Grain steeping times

[YukonLT]

Hey guys, my Pliney extract kit says to immediately soak the grain/hops and remove it when the water hits 170. I always thought you brought the water up to about 155-160, turned the heat off, then steeped for 20-30 minutes. Can someone explain the difference to me?

 

[Blarneybrew]

Bringing it to 170 and removing it is to get as much sugar out of the grain as possible, after you have steeped in the mash range you mention. The higher temp 170 is supposed to free the sticky sugars from the grain and allow it to rinse off better for when you strain. For best efficiency but without releasing any unwanted tanins from the grain

There's a Pliney clone recipe or two in this site. Look it up and compare. Good luck!

 

[aiptasia]

Either would be fine. Their kit theory is that the grains will go through different "rests," including a protein rest and a saccrification rest. Many homebrewers will hold their mashing and soaking grains between 145f and 155f to maximize the saccrification rest, and this is fine. By allowing the grains to heat up to 170f, you can extract more sugars but you run the risk of to potential problems at higher temperatures above 165f: 1) Tannin extraction, as high temperatures on the grains will extract stringent tasting tannins and 2) above 168f, the grains will begin binding sugars instead of releasing them into the wort water. This halts sugar saccrification and can cause you to miss your gravity numbers.

If you're not sure about the process, simply bring the water up to 165f and then add the soaking grains to the wort water in a grain bag. The grains, when added, will bring the temperature of the water down by about 10 degrees to around 155f almost immediately as they absorb the water and begin their soak. Hold the 155f temperature for a nice long soak. Minimally 45 minutes and optimally about 90 minutes (120 isn't unheard of, either). While the grains soak, conduct your own "sparge" by lifting up the grain bag so the sweet wort sugar drains out, then dunk the bag again. Repeat the "sparge" every 15-20 minutes or so to extract as much sugar as you can.

When you're done with the steeping grains, I tend to remove mine to a big sanitized bowl or a colander with a bowl underneath it. This will help the last of the wort to drain out and you can pour the extra cup or two of sweet malt wort back into the boil after a half hour of draining or so.

 

[RM-MN]

The temperature you steep the grains isn't real critical but it is good practice to steep in the 150 to 160 range. Why? Because if you decide to go to all grain, that temperature range is where the starches in the malted grain convert to fermentable sugars.

 

[Blarneybrew]

It is critical to steep in the range for the style of your beer. Well, if you are just stating out. If you steeped 160 for a lager it would be too sweet and malty. However you could do a gradual raise and the first 30 minutes is between 140 and 150 (for a lager) you'll likely come out alright when the other 30 minutes is spanning between 150-168.

There's a chart somewhere on the webs or on here showing moutfeel and sweetness relative to mash temps. Low conversion temps give you dry less sweet, high temps the inverse. But then if you are doing a high abv beers you sometimes mash lower than you would if it were a low abv beer...something to do with it being more difficult to control malty sweetness in high abv beers I believe

Note aip's distinction between 168 and 170. I was being g lazy when I tried to explain what 170 is for. I strain/remove grain at 168/69

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,when we were steeping grains,the stated temp range of 150-165F worked fine. but then I lowered the steep temp to 160 or so,then sparged with water at 168-170. I tried to get my total boil volume between the steep water & sparge water in my 5G kettle. now that I do partial mash,I mas 5-6lbs of grain in 2 gallons of water @ 152-156F& sparge with 1.5G of 170F water for total boil volume of 3.5-3.75 gallons in that same SS 5 gallon kettle. So I'd have to agree that using mash temp range for steeping is a good habit to get into. The warmer sparge will def get a lot of extra sugary wort out of the grains with a good crush. I have my Barley Crusher mill set at the factory .039". Works real well so far.

 

[BansheeRider]

When I did extract I just steeped in 160 degree water for 30 min. Then brought the wort to a boil and did my first hop addition. Not sure why your instructions say to steep hops with the specialty grain.

 

[unionrdr]

Huh. Had to go back & look at that part. That is weird to put hops & steeping grains together. Mayb trying to simulate a first wort hop?? But we always steeped for 30 minutes as well. Decent amount of time for steeping.

 

[midfielder5]

Not sure why your instructions say to steep hops with the specialty grain.

Pliny recipes usually call for a mash hop.

 

[YukonLT]

Yeah I was a little thrown off on steeping the Cascade hops with the grains, as I have never read about that before.

Thanks for all the responses! VERY appreciated