ukulele01
Active Member
Hello. I am a relative beginner. I am confused about how to use specialty grains. I have search the archives but have not been able to find an answer to my question. Recently I began steeping small amounts of specialty grains and adding them to light colored pre-hopped kits (mostly Coopers) to make some styles that are not available as kits. The two recipes I have made thus far were specifically designed to be made with a kit, but I would like to branch out. I have been looking at all grain recipes and wondering how to adapt them for use with pre-hopped kits. At first I thought I could use use them weight-for-weight, but this chart in John Palmer's "How to Brew" has me wondering:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-4-1.html
It shows that you get less efficient extraction when steeping specialty grains as opposed to mashing, and that it varies quite a bit from one specialty grain to the other. For example, steeping pale crystal is 75% efficient as mashing, medium crystal, chocolate malt are 62-63%, dark crystal 57%, but roasted barley and black malt are 95% as efficient, or almost as good as mashing. If you stick to medium crystal, chocolate, and dark crystal, which are all around the 60% mark (indeed my very basic brewing software assumes a 60% extraction rate) using them weight-for-weight is not much of an issue; even if the brew is less flavorful, the grains will be in a similar proportion to what they were in the all-grain recipe, so the result should be balanced. But what about if a recipe calls for a combo of pale crystal and chocolate malt, won't it be sweeter than intended? And what about if a recipe calls for medium crystal and roasted barley or black patent malt, won't it turn out a lot roaster than intended? Here is a recipe for an Old Slug Porter clone from BYO magazine that I am interested in making:
http://byo.com/porter/item/2096-rch-old-slug-porter-clone
It calls for 300gm of black patent malt and 230gm of crystal malt 150L.
I took a look at the extract version of this recipe, which was right below it, and it asked for a mini-mash. I am not interested in doing a mini-mash. Should I be grossing up the amount of dark crystal (I will have to substitute 120L as I can't get 150L), which is extracted very poorly by steeping, so as to keep it in balance with the black malt, which is extracted very well by steeping? Thank you.
http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-4-1.html
It shows that you get less efficient extraction when steeping specialty grains as opposed to mashing, and that it varies quite a bit from one specialty grain to the other. For example, steeping pale crystal is 75% efficient as mashing, medium crystal, chocolate malt are 62-63%, dark crystal 57%, but roasted barley and black malt are 95% as efficient, or almost as good as mashing. If you stick to medium crystal, chocolate, and dark crystal, which are all around the 60% mark (indeed my very basic brewing software assumes a 60% extraction rate) using them weight-for-weight is not much of an issue; even if the brew is less flavorful, the grains will be in a similar proportion to what they were in the all-grain recipe, so the result should be balanced. But what about if a recipe calls for a combo of pale crystal and chocolate malt, won't it be sweeter than intended? And what about if a recipe calls for medium crystal and roasted barley or black patent malt, won't it turn out a lot roaster than intended? Here is a recipe for an Old Slug Porter clone from BYO magazine that I am interested in making:
http://byo.com/porter/item/2096-rch-old-slug-porter-clone
It calls for 300gm of black patent malt and 230gm of crystal malt 150L.
I took a look at the extract version of this recipe, which was right below it, and it asked for a mini-mash. I am not interested in doing a mini-mash. Should I be grossing up the amount of dark crystal (I will have to substitute 120L as I can't get 150L), which is extracted very poorly by steeping, so as to keep it in balance with the black malt, which is extracted very well by steeping? Thank you.
