Wort share – ideas for grain steeping?

[jrunberg]

So here's the deal: Center of the Universe in Ashland, VA is doing a wort share this weekend and I signed up for a slot. Each person gets 6gal of wort (100% 2-row barley mashed at 14 degrees plato – don't know the temp until Saturday) and an invitation to submit bottles to be judged.

Honestly, I haven't brewed in probably a year and did maybe a dozen all-grain BAIB mashes before that. I'm looking forward to getting busy again! Which brings me back to my question.

This thing has to be more than just 2 row. Thinking about recipes! Plan is to plan a recipe around an extract recipe reference – but how to determine how much grain to steep? The same amount as called for in the extract recipe?

Inquiring minds want to listen to all ya got to say!

 

[hottpeper13]

The wort shares I've been involved with have some guidelines to follow. If there aren't any,my first question would be when is the judging? This could end up a bigger beer and need 8-12 weeks. I would need to increase the volume to 7.5 for my boil parameters,that would allow me to steep whatever in 1.5 gal and then add to boil kettle. Now might be a good time to use up small amounts of left over grain. Without adding any more G U's you would end up with around 1.064 OG at 5.25 gal.

 

[IslandLizard]

The wort shares I've been involved with have some guidelines to follow.

What he says.^
Those are probably your most important parameters allowing the beer to be entered for judging.

Sometimes those guidelines are very precise, or just very general. When in doubt what is allowed or not, ask first to avoid embarrassment later.
Be prepared, have your ingredients ready so you finish that batch as soon as you return home. Don't forget about the yeast, make a starter beforehand if using liquid yeast.

 

[jrunberg]

Did the share last Saturday and did my boil Sunday. 100% 2 row mashed at 150deg giving about 6 gallons of 1.0545 wort. No guidelines – anything is OK by them and the more creative the better. They brought it up to boiling so it'd store for a day.

So.... My go-to recipe is a Blind Pig clone, one of my favorite IPAs and totally unavailable on the east coast. For this it was an experiment – a steep of .5lbs caramel 40, .75lbs Cara Pils and .5lbs wheat which were steeped in water the night before. After the majority of the boil my OG was way low so continued the boil until hitting the target of 1.068. Hop schedule is standard so far but I have an ounce of Mosaic stashed for the dry hop.

It feels good to (finally) be back to brewing again after a lull. It did take a day to find/clean everything and remember how it all went together!