Specialty grains seprate from mash?

[Celt]

I read the other day that steeping the specialty grains separate from the mash and putting the liquor in near the end of the boil can help the flavors come through better as well as cut astringency and bitterness they may get from going through the whole process.
Has anyone done this? If so would you share the way you did it?

Thanks

 

[CadillacAndy]

I do this frequently, but only for very dark grains when I'm looking for color and not much flavor - roasted barley/carafa mainly. The idea is that you can extract the color quickly without getting a lot of roasty/coffee/chocolate flavors and cut down on acrid/astringent/ashtray flavors that long, hot contact times with these roasted malts can contribute. For something where you're looking for roasty flavors, like an dry Irish stout for example, you'd probably want to add it to the mash as normal.

I usually put carafa III special in a coffee grinder and add it to the top of mash right before I dump in my sparge water. This gets the color out quickly and keeps the roast restrained.

 

[skydvr74]

I did this for a RIS. I mashed about 24# of 2 row with a little crystal 60 in my mash tun. I steeped 2# mixed chocolate and carafa III in a separate vessel. Added both together at the start of the boil and it came out great.

 

[tochsner]

Last weekend I brewed a Schwarzbier and decided to try something new. I start with all my brewing water in my HLT. I steeped the midnight wheat while heating to strike temperature then removed the grains. I proceeded to mash and sparge with this water like I normally would. The sample that went into fermenter was definitely less astringent that I had experienced in the past.