I brewed my first batch of beer over this past weekend. Right now I'm organizing my notes. I just realized I really don't know the definition of steep vs mash or which I did. I thought I was mashing, but correct me if I'm wrong. I brewed BM's blue balls belgian wheat. I loosely followed a partial mash variation of the recipe. I used a muslin bag, and put 2 lbs of flaked wheat and 1 lbs of flaked oats inside. I then placed that inside 3 gallons of water with the temperature of 156F for 70 minutes. After this, I "sparged" the bag with about 1 gallon of 180F water for 10-15 minutes, and combined the two waters and continued.
1. Was this a steep or a mash?
2. Could I/Should I have heated the oats/wheat w/o a bag and used a strainer to ensure water contacted all surfaces of the grain?
Thanks!
1. Was this a steep or a mash?
2. Could I/Should I have heated the oats/wheat w/o a bag and used a strainer to ensure water contacted all surfaces of the grain?
Thanks!