Specialty grain steping question

[CLMCHENRY]

When steeping specialty grains with an extract kit the instructions usually say to steep at 150ish for 30 minutes. It seems to me that when the water is 150
the center of the sack of grains is in the 130ish area and doesn't seem to come up to proper temp till the very end of the steep. It seems as though this may cause a lack of body and flavor to the finished product.

My question is can I just dump all the specialty grains in to the water then screen them out after the 30 minutes? Will this help the finished products flavor?

 

[dfaridoni]

I never thought of that but I would think if the water is 150ish it would permate throught all the grain and not work it's way from the out side in

 

[Pie_Man]

Ideally, the steeping grains should be loose in the bag, so water can permeate through. That should help maintain temperature. There shouldn't be that big of a temperature drop, perhaps you need more water? When doing all-grain, the temp at dough-in drops the water temp about 10-15 degrees, but there's a lot more grain involved. Are your grains stored at room temp?

Also, you can compensate by getting the steeping water to 160ish and then adding your grains. You can also stir your grain bag around. Adding the grains directly is acceptable, it's just more effort to remove them.

 

[billl]

If your steeping grains are taking that long to come up to temp, you need to use a bigger bag or divide them into 2 bags. Not only do they have to get warm, but they need water to be moving fairly freely around them.

And yes, you could certainly let them float free. That is what most AG brewers do. You just need a way to strain out the spent grain. You aren't going to be able to just scoop it out easily, so we are talking about a transfer to another pot through a strainer. Not a big deal, but that would be 2 more things you have to clean.

 

[Pezman1]

The above posters hit the nail on the head. Too many people want to make a rock hard ball with their grains and muslin bag. Instead, tie the bag at the very tippy-top and let the grains be loose.


I heat 1 gallon of water to 170 degrees, turn off the heat, and add the grain bag. The temp drops to about 155ish right away, and I heat it back up a bit at 15 minutes in.

The rest of the water is heating in my boil kettle as I wait for the grain tea to steep.

I then set the grain bag in a large strainer over the brew kettle and pour the grain tea over the bag into the kettle. Easy, and no grain particles in the BK.

Pez.

 

[dcp27]

'proper' temp is rather irrelevent with steeping grains. you're just leaching the already converted sugars out, so it should work nearly as well at 130 vs 150 (its a fairly minor viscosity difference). like everyone else already pointed out, keep the grains looser as you're missing out on the inner portion when its balled up