Grain Mashing Vs Steeping

[McCraggen]

G'day again ya'll, bit of a newbie question here but whats the difference, i mean with steeping you let it sit in hot water to release the fermentable sugars and with mashing its essentially the same but for longer, so what changes are actually taking place and how is grain pre mashed?

 

[brettprevans]

you should read Palmer how to brew or any other good brewing book. that will explain it all to you.

grains arent premashed. they are just grains that convert quickly and without long periods of enzyme changes. so you can steep them. rather than other grains that are harder to convert adn require mashing.

steeping is just mashing but for a shorter time using differant grains. im sure someone else will give a better explaination. sorry im too tired to give a really good explanation. but long story short, once you undrestand the chemistry/proicess that is actually occuring, then you'll understand the differance between the 2 processes.

 

[Bribie G]

1. With regular malted grains you need to do the mashing operation yourself, i.e. mash in hot water usually between 64 and 68 degrees for an hour or more. This wakes up enzymes in the grain that convert the starches in the (crushed) grain to convert them to sugars.
2. In the case of pre-mashed grains such as Crystal Malt, the various Cara malt varieties etc the grains have been prepared for you at the factory. They actually use 'green' malt - i.e. not the same malt that you would use in 1. above so it's not exactly mashed in the same sense. The the grains are dried out and kilned at various temperatures so they don't require mashing as such, just steeping.

external linky:

 

[jayse]

how to brew is a must, read the enzyme part and you'll also be a better gardener :lol:

 

[brendo]

how to brew is a must, read the enzyme part and you'll also be a better gardener :lol:

hehehe twigs and branches...


It's all about the need to convert starch to sugar as opposed to washing already converted sugar from specialty grains.

The other thing is that when mashing base malts and other unconverted malts is that by using different temp ranges you can control the level of the fermentability of the converted sugars.

When you steep specialty grains, you are really just going for flavour and colour more than anything.

Definitley worth reading Palmer's book - you can read the online version of the first edition at www.howtobrew.com but definitely worth investing in the dead tree version.

Brendo

 

[McCraggen]

thanks for the info, might have to grab a copy sounds like the bible of brewing :beer:

 

[matti]

There is an online version which Citymorgue2 provided.
Just in case you missed it.
http://www.howtobrew.com/

 

[Fourstar]

I cannot recommend 'how to brew' more than anyone else here knowledgable on the process.

Simply put, Steeping is only for specialty grains e.g. (carapils, crystal, choc, black, roast malt)

Mashing is for converting starches to fermentables, grains such as (base pale malt, marris otter, pilsner, munich, vienna, melanoiden, amber, wheat malts.)

Hope that gives you a small idea. either way, read from start to finish www.howtobrew.com