Grain Additions In The Boil ?

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Danwood

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Has anyone played about with late boil additions of specialty grains ?

I'm thinking tiny (50ish grams and very coarsley cracked) of chocolate or amber malt, maybe crystal, for 15mins of the boil. I'm looking for a nice, prominent, nutty character in an American Brown or Amber.

Your thoughts gentlemen.....
 
Boiling malt brings out the astringency and tannins
Put it on top of the mash at mash out
 
+1 to all of the above. Not a good idea at all.

Stick to steeping or in with the mash.
 
From all the reading I've done it would probably make your beer taste pretty awful. As everyone else has advised, don't do it.
 
decotion anyone?
Typically done thick, LOADS of sugars and everything in there. Also, the point of the decoction is to 'bring' to boil, not to maintain a boil. Then you add that smaller portion back to the whole mash. Plenty of difference.
PS: Bow to deeper knowledge of Razz. Thick mash prolly helps a lot with that.
 
I was afraid of the astringency issue, thanks for that Helles.

Is adding a steeped grain addition to the boil ever really done in AG brewing ? Probably not...but I was thinking it might be more evident if it hadn't been through the boil.

Any other tips to emphasise a nutty character?

My AB bill at the moment is mostly Pale and Munich I with Wheat, Crystal Wheat and Chocolate Malt....with Summit and Cascade.
 
Typically done thick, LOADS of sugars and everything in there. Also, the point of the decoction is to 'bring' to boil, not to maintain a boil. Then you add that smaller portion back to the whole mash. Plenty of difference.
PS: Bow to deeper knowledge of Razz. Thick mash prolly helps a lot with that.

true but small additions would be better in a decot than thrown wholesale into the boil
 
true but small additions would be better in a decot than thrown wholesale into the boil
Oh, my apologies, I misinterpreted as you were suggesting it to be the same.
Yes, adding to the decoction would make bugger all difference 'I think' to just adding straight to the mash.
 
There's a few recipes on the Shut up about Barclay Perkins blog that involve throwing small amounts of black malt into the boil, didn't seem to cause a problem with those.
 
Brewing is not exactly experimental, it has been done for a long time and in all sorts of ways. There are some things that are not done for a reason, and throwing grains into the boil is one of them, do you really think no one has ever thought of it before?
Even if you did not extract during a short time in the boil too many tannins, those grains are likely to follow on down the line, dry tanning anyone?
Adding the grains at the end of the mash, or even steeping them will give you excellent results if you happen to have forgotten to add at the beginning, in fact I add all my dark grains at the end (thats just me)

K
 
Yes, thanks for that mostly negative input K....and to others who offered more helpful criticism, thankyou.

I'm a new brewer just asking questions which have occured to me whilst planning my next batch.

Yes, I agree a lot of processes are probably as good as they will ever be (admittedly, many of which I am yet to learn of ), but they only got to that stage by people asking questions and adapting methods.

So, I disagree that brewing is not experimental.

Obviously, it is not 'as' experimental as it was 1000+ years ago, given the lessons learned over that time, but processes, ingredients, styles etc are not going to remain unchanged for the rest of time.

OK, rant over....I have grain to mill and beer to drink

Dan
 
Use husked charred barlez like carafa.

Anyway, the whole Tannins thing is a myth perpetuated by foolish 3V spargers sparging with the wrong pH liquor.
 
Yes, thanks for that mostly negative input K....and to others who offered more helpful criticism, thankyou.
No worries and I return the favour for thanking you for your negative reply
For others interest though I repeat
Adding the grains at the end of the mash, or even steeping them will give you excellent results if you happen to have forgotten to add at the beginning, in fact I add all my dark grains at the end (thats just me)
Roasted malts have essentially nothing to convert to sugars and crystal malts have already been (essentialy) converted by the malster, in both cases, apart from convenience there is no pressing reason to add them to the mash, indeed soaking of roasted grains for an hour may add acrid qualities to the wort thus my suggestion to sparge through rather than mash with roasted , or even crystal, malts.
K
 
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