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azfalcon

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I have read the instructions (yes I know they are sometimes wrong) and I've watched plenty of YouTube and get conflicting answers. For the first stage when steeping the grains, do I put them in the water at 155 for 1/2 hr or do I put them on cold water, warm them up to 155 then wait the 30-45 minutes
 
In an all grain scenario you would hear the water past 155 so when you add the cold grain the resultant temperature would be 155. I assume partial mash is the same. There at plenty of online calculators that will figure out what that initial strike temp needs to be.
 
It sounds like you are using an extract kit with speciality grains for seeping. I would recommend you follow the instructions with your kit. Typically you would heat your water to 155 then seep your grains for 20 to 30 minutes. During this step you are getting the color of your wort to the color of the style of beer you are making. These grains usually do not add any fermentable value to your wort, that comes from your liquid/dry malt extract that came with your kit.
 
Steeping grains are basically for color,& flavor if you use enough. Heat the water to the desired temp,use a paint strainer bag so you can stir the dough balls out of the grains & get them evenly wetted. When it comes back up to temp,take it off the heat & completely wrap it something like a winter coat to keep the heat in. I do this for steeping or partial mash.
 
I have read the instructions (yes I know they are sometimes wrong) and I've watched plenty of YouTube and get conflicting answers. For the first stage when steeping the grains, do I put them in the water at 155 for 1/2 hr or do I put them on cold water, warm them up to 155 then wait the 30-45 minutes

Hello, Both ways work just fine, some recipes want you to heat water first then add grains, others want you to add grains then heat, I have done it both ways, which ever way the instructions say to do it for that recipe/kit that is the way you should use for that batch.

Cheers :mug:
 
I've always heated first then add steeping grains with no ill affects. I would think you would get better results when the water is hot rather than cold.
 
Either method will work fine. All you are doing is extracting flavor, color, and some sugars. You are not mashing or converting anything.

When I used to steep, I would add the grains in at the start, and then remove them when the water reached about 170 F. I didn't bother leaving them in for any particular time.
 
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