Steeping Malts.

[davecambo]

hello again.

i want to make a wheat beer, with extract (LME wheat + LME light) + hops boiled at 45 mins, 30 mins and 15 mins for bitterness aroma and flavour (hallertau), im unsure if i will add corriander or orange peel, but i would like to steep some grain malt for more flavour etc to give it a try and see if i can turn out something better than i have before. I have been told by a few kind people on this forum that this is easy enough for a 1st attempt at using the grains for the 1st time. i have a few questions though regarding this;

1) anyone know a list of malts that can be just steeped then sparged?
2) what characteristics do each of the ones that can be steeped add? which goes with wheat beer usually, what goes with ales etc etc?
3) what quantities are we talking adding to a brew of 19L eg, minimum to be able to taste it, and max you would ever put in!

also i read that you dont ever bring it to the boil as that ruins it? is that correct or what?

thanks so much!

 

[bconnery]

hello again.

i want to make a wheat beer, with extract (LME wheat + LME light) + hops boiled at 45 mins, 30 mins and 15 mins for bitterness aroma and flavour (hallertau), im unsure if i will add corriander or orange peel, but i would like to steep some grain malt for more flavour etc to give it a try and see if i can turn out something better than i have before. I have been told by a few kind people on this forum that this is easy enough for a 1st attempt at using the grains for the 1st time. i have a few questions though regarding this;

1) anyone know a list of malts that can be just steeped then sparged?
2) what characteristics do each of the ones that can be steeped add? which goes with wheat beer usually, what goes with ales etc etc?
3) what quantities are we talking adding to a brew of 19L eg, minimum to be able to taste it, and max you would ever put in!

also i read that you dont ever bring it to the boil as that ruins it? is that correct or what?

thanks so much!

Davecambo,

If you want to play with specialty grains then I still say a wheat beer isn't the best style, unless you want to get into doing a mini-mash. It isn't difficult, but perhaps left until you've had a play with steeping...
At a pinch I suppose some caramunich or something similar but really a wheat beer is best done as wheat/pils combination, perhaps a little munich, all of which need a mash.
Here's a link to an old grain guide I did that has which grains can be mashed etc. Otherwise the Craftbrewer site above also describes the flavours of the grains and whether they need a mash.

Quantities vary with the grain...

You don't bring the grain to the boil, but you do need to boil the liquid after you've steeped and sparged.
Here's an extract guide I wrote a while ago that describes a technique for extract +specialty grains...

If you read this and decide it all seems pretty easy then you could steep together some wheat and pilsner malt, or munich, say 500g each. The only difference is to try and steep them at around 65C for 30-60 minutes. I don't think it is so important when doing a mini-mash but a minimum of 30 is good.
After that sparge and boil the resulting liquid as normal.
An infusion mash is really just a temperature controlled steep when it comes right down to it.

 

[avaneyk]

If you want to play with specialty grains then I still say a wheat beer isn't the best style...At a pinch I suppose some caramunich or something similar but really a wheat beer is best done as wheat/pils combination, perhaps a little munich, all of which need a mash.

Unless you want to do a dark wheat beer like a dunkleweizen. Then you could add some choc-wheat or carafa to give the beer a deep red to brown colour. You could also add some cara malt to this, like caramunich, carapils or carahell.

Basically, you can steep any cara or crystal type malts as well as any roasted grains or malts (ie roast barley, choc malt, black malt, choc-wheat, carafa etc)


For a dark wheat beer you could add 100g choc-wheat and maybe 100-200g caramunich.

For a pale wheat beer you could add 100-200g carapils - this will add a little sweetness and increase the body of your beer.

 

[davecambo]

LOOOOOOOOOOOVE dunkelweizen! thanks ill give it a go for sure.

thanks again guys!

 

[davecambo]

Unless you want to do a dark wheat beer like a dunkleweizen. Then you could add some choc-wheat or carafa to give the beer a deep red to brown colour. You could also add some cara malt to this, like caramunich, carapils or carahell.

Basically, you can steep any cara or crystal type malts as well as any roasted grains or malts (ie roast barley, choc malt, black malt, choc-wheat, carafa etc)


For a dark wheat beer you could add 100g choc-wheat and maybe 100-200g caramunich.

