I recently started homebrewing using the Extract method with specialty grains, and I had a few questions about using steeping grains properly. I have read in quite a few sources, including How To Brew by John Palmer, that it is not a good idea to have a water to steeping grain ratio beyond 1 gallon/pound. I was recently fiddling with BeerSmith and researching a lot on beer recipes, as I hope to start attempting to create my own recipes soon, and I was running into a little bit of confusion.
When using BeerSmith for example, I selected Extract Brewing for the brewing method, I selected the 2 Gallon Pot / Extract set-up (as I have thus far only done one-gallon batches), and I selected 1 gallon as the batch size. Using these parameters I run into what seems like it could be a problem, but I am unsure:
If I follow the aforementioned advice of John Palmer (water:steeping-grain < 1), then in a one gallon batch (pre-boil vol. of ~1.25 gallons) I should be using MORE THAN a pound of steeping grains. However, if I use more than one pound of steeping grains, the steeping grains end up taking up a substantial proportion of my grain-bill (often times between 30-40%).
Is this problematic? Is the water:steeping-grain ratio of < 1 gallon/pound unnecessary?
Or perhaps is it a problem with extraction calculations in BeerSmith? So, for example, it says never to exceed 10% Black Barley in a batch. Is this 10% MAX IN BATCH restraint assuming that you are doing a full-hour long mash?
In other words, is it problematic to have 35% of your grain bill as steeping grains? Or, is this seemingly large percentage not that big of a deal as you are only soaking the grains for 30 minutes as opposed to the full hour?
Any ideas?
