To Bottle Or Not To Bottle

[Siborg]

I'm sure the beer will be great but next time just steep the grains in hot water, strain, rinse with hot water then boil the resulting liquid. 60 -70 degrees is a good rough guide. Steep for anything between 30 and 60 minutes.

If you boil/simmer them, you run the risk of extracting astringent tannins.

When you boil the liquid you can add hops at different points to impart bitterness, flavour and aroma. Earlier is bitterness, later is aroma with flavour sitting somewhere in between.

That smell only gets better as your grain bill gets better. Bread, bacon and beer. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Ah OK. I was just going by what the instructions said. It was a recipe kit from my LHBS. It might be the last one I do, as I'm looking into trying out the BIAB stuff that Nick JD posted.

 

[manticle]

No problem with taking your time.

The processes for all grain brewing are not complicated but there are a lot of them (some essential, some helpful and some very technical and best left for another day). Getting a good handle on understanding fermentation issues etc is at least as big a part of making good beer as using all grain or adding hops or anything else. No need to rush.

That said, if that's what you want to do then have a crack.

 

[rendo]

Hi Manticle, et al,

I am going to do my first partial or usage of grain very soon. Maybe using carapils or something like that for a blonde type beer. Add some hallertau and saaz. Probably not a real partial, but it will be grain anyway and I will treat it like a mash...eg keep it at 60 something for 30mins. Working to AG.

When u say 60-70 degrees, you mean for the steeping??

Once you have steeped and then strained its time to boil yeah??

So...FINALLY here is my MAIN question ...when you boiled the 'extract' from the grain you have just made from the above, what do you mean by boil....like total rolling boil etc or just keeping it on a slow simmer/boil etc?? Just dont know if i should boil the crap outta it or just a nice slow simmer..etc

I cant wait to do this.....very EXCITED!

I'm sure the beer will be great but next time just steep the grains in hot water, strain, rinse with hot water then boil the resulting liquid. 60 -70 degrees is a good rough guide. Steep for anything between 30 and 60 minutes.

If you boil/simmer them, you run the risk of extracting astringent tannins.

When you boil the liquid you can add hops at different points to impart bitterness, flavour and aroma. Earlier is bitterness, later is aroma with flavour sitting somewhere in between.

That smell only gets better as your grain bill gets better. Bread, bacon and beer. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[manticle]

Hi Manticle, et al,

I am going to do my first partial or usage of grain very soon. Maybe using carapils or something like that for a blonde type beer. Add some hallertau and saaz. Probably not a real partial, but it will be grain anyway and I will treat it like a mash...eg keep it at 60 something for 30mins. Working to AG.

When u say 60-70 degrees, you mean for the steeping??

Once you have steeped and then strained its time to boil yeah??

So...FINALLY here is my MAIN question ...when you boiled the 'extract' from the grain you have just made from the above, what do you mean by boil....like total rolling boil etc or just keeping it on a slow simmer/boil etc?? Just dont know if i should boil the crap outta it or just a nice slow simmer..etc

I cant wait to do this.....very EXCITED!

60 -70 degrees for the steeping yes. The actual temp for steeping (as opposed to mashing) isn't amazingly important. A colder steep will require longer and a too hot steep can bring out tannins. However as you have worked out, treating it a bit like a mash is only good practice for later. The two processes aren't that amzingly different (although what happens inside the grain is very different the process for the brewer is similar).

Steep, strain, rinse then boil.

As for the boil - if it's a small amount of grain it's probably not a big drama. When you make an all grain brew you are boiling for several reasons. One is to kill off any bacteria etc (same with your mini-boil).
Another is to add hops and extract bittering and flavour compounds (same with your mini-boil)
Another, very important one is to drive off compounds that may affect the final flavour. One of these is the precursor to di-methyl sulfide which reveals itself as a cooked corn or vegetable flavour. A rolling boil is needed to push this away.

However the rolling boil does not have to be crazy volcanic - just gently and consistently rolling. Probably less necessary with small amounts of spec malts but again - best to get into good habits early.

 

[rendo]

Thank You Manticle for this help. (and the many other times you have helped me and others) Provides much needed sanity checking!

Well, I just need to wait for the current Little creatures bright ale clone to finish, then i will be into my first grain addition

250g of carapils to a coopers canadian blone, with BE2, then 12g of hallertau and then 12 g of saaz, split 6g at the start of the boil and 6g of each towards the end of the boil

was going to extract the malt as such (Courtesy of Ross):
Try to "steep/mash" at approx 65c +/- 4c for 30 mins. Learn to do this with alll your specialty grain & you won't be restricted to just speciallty malts.
Then boil for 20-30mins, adding hops as per above.

Well thats the plan, who knows what will occur.

60 -70 degrees for the steeping yes. The actual temp for steeping (as opposed to mashing) isn't amazingly important. A colder steep will require longer and a too hot steep can bring out tannins. However as you have worked out, treating it a bit like a mash is only good practice for later. The two processes aren't that amzingly different (although what happens inside the grain is very different the process for the brewer is similar).

Steep, strain, rinse then boil.

As for the boil - if it's a small amount of grain it's probably not a big drama. When you make an all grain brew you are boiling for several reasons. One is to kill off any bacteria etc (same with your mini-boil).
Another is to add hops and extract bittering and flavour compounds (same with your mini-boil)
Another, very important one is to drive off compounds that may affect the final flavour. One of these is the precursor to di-methyl sulfide which reveals itself as a cooked corn or vegetable flavour. A rolling boil is needed to push this away.

However the rolling boil does not have to be crazy volcanic - just gently and consistently rolling. Probably less necessary with small amounts of spec malts but again - best to get into good habits early.

 

[Siborg]

Thank You Manticle for this help. (and the many other times you have helped me and others) Provides much needed sanity checking!

Well, I just need to wait for the current Little creatures bright ale clone to finish, then i will be into my first grain addition

250g of carapils to a coopers canadian blone, with BE2, then 12g of hallertau and then 12 g of saaz, split 6g at the start of the boil and 6g of each towards the end of the boil

was going to extract the malt as such (Courtesy of Ross):
Try to "steep/mash" at approx 65c +/- 4c for 30 mins. Learn to do this with alll your specialty grain & you won't be restricted to just speciallty malts.
Then boil for 20-30mins, adding hops as per above.

Well thats the plan, who knows what will occur.

hey rendo, I'm doing the same clone. I bought mine as a complete kit from liquorcraft. It had the carpalis malt, saaz and amerilo hops. As well as a dry wheat powder. Should be interesting to see the differences