How long do you steep the grains in an extract kit

Northern Brewer General
1

I made the White House Honey Porter and I decided to steep the grains for the whole 20 minutes and control the temp of the water so that it did not get above 170 (it snuck up to 175 a couple of times and I dropped it back down). I know that the instructions say to steep the grains for 20 minutes or until the water gets up to 170.

Is there any advantage to steeping them the whole 20 minutes rather than just the 10 minutes it took to get to 170? I was hoping to get more flavor by doing this, but I am wondering if it does anything.

I also did something that I learned from watching Chip on one of the Brewing TV sessions and I started with 2 gallons of water and then used a separate pot for the other .5 gallon. When the grains were done, I slowly poured the .5 gallon of water over the grains to get a little more flavor - hopefully.

I noticed that the krausen was HUGE after 24 hours - I almost needed a blow off hose, is this because of what I did?

thanks as always

Jon

2

I do a pseudo mash with my steeping grains. I bring the temperature up to 150-155 and leave them there for 30 minutes. Afterwards a take a glass measuring cup and pour a couple of quarts from the boil kettle over them to further rinse them. Then I squeeze them to get all the sugars out that I can.

The quick, huge krausen is a result of yeast, temperature, or abundance of sugar, not the steeping grains.

Best of luck on this batch.

:cheers:

3

never mind