Specialty grains steeped for sparge ?

[axelkahuna]

Long time brewer, first time poster. Was interested in brewing an all grain ale via infusion mash and instead of mashing my specialty grains with the grist, was wondering if steeping them in my sparge water at 150 degrees, then raising the temp to 170 prior to sparging would work, or if it would impact any flavor profile ? Thoughts and ideas welcome

 

[jwalk4]

Long time brewer, first time poster. Was interested in brewing an all grain ale via infusion mash and instead of mashing my specialty grains with the grist, was wondering if steeping them in my sparge water at 150 degrees, then raising the temp to 170 prior to sparging would work, or if it would impact any flavor profile ? Thoughts and ideas welcome

Doable. In Gordon Strong's Modern Homebrew Recipes he advocates for adding dark grains (which includes Crystal malts sometimes) at the vorlauf stage to cut back on astringency. So maybe start there?

Just be sure to watch your mash ph and adjust accordingly if you remove your dark grains from your mash grist (if you monitor that type of thing).

 

[HomebrewSupply]

Long time brewer, first time poster. Was interested in brewing an all grain ale via infusion mash and instead of mashing my specialty grains with the grist, was wondering if steeping them in my sparge water at 150 degrees, then raising the temp to 170 prior to sparging would work, or if it would impact any flavor profile ? Thoughts and ideas welcome

Any reason you want to do it? Interesting results here on mashing with darker grains versus adding at vorlauf: http://brulosophy.com/2015/11/30/ro...h-vs-capped-at-vorlauf-exbeeriment-results-2/

 

[axelkahuna]

just to do it. The wonderful thing about home-brewing is all the different variables at your disposal to use in pursuit of the perfect pint.

 

[HomebrewSupply]

just to do it. The wonderful thing about home-brewing is all the different variables at your disposal to use in pursuit of the perfect pint.

Definitely - that's one of my favorite parts, too! Seems like you could absolutely go that route, you just might end up with a less pronounced contribution from the speciality grains. I'd be more likely to try it with a recipe that I'm already familiar with, so I can see how steeping those grains changes the end product.