Grains For Steeping

[berto]

Hi all,
Ive got 2 brew i want to get down, and being new to the whole extract thing im working out what grains i can use to steep, as i dont want to mash anything yet.

looking at using chocolate malt
crystal malt
light munich (Where can i get this?)
toasted pale malt

barley malt
wheat malt

ALso does anybody know where i can get all of these? Normally use country brewer but they have limited grains available, and also limited liquid yest there.

Cheers, Rob

 

[Linz]

Which corner of the city are you in?? or can get to without too much hassle??

 

[berto]

Windsor
Anything westish is fine really. But dont finish work till 3 at mosman then get home at 4:30. And cant really go direct from work cause of car pooling

 

[Doc]

Give Gerard a call from Northern Districts Brewing
He'll deliver to your work, all the grains and stuff you'll ever need.

Beers,
Doc

 

[user 384]

being new to the whole extract thing im working out what grains i can use to steep, as i dont want to mash anything yet.

looking at using chocolate malt
crystal malt
light munich (Where can i get this?)
toasted pale malt
barley malt
wheat malt

Hi Berto

Of the grains you listed only the crystal can be steeped. All the others need to be mashed. Even the Chocolate should be mashed even though some use it for steeping.

The reason the crystal can be steeped is that it has undergone a process where after the grain has been malted, it's wetted, then the temperature is raised. This causes the starch inside the grain to be converted to sugar. The grain is then dried and the temperature raised even higher to crystalise the sugar inside the grain, hence the name crystal malt. Next step is to raise the temp even higher to darken the sugar, higher temp equals darker crystal and vice versa. This is why you can get a range of colours in crystal malts.

All the other grains have only been malted and kilned. They all contain starch that still needs to be converted to sugar by mashing. Even the Chocolate malt contains starch, that is not yet converted to sugar, and starch in your beer is not desirable.

Final thing, you mention barley malt. Most malt is made from barley, pils malt, munich malt, vienna malt, ale malt etc are all made from barley. The only non barley malt that you're likely to come across is wheat malt. There are others but they're uncommon.

Cheers
MAH