Steeping grains in wort vs. water: extraction efficiency vs. tannins

[frankvw]

It's possible that your "CaraMunich III" and the table's "CaraMunich" are malts from different maltsters.

Of course. Almost all the malts I'm using are from Weyermann. This weekend I tried steeping 5 different malts. I got somewhere around 2-3PPG out of them. Palmer predicts much more. I'll see if I can get some malts from other maltings. Unfortunately I can't get anything from Briess here. That said, CaraMunich III is simply C60 under a trademarkable brand name. And while there will be differences between German, English and American malts, I can't see them being that dramatic.

As a matter of interest, has anyone tried to replicate Palmer's steeping tests?

It's possible that there is a typing mistake in the table in the 4th edition. [...]It's possible that there are other possible explanations for the differences.

Typo's notwithstanding, most data in the 4th edition table is in line with the first version (online) and what is widely used in home brewing. If there is anything in the book that would explain the discrepancies I'm seeing in my own tests, I haven't spotted them.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Is "glassy vs mealy" a factor here? Would 'mashing' the malt with just added enzymes, rather than 'steeping', offer any insights?

CaraMunich III is simply C60 under a trademarkable brand name

When making ingredient substitutions in recipes, the idea that caramel/crystal malts of the same *L are generally inter-changable has "worked for me" - in that I get a good beer out of the converted recipe. Over time, advice from more experienced brewers has lead me to conclude that it's good (for me anyway) to treat each malt as unique. Categories are helpful as a guide, but there are times when "the map is not the territory".

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Precisely why are you steeping your grains instead of mashing them?

Does your water supply have chlorine and/or chloramines, and if so, how are you treating your water to eliminate these anti-microbials?

Does your tap water have high alkalinity?

 

[frankvw]

Precisely why are you steeping your grains instead of mashing them?
Does your water supply have chlorine and/or chloramines, and if so, how are you treating your water to eliminate these anti-microbials?
Does your tap water have high alkalinity?

Many home brewers in our area use borehole water from a dolomite layer, which has a ridiculously high alkalinity. Many have also limited equipment. Extract-with-steeped-grains just works for many people here and I'm trying to formulate a bunch of quick-and-easy recipes for that particular audience. I usually brew full grain beers myself and properly treat my brewing water based on the water report and the desired water profile for that particular beer, but not everyone is able to do that. Hence the steeping experiments.