body and some sugar to the wort.

I'm sure there would be instructions included but I reckon it'd be along the lines of...
Heat the required amount of water to 150f. put the grain in a muslin bag and soak for 30 minutes. (Meantime warm the can of extract in warm water)
Remove the grain. Open the extract and add to the water.
Boil for the required time make any hop additions. Cool the wort by suggested method. (add any suggested cool water) add wort to fermenter. When below 80f add yeast.

Forllow fermentation instructions.

Hope that helps.

 

[KopyKat]

Thanks, for the information. I talked to different person at Austin Homebrew over the phone and he confirmed what you said. They apparently have very few recipes without at least a little over a pound of specialty grain. Their Mini-Mash contains a little over twice the grain as the normal extract recipe. I think I will do the mini-mash after this.

 

[Orfy]

The main differnce between a mini mash and a full mash is that with a full mash the grain soaks up most of the water used rather than sitting in a large volume of water so the grain needs to be rinsed after to release the flavour and sugars. with a mini mash it just gets released into the large volume of water so no rinsing (sparging) is required.

If you want to learn more www.howtobrew.com is a great start.

 

[KopyKat]

Thanks again for your clarification and the link. Looks very useful.

 

[david_42]

Check the list of grains, if there isn't any 2-row pale, you just have specialty grains that require steeping at about 170F for 30-45 minutes. Their mini-mashes run about 3-4 lbs of grain and about half will be pale.

The instructions are very good, as is the final product.