Tomorow a heffeweizen brew day. 10 gall. Batch. Gonna be on the end two batches. One keg for me the other ones. Bottles for my daughter.
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Done!
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^^^ yer an over achiever NOOB!!
Sneezles61
I’ve read that too but too rich for my blood! Not saying it’s wrong, maybe more system dependent or taster dependent. I personally find that a strong malt.
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American Pale Ale in bottles. Gonna do a porter extract 2.5 gal this weekend (batch #4 for me) then I’m going to do some kind of 3 gal first time AG next week! Wish me luck
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New here, and new to making beer. I just recently purchased a kit with a DIPA. I will be starting that up this Friday. Question though, when I’m steeping the grains, what temp is the water at? Do I just turn the burner on and start the steeping process?
I usually add the bag of steeping grains to the cold water and begin heating. I’ll turn the heat off when the water reaches 165°F. I have the grains in the warmed water for a total of 20 to 30 minutes. I rest the bag in a strainer over the kettle and rinse with a quart of warmish water to extract more color and flavor. Then squeeze it dry to extract more.
Be sure the water you are using does not have any chlorine or chloramines in it.
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Thanks for the input @loopie_beer, it’s truly appreciated! I’m generally a little more conservative with malts I’ve not used before and just tossing stuff in after our first black beer fiasco. Our mindset was to make a beer with a lot of body. The Melanoidin didn’t seem strong when I tried it at the malt shop so it didn’t seem like we were going too far. Hopefully we didn’t and don’t end up with drain cleaner. I’ll definitely report back once she’s finished. My apologies for the hijack, I’ll stop now.
Hey NOOB, yer talking smack… all that brewing’ stuff…
I believe thats the header wants to know!
And to Dan82, when you get an intermediate brewing kit and there is grains, the steeping temp should be between 142*- 158*… At that range, you are able to convert starch into sugar… It can happen fast or it will happen slowly… To be safe, I’d give them 45 minutes… There is also reasons to use different temps in that range to affect your brew… Thats a subject for later… Welcome to the Forum… You got questions? There are answers right here… Sneezles61
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Don’t apologize! This is great stuff… 18% will be great to set that taste in your mind for future reference. I overshot on aromatic malt with a brew, I think a weizenbock, and it was “memorable”. As in , uh…I won’t do that again.
Here’s a link to an exbeeriment using 14.7 % melanoidin vs Honey malt.
oops, had a typo, link is fine now…
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Very interesting read, thanks @voodoo_donut ! Our beer was an IPA with 48 IBU of Mosaic. Makes me wonder how the malt will play out in that style. In any case, after our discussion I’m really looking forward to seeing how it comes out!
Welcome to the addic… er… hobby! 
What @flars and @sneezles61 are talking about is what the all grain guys call mashing where the starches are converted to sugar. When you’re steeping your grains you’re actually doing a little mash. Temperature affects how the mash works. I don’t know if anyone has suggested it to you but when I started, I was pointed at John Palmer’s “How to Brew” as a good resource to have in my pocket. Here’s a link to an online version: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html .
Lot’s of great people and great info on the forum too. I don’t know how many game changing nuggets I’ve gathered from here since we started in December 2016. Cheers!
Not exactly a mash when you’re doing steeping grains more of a tea. When I split batches and I want to get something extra I’ll just drain the wort to the pot and let it steep till it boils and then pull it probably about 15 minutes.
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Might be some confusion on terminology. I was commenting on steeping grains. Steeping is to extract color and flavor. When steeping the grains there may be some conversion of starches but the main reason for steeping is for color and flavor. Mashing refers to a specific temperature and pH for conversion of starches to fermentable sugars. The recipe would help to clarify whether the beer being brewed is from a mash or steeping grains with extract.
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See, theres a whole different conundrum out there… Steeping, tea… Hot water soak… You get sugar IF you can keep it somewhat in the described temperature range and time … I sometimes wonder why would you not convert the starch to sugar with any specialty grains… Its there, may as well treat it like your base malt… convert it… My simple take on this piece for the newer brewers… 
Sneezles61
Most steeping malts have ZERO diastatic power so will not convert any available starches to sugar. Even then, most steeping malts have very little, if any starches available as they were converted or denatured during their malting.
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Exactly. So if your mash tun is small you can leave out all the specialty grains and steep them afterwards same as extract brewing.
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So when you look into the Points Per Pound for malted grains… Specialty grains are shown… I know and understand diastatic enzyme… Why don’t the kits mix some crushed base malt with the specialty to do the conversion… And as I do the adding of PPP, it appears to be figured into the OG of kits… I’m putting this out there for the discussion for some of the newer brewers to understand this relationship… You do get the questions as to why some of these kits fall short of the OG… The usual suspects are volume of liquid, not getting every last drop of LME… and I also think its the specialty grains are counted toward OG… Sneezles61
What’s Brewing’?
Brewed a 5 Gallon Vienna IPA last weekend (Vienna Malt, Crystal 20, Chinook, Centennial) - awesome
Next up is a 6 Gallon Porter…(working on Recipe)
Got a pound of Michigan Copper hops coming. Working on recipes too!
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