For a pale wheat beer you could add 100-200g carapils - this will add a little sweetness and increase the body of your beer.

on the subject of the dunkelweizen, do you think a base of 1 x LME wheat and 1 x LME light + hops at 45 mins, 30 mins + 10 mins, + the malt you suggested would turn out something decent? i got home too late and cant go to the brew shop till tomorrow anyways

 

[avaneyk]

on the subject of the dunkelweizen, do you think a base of 1 x LME wheat and 1 x LME light + hops at 45 mins, 30 mins + 10 mins, + the malt you suggested would turn out something decent? i got home too late and cant go to the brew shop till tomorrow anyways

I think its best to use light extract and add colour and character with specialty malts - so the two tins you've got should be ok. The wheat LME tins are 1/2 wheat and 1/2 barley so if you wanted your total brew to be 50% wheat (which seems to be the norm for wheat beers) then you should use 2 tins of wheat LME.

That said, the dunkleweizen I'm drinking at the moment is only 30% wheat and is a very nice beer. I used less wheat because thats what the recipe I was using said to use and I was a bit worried about sparging problems. This only matter if your doing AG though. It was my first AG wheat beer (and only my 3rd AG) so decided to stick pretty close to the recipe. The recipe was from Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" and was as follows:

1.8kg pale malt (38%)
1.4kg munich malt (30%)
1.4kg wheat malt (30%)
120g choc-wheat malt (3%)
(my only change to the original recipe - recipe called for 56g carafa not the choc-wheat)

17g Hallertauer (5.7%AA) for 60mins (12IBU)
7g Hallertauer for 2 mins

Weizen yeast (although I couldn't get any and used T-58 instead, which is meant to be a belgian specialty yeast - it turned out pretty good with good banana esters and feint clove esters)

I don't think you really need the aroma hops (going from the style guidelines) but I kept them anyway.

In your case, since you can't use munich malt (as it needs a mash), you could either use a tin of amber malt extract and a tin of wheat malt extract and add 120g choc-wheat malt, or use 2 tins of wheat malt (or 1 tin and a tin of pale LME like you've got - your choice) and add some crystal (eg caramunich - maybe 150g?) and 120g choc-wheat malt.

I would probably take the second option (ie two tins of wheat malt or 1 wheat and 1 pale) because it allows you to control the colour and flavour more with your specialty malts.

I hope this helps - I'm still learning about grains myself but I think this would work ok. If anyone else has better ideas then I'm happy to learn as well.

Cheers,
Andrew.

 

[davecambo]

I think its best to use light extract and add colour and character with specialty malts - so the two tins you've got should be ok. The wheat LME tins are 1/2 wheat and 1/2 barley so if you wanted your total brew to be 50% wheat (which seems to be the norm for wheat beers) then you should use 2 tins of wheat LME.

That said, the dunkleweizen I'm drinking at the moment is only 30% wheat and is a very nice beer. I used less wheat because thats what the recipe I was using said to use and I was a bit worried about sparging problems. This only matter if your doing AG though. It was my first AG wheat beer (and only my 3rd AG) so decided to stick pretty close to the recipe. The recipe was from Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" and was as follows:

1.8kg pale malt (38%)
1.4kg munich malt (30%)
1.4kg wheat malt (30%)
120g choc-wheat malt (3%)
(my only change to the original recipe - recipe called for 56g carafa not the choc-wheat)

17g Hallertauer (5.7%AA) for 60mins (12IBU)
7g Hallertauer for 2 mins

Weizen yeast (although I couldn't get any and used T-58 instead, which is meant to be a belgian specialty yeast - it turned out pretty good with good banana esters and feint clove esters)

I don't think you really need the aroma hops (going from the style guidelines) but I kept them anyway.

In your case, since you can't use munich malt (as it needs a mash), you could either use a tin of amber malt extract and a tin of wheat malt extract and add 120g choc-wheat malt, or use 2 tins of wheat malt (or 1 tin and a tin of pale LME like you've got - your choice) and add some crystal (eg caramunich - maybe 150g?) and 120g choc-wheat malt.

I would probably take the second option (ie two tins of wheat malt or 1 wheat and 1 pale) because it allows you to control the colour and flavour more with your specialty malts.

I hope this helps - I'm still learning about grains myself but I think this would work ok. If anyone else has better ideas then I'm happy to learn as well.

Cheers,
Andrew.

legend. thanks for that. i have 2 fermenters now and ill give that a go for sure.