Thought I would give this a thread of its own. Was just reading the followng post about steeping smoked malt.
http://homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewto ... 686#p90890
The first chapters of Brewing Classic Styles are written by John Palmer. In the section on malts he discusses steeping and mashing malts. He lists one group of malts as "Need to be mashed but may be steeped". His point seems to be that if you steep them you won't get much fermentable sugars out but you will get some flavour, probably not as much as if you had mashed though. As an example in the recipe part of the book Jamil Zainasheff uses brown malt in his extract porter by steeping it, he claims this makes a big difference to the taste.
The malts that "Need to be mashed but may be steeped" are
Vienna malt
Munich Malt
Aromatic malt
Biscuit malt
victory malt
melanoidin
special roast
brown malt
german beech-smoked rauch malt
We can't get several of these here in Oz but it gets you thinking
Steeping Malts that need to be mashed
Re: Steeping Malts that need to be mashed
The differences between mashing and steeping are really not that great in practical terms.
Temperature control of the grain is not as critical when steeping, but is more important when mashing.
Steeping is infusing your grains with water at about 70ºC for about ½ hour or so, then draining and, if you wish, rinsing the grain, leaving you with wort to boil and add to your brew.
Mashing is infusing your grain with water, depending on what you want to achieve, in the range of say 63ºC to 70ºC, and maintaining it there for an hour or so. Then you drain it, and rinse (sparge) it, leaving you with wort to boil and add to your brew.
Not really much of a difference, but steeping is probably a bit easier.
Temperature control of the grain is not as critical when steeping, but is more important when mashing.
Steeping is infusing your grains with water at about 70ºC for about ½ hour or so, then draining and, if you wish, rinsing the grain, leaving you with wort to boil and add to your brew.
Mashing is infusing your grain with water, depending on what you want to achieve, in the range of say 63ºC to 70ºC, and maintaining it there for an hour or so. Then you drain it, and rinse (sparge) it, leaving you with wort to boil and add to your brew.
Not really much of a difference, but steeping is probably a bit easier.
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Trough Lolly
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Re: Steeping Malts that need to be mashed
One other point if I may...
Note that much of the discussion is in relation to dark beer in general. You may recall that steeping a malt, especially a malt such as munich will make a flavour contribution to the beer, but it will also almost certainly result in extra starches in the kettle, unless you steep the munich in a temperature range that allows it to convert some of its starches to sugars. The point is that if you steep grains and thus don't aim for full conversion of the available starches - and yes, there won't be too many starches in the roasted / kilned malt - then you will add flavour, and quite likely, some starch haze to the final product.....and that may not be a big deal if you are brewing a dark beer.
The key data point is that any lightly kilned malt, such as Munich, generally has unconverted starches and should be mashed to turn those starches into fermentable sugars.
For those brewers who limit their grain use to steeping, just be aware of the undeniable fact that steeping base malt is not the best way to get that malty flavour profile to your beer. Which is why crystal / cara malts are a much better option for extract / steep brewers. Lets face it - if you want to get some extra grain flavour in the brew, why steep with Munich malt when you can just as easily steep some Caramunich?
Cheers,
TL
Note that much of the discussion is in relation to dark beer in general. You may recall that steeping a malt, especially a malt such as munich will make a flavour contribution to the beer, but it will also almost certainly result in extra starches in the kettle, unless you steep the munich in a temperature range that allows it to convert some of its starches to sugars. The point is that if you steep grains and thus don't aim for full conversion of the available starches - and yes, there won't be too many starches in the roasted / kilned malt - then you will add flavour, and quite likely, some starch haze to the final product.....and that may not be a big deal if you are brewing a dark beer.
The key data point is that any lightly kilned malt, such as Munich, generally has unconverted starches and should be mashed to turn those starches into fermentable sugars.
For those brewers who limit their grain use to steeping, just be aware of the undeniable fact that steeping base malt is not the best way to get that malty flavour profile to your beer. Which is why crystal / cara malts are a much better option for extract / steep brewers. Lets face it - if you want to get some extra grain flavour in the brew, why steep with Munich malt when you can just as easily steep some Caramunich?
Cheers,
TL
