Chocolate Grain

[kaitai]

Hey guys. I am going to steep some chocolate grain into a dark ale I'm making and had a question.

Usually when I have done this in the past with crystal, I've steeped the grain in hot water and let stand for 20 minutes or so. This is also the instructions on the choc grain.

However I have also read someone that with chocolate grain, you should let it steep in cold water overnight.

Which is the correct or preferred method.

Also, I've never bothered to boil the liquid from my steeped grain in the past to kill of nasties. Is it recommened for the liquid to be boiled first before adding to the wort? If so, how long would you tend to boil it for?

Thanks guys.

 

[Trev]

I'm not sure about the 'cold water steeping' although I do recall some discussion somewhere (I was probably pissed). Certainly you are not going to extract the character of the malt by just using cold water. Maybe it was to git rid of some of the acrid flavour???

Chocolate grain has some, but very few enzymes so you may want to effectively 'minimash' it rather than just steep it in hot water. Hold it at about 65C at about 2 or 3 litres /kilo, all the better if you can add about the same proportion of base malt to both add to the malt complexity as well as provide additional enzymes. Some folks reccommend not mashing/steeping these kilned grains for too long as they can add a bitter and acrid flavour, maybe 15 minutes is heaps.

Wash (sparge) the malt out with some water, about 76C or so, about a litre a kilo. You want to avoid over-sparging it with too much water.

Trev

 

[Kai]

I've never been a steeper of grains as I moved straight from kits to partial mashes. However from what I've read and as far as my opinion goes, a cold steep is effective enough but a longer steep is desirable, say up to 24 hours. I would definitely strain and boil afterwards too, for 10-15 minutes minimum.

 

[mika]

Check this out, some answers I got when I asked the question, fairly comprehensive I think.

As the others have said, you can cold or hot sttep the grains, definitely boil afterwards.

 

[kaitai]

Thanks for the replies guys.

How did your porter turn out mika?

 

[mika]

Jury's still out. Tasted it the other day and it's not very Porterish
Lacks the complexity in the flavour I was looking for, think I may have over done it on the Roasted Malt.. appears to dominate the flavour at this stage.... But we'll see

 

[kaitai]

Jury's still out. Tasted it the other day and it's not very Porterish
Lacks the complexity in the flavour I was looking for, think I may have over done it on the Roasted Malt.. appears to dominate the flavour at this stage.... But we'll see

I haven't used roasted malt before, but I would imagine you only need to use very little.....

 

[bconnery]

Jury's still out. Tasted it the other day and it's not very Porterish
Lacks the complexity in the flavour I was looking for, think I may have over done it on the Roasted Malt.. appears to dominate the flavour at this stage.... But we'll see

Which of the two recipes did you end up with?

250g of Roasted malt for example is a fair whack...



100g would still dominate unless you upped the chocolate to compensate.

In a porter you would normally use small amounts of this malt, if any, and go more for the chocolate, black or dark crystal...

Sorry to be giving you this advice after the fact, I didn't see the original thread



Maybe just think of it more as a really robust porter or a stout?

 

[mika]

......
I'm not upset about the brew at all, it still tastes alright..nothing like a stout...Yuk
Just wanted more complex flavours like the James Squire Porter, as I say at this stage the Roasted Malt dominates, maybe it will take a while for the other flavours to come thru ? :unsure:
I'm going to wait a while and see what happens, if it doesn't improve I'll do it again and reduce the Roasted Malt. And I'll add it to the previous post so no-one get's caught out the same way...hopefully....actually might make an ammendment now

Anyway, enough of the thread Hijack, back to Kaitai.

Edit: Just checked my recipe from the previous link, don't know what I was thinking. Coulda sworn I upped the chocolate malt at the end though :huh:

Recipe for the curious,

Morgans Iron bark dark ale kit 1.7kg
1kg ultra brew (500 light dme,250 maltodextrin, 250 dextrose)
150g roasted barley
100g med crystal malt
100g chocolate malt
15g tettnanger hop pellets
saflager S-04 (would use US-56 next time)

 

[kaitai]

Went with a 16 hour cold steep in the end. Man steeping chocolate grain smells good...