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EmptyH

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Yesterday was my 5th brew, and it always seems that I make at least one bonehead mistake every brew (hence the name Snafu Brewing). They have all turned out very drinkable, maybe not the greatest beer in the world but good and I am happy with my progress.

Yesterday's mistake, however, is an interesting one. I decided that I was going to try making my own recipe, nothing too complex just something nice and simple.

3lbs Light DME
3lbs Extra Light DME
1lb Vienna Malt
1lb 20L Crystal Malt
1oz Cascade Hops
2oz Saaz Hops
.7 oz Coriander

As I was steeping the grains (yes I am sure the experts already see the problem:drunk: ) I was reading Papazian. Appearantly Vienna Malt has to be mashed. Well I have never mashed before (unless you count the Monster Mash)

I figured at this point I might as well do what I can, but with out the equiptment to sparge and since I was just reading about how to mash as the grains were steeping I knew I wouldn't be able to a proper mash. I did a "rest" at 158 for about 15 min. Hopefully that should help some.

My question is; what happens when grains that are suppose to be mashed, are steeped? What kind of "unique" experience in I in for this time?

Thanks,

MTH
 
EmptyH said:
My question is; what happens when grains that are suppose to be mashed, are steeped? What kind of "unique" experience in I in for this time?

What happens is that you get unconverted starches in your beer (because they haven't converted into sugars). It can lead to cloudy and/or hazy beer.

I wouldn't sweat it too much. I'm certain that I steeped Vienna at least once during my extract brewing days with no particularly ill effects.
 
Vienna has some enzymes, so you might get away with this. 15 minutes is on the short side though. Most likely you will have some starch in the brew.
 
If you want to do a real simple mini-mash in the future, put the Vienna (or Munich, or whatever other grain you are mashing) in a grain bag, let it steep between 150 - 158 degrees for about 45 minutes, then put it in a collander and rinse it with ~170 degree water. You won't get great efficiency, but the starches will convert and you'll have sparged out a good amount of their goodness.
 
It sounds pretty similar to my Screwed the Pooch Lager. I steeped my specialty grains, boiled it for an hour while I added my three stages of hops, and realized after 60 minutes of boiling I forgot to add the dry extract. After I added that in it boiled over twice. I'm planning on bottling it this weekend, and it will probably be the best beer I've ever made.
 
Well the "potato chip ale" (so named because of all the starch) didn't make it :( I came home from work today and looked into the secondary and saw these strange large white bubbles that had spiderweb hair looking stuff on it, I took the airlock out and it smelled horrible, very sour, so I ended up dumping it. It must have gotten infected when I racked to the secondary. This truly was a cursed brew. Would the unconverted starch or temperature (it was 77 in the bedroom due to a recent warm snap we had) have anything to do with its untimely demise, or did I just screw the pooch when I sanitized? I thought I was being careful and my other four beers have all been good.

Oh well I guess I had to get a bad batch eventually, can't get too over confident.

I raise a glass of Amber Belgian Ale to the ill fated "potato chip ale" it was too young to die.
 
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