when a recipe tells you to steep specialty (and base) grains in all 6 gal water

[jigidyjim]

Palmer seems pretty clear that you are supposed to steep grains in a limited amount of water (I think it was 1gal->1pound). What do you usually do when a recipe says to steep in the full pot of 6 gal? This is the 60-min IPA recipe, so I'm inclined to trust the recipe, but it also sort of goes against all the techniques I've been learning.

As a side note, it also says to steep amber malt... which doesn't seem to exist anywhere (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/british-amber-malt-56801/) and I'm also confused because I think that would be something you need to mash, not steep, since it is basically toasted 2-row, which is a base grain?

Thanks.

 

[Walker]

That does seem like a lot of water to steep some specialty grains in. I'd do what you are used to do doing and use a small amount of water for the grain.

Mashing vs steeping: don't think of steeping and mashing as two totally different things. They are basically the same. You soak grain in warm water for a while. That's mashing in a nutshell, you just need to make sure you are in the 150-160*F range and use a couple quarts of water per pound of grain.

As for the brown malt, it has no enzymes to convert its starch to sugar. It is NOT a base malt (there was a guy on here that bought 50# sack of it before realizing that it could not be used as a base malt.) FYI: the same is true of Amber malt.... no enzymes.... needs some help to convert to sugar.

You would need 2-row or 6-row along with those grains to make proper use of them.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Less water is better, the opposite of mashing where 90 gallons or so will get you 99% efficiency.

I forget exactly why, but the chemical reactions are too diluted in 6 gallons of water.

 

[Revvy]

Well if your recipe is geared to doing a full boil, then I can see no reason NOT to do a full volume steep......

 

[Yooper]

The best results with mashing come with approximately 1-2 quarts of water per pound of grain. This has to do with the pH of the water/grain (mash) so that the enzymes can work and convert the starches to sugars. In a steep, the amount of water isn't critical since you're just getting out flavors and colors from the grains. In a mash, it's more critical. I like to stay around 1.25-1.50 quarts per pound of grain, since it's thin enough to stir well, but not too thin if I have to add water to hit my desired mash temp.

 

[jigidyjim]

Well if your recipe is geared to doing a full boil, then I can see no reason NOT to do a full volume steep......

Well according to Palmer and some posters here, the amount of water does matter for steeping...

But I guess what a few of you are saying is that because you aren't causing any reactions in steeping grains, the amount of water doesn't matter?

 

[kidsmakeyoucrazy]

All of my recipes so far have said "bring 1.5-2 gallons of water to temp, but if you can do more then do it"...so I've been doing 4 gallons. I never thought much about it since I'm not actually mashing but I don't really know enough about the process yet to know if it helps or hurts with steeping grains. I know it wouldn't be good for a mash with 1lb of grains in 4 gallons.