Cold steeping - first attempt

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good4whatAlesU

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First tasting of my cold steeped stout today.

12Litre batch - I steeped 200gm Roast barley and 50gm Light chocolate malt in 2L water for 24 hours.

Strained through a chux wipe and added to boil with 10min to go. (the mash was 1kg Ale malt + 1kg Pilsner malt at 66 c).
It's a very smooth chocolate tasting beer, but I must admit it's a little lack lustre on the RB 'punch'. I have tried this same recipe full mash (all grains in) and it turns out a lot punchier, but a lot more astringent.

Perhaps it might be good to add 25% dark grains to the mash and steep the other 75%? To increase the punch.

Anyway, it's a nice beer and will be going down very quickly..
 
I cold steep overnight, then bring the grains and liquor to mash temp and add to the mash with 10 mins left. I reckon you'll find you get more grunt with no astringency doing it similarly.
 
Also you could up the roast amount considerably. Pretty light on the choc, add more as well as some black (yes I know it's a half size batch)
 
Thanks manticle. I've got some full mash bottles tucked away and I'm half tempted to take the lid off the keg and pour one of those in to 'ramp' it up a bit. But then I lose C02 charge and have to bring it up to pressure again, I wonder how long that might take? A couple days?

Fair call on the dark grain % it's only about 11% but probably less in a strained cold steep situation.

Work in progress, the experiment certainly smoothed it out a lot so I'm happy with that at least.
 
You'll only lose a bit from the headspace, not from solution, unless you don't top it up.
I regularly add stuff to kegs.
 
Good to know. Will contemplate it, it's a nice drinkable beer as is, so maybe I'll leave it alone and maybe just put another batch down.

On a side note: the head retention is not as strong with the cold steeping. Full mash it's a rippa .
 
Thanks for the tips. My mash vessel (an esky) doesn't have external heating, but I suppose stepping could be achieved by starting low and adding boiling water... I've yet to experiment but may give it a go down the track.
 
I use an immersion element in an esky but hot water infusion works if you take care calculating.
 
I took a couple of these into work for the invariable Christmas arvo drinks.

The aussies poo - pood a bit saying it was a bit weak for a Stout (fair enough).

The three German blokes at work smiled and knocked them back gladly saying it tasted like a "Kostritzer" and can they get some more!
 
In my last RIS I cold steeped 1/2 the chocolate malt... 750g (for a 40L batch)...

Turned out pretty awesome... but tbh I think I'd steep a higher percentage next time as my mash got stuck with all the chocolate (which gets obliterated by my mill).... maybe even 100% cold steep.

A huge amount of dark malt in your mash also effects the pH without a bunch of chalk to buffer it back.
 
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