I've been brewing for a few years now but until recently I thought I knew all there was about steeping.
When I first started brewing, I had a 4 gal pot and I'd steep in 3 gals of water, add extract, boil, add hops, cool, top off, pitch, and close up the bucket.
I now have a 10 gal stainless stock pot and since I can now do full 6+ gal boils, I was steeping in 6 gallons.
Is this correct? I thought I read somewhere that you should be steeping in as little as 2 gallons? What are the thoughts on this.
Recently when I brewed I did things even more differently. Not sure if you'd consider it a partial or mini mash, but this is what I did.
Still having my 4 gal pot, I filled it with 3 gallons of water and heated it to 155. In my new 10 gal pot, I also added 3 gal and heated it to 155. In my large pot, I threw in my nylon bag of crushed specialty grains and steeped it for 30 minutes.
When the 30 minutes were up, I suspended a collander above the 10 gal pot, put the grain in there and let it drain. I then took my smaller pot of 155 water and dumped/"sparged" my grain bag with it. I then finished my beer like I normally would.
Is this a "proper" technique? Can I expect to get better extraction/flavor by doing this? Is it a waste of time? Can I use this as a partial mash technique allowing me to use grains that I haven't been able to in the past (like biscuit or victory)?
Thanks for you help.
When I first started brewing, I had a 4 gal pot and I'd steep in 3 gals of water, add extract, boil, add hops, cool, top off, pitch, and close up the bucket.
I now have a 10 gal stainless stock pot and since I can now do full 6+ gal boils, I was steeping in 6 gallons.
Is this correct? I thought I read somewhere that you should be steeping in as little as 2 gallons? What are the thoughts on this.
Recently when I brewed I did things even more differently. Not sure if you'd consider it a partial or mini mash, but this is what I did.
Still having my 4 gal pot, I filled it with 3 gallons of water and heated it to 155. In my new 10 gal pot, I also added 3 gal and heated it to 155. In my large pot, I threw in my nylon bag of crushed specialty grains and steeped it for 30 minutes.
When the 30 minutes were up, I suspended a collander above the 10 gal pot, put the grain in there and let it drain. I then took my smaller pot of 155 water and dumped/"sparged" my grain bag with it. I then finished my beer like I normally would.
Is this a "proper" technique? Can I expect to get better extraction/flavor by doing this? Is it a waste of time? Can I use this as a partial mash technique allowing me to use grains that I haven't been able to in the past (like biscuit or victory)?
Thanks for you help.
