steeping, keeping the lid on?

[Pelican521]

I've been doing a little reading up on doing a partial mash and it occurred to me that I wasn't sure if I should be keeping the lid on when steeping the specialty grains in an all-extract kit.

From what I've read, you should cover when mashing grain but how about when you steep specialty grains? I guess I have left the lid off when doing an extract kit, is that right or wrong?

 

[CityOChampBrew]

only reason to keep the lid on is to hold temp

 

[gstrawn]

It doesn't matter as long as you aren't over heating the grains

 

[NivekD]

Cover it...take it off when you start the boil.

 

[feinbera]

Probably doesn't really matter .... you'll get to temp quicker and stay at temp better with the lid on, but you're probably not hot enough to be boiling anything off, desirable or undesirable, and you're not mucking around with enzymes, so, you don't really care if you're a few degrees off-target.

Boiling is a different story, you definitely wanna leave the lid off -- one of the many things the boil achieves is driving off volatile compounds which would otherwise lead to off flavors; if you boil with the lid on, most of the steam containing the undesirable compounds will just condense on the lid and drip back into the wort.

 

[Pelican521]

Yeah, I've always kept the lid off when boiling but wasn't sure if I should for steeping. I guess I'll put it on to hold the temp better.

On that topic, has anyone put their steeping grain pot in a sink of hot water (close to 150 degrees) vs wrapped in a towel or something?

 

[YeastHerder]

I doubt your hottest tap water is 150F, it is probably closer to 125F. If your goal is to keep something warm, you want to insulate with something that is a really poor conductor of heat. Water will conduct heat away from your pot a bit better than just air. Unless you have a method for keeping the water bath warm, its just going to dissipate its heat into whatever the container is (metal sink, etc).

I do the wrapped in a towel thing to keep things hot, cold water baths to cool things down.

 

[diS]

You want to take lid off at boiling so DMS can evaporate, while steeping keep it on the pot to maintain temperature.

 

[petey_c]

My oven's lowest temp is 170°F. I get it to that temp and a minute or two before I start to steep, turn it off. I keep it in the oven, lid on, door closed for the entire steep time (45 min.). I stir every 10 min. or so. I have a temp probe ($20, I think) so I can monitor the temp.

 

[unionrdr]

For steeping or mashing,I wrap the kettle in my thinsulate lined winter hunting coat. Holds tem real well.

 

[Fennis]

I use a 10g/40qt aluminum pot that is rather thick and retains heat really well. When I steep or mash I turn off the heat, cover the pot, and wrap it in an old thick comforter that my lovely dog chewed one end off when she was a puppy. I might have to fire up the burner once every 20 minutes for a minute or two to keep the temperature steady, but it seems to work.

When I was a young brewer, I did make the mistake of leaving the cover on and boiling. The beer came out with a noticeable metallic taste and I undershot my OG big time because the water didn't boil off enough--I never made that mistake again.