Adding Specialty Grain

[capitalfinancial]

Hi,

brewing again. I'm a sucker for the hobby, you get to drink beer :icon_cheers:
I've got a L.Creature pale ale type in the fermenter after 1 week and tastes great(temp control at 24deg US 56 yeast and 20g shinook + Cascade). the grain 150 g crystal malt was left in hot water from kettle along with hops for 20 mins and then sieve, chuck in, dump and stir with can and DME
I always thought from from previous reading any grain soaked, the liquor had to be boiled or you risk infection. I dont sense one here and Like I said it tastes great so far.
Why doesen't HBS tell us to boil? is it OK as its only 150 Grams?

 

[simpletotoro]

Hi,

brewing again. I'm a sucker for the hobby, you get to drink beer :icon_cheers:
I've got a L.Creature pale ale type in the fermenter after 1 week and tastes great(temp control at 24deg US 56 yeast and 20g shinook + Cascade). the grain 150 g crystal malt was left in hot water from kettle along with hops for 20 mins and then sieve, chuck in, dump and stir with can and DME
I always thought from from previous reading any grain soaked, the liquor had to be boiled or you risk infection. I dont sense one here and Like I said it tastes great so far.
Why doesen't HBS tell us to boil? is it OK as its only 150 Grams?

hi
yeah this is what i do when adding spec grains... soak 1/2 hour or so in water (temp 60-70/c) then strain ...then sparge with hot water (60-70/c) ...then add to the boil ...(minus spent grains of course) for getting rid of any nasties ...then added benefit of which is you can add some flavour hops to your boil...

have you got an infection...maybe...maybe not ...i once did a hoegaarden copy when i first started brewing and only steeped the orange peel and crushed corriander seeds in recently boiled water and didn't get one...you may be lucky ...time will tell...bloke from the lhbs should have let you know though ....1 gram or 1 kg an infection i figure could come from any amount .....only the risk would be greater the larger the quantity...
good luck
simpletotoro

 

[NRB]

ALWAYS boil liquid from steeping/mashing grains if you intend to avoid a sour beer. Failing to do so is an incredibly risky procedure as warm water will not kill all bacteria. It's unlikely that there would be many surviving, but all it takes is 1 bacterium.

 

[Adamt]

Kind of off topic, but if you have tempearature control I would be setting it lower than 24, at 20 if possible.

Boiling the DME wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

[NRB]

Agreed on both tips there Adam.

 

[capitalfinancial]

Thanks.

Last year I did a few mini mash with lager kits and it came out horrible :angry: I did boil the liquor but realise now i would have over sparged, it came out very sour.
One lot smelt like glue and tasted like burn't rubber. It went all dark in colour over the warmer months (stored in the shed) two batches like this and hence a long berak from brewing, I may avoid lagers for a time.

 

[NRB]

How about finding a different storage place? You might have autolysed yeast from the stinking hot temps as the cause for the majority of those off flavours.

Over sparging shouldn't make it sour, but contamination may.

 

[capitalfinancial]

Ta NRB
I put it down to high storage temps after a skorcher of a summer. The shed is insulated but at 40 deg nothing can insulate enough and after reading another post here the other day and your comment confirms it.
I didn't realise that once it is bottled it will still go bad under certian conditions, it makes sense that it will, after thinking it over.

I'm glad summers over, well by the calender.

 

[Hefty]

kinda OT/kinda related:
What are the specifics of sparging when using specialty grains?
I thought you just steep the grain in hot water (60-70*C) and then use that liquid in your wort (making sure you drain the extra water held in the grain into it as well).
Some recipes I've read recently which specifiy that they are extract, not partial mash, still say to steep and then sparge.
How much water should you steep with? How much should you sparge with? What is the difference?

Cheers!
Jono.

 

[Luka]

kinda OT/kinda related:
What are the specifics of sparging when using specialty grains?
I thought you just steep the grain in hot water (60-70*C) and then use that liquid in your wort (making sure you drain the extra water held in the grain into it as well).
Some recipes I've read recently which specifiy that they are extract, not partial mash, still say to steep and then sparge.
How much water should you steep with? How much should you sparge with? What is the difference?

Cheers!
Jono.

Jono, I was browsing through a home brew recipe book as I read your post ( I know, multi-tasking!) and it recommends roughly 3:1 water to grain ratio for steeping then sparging with about 2 litres of water at 65C.

 

[Hefty]

Cheers Luka!
I was worried this thread would fall off the front page before someone answered my question!

Jono.

 

[RobboMC]

Jono, I was browsing through a home brew recipe book as I read your post ( I know, multi-tasking!) and it recommends roughly 3:1 water to grain ratio for steeping then sparging with about 2 litres of water at 65C.

Steeping is the process of soaking the grain. Sparging is a fancy name for rinsing. Make sure you do any rinsing with water at 65/75 deg C. I started with boiling water, though it cools in the jug pretty quickly, to me it didn't seem to affect the taste of the beer, but it's not the right way.

My Palmer book recommends steeping/mashing with 1.5 quarts per pound of grain. For those that can't convert it, that equals about
4 litres per kilogram of grain. The ratio of water to grain can be altered to get different effects, but for here this should get any beginners started.