Section 2 – Brewing with Extract and Steeped Grain
Chapter 13 - Steeping Specialty Grains
[figure 83 – brewpot with grainbag hanging out.]One of the best things that a new brewer can do to get a feel for using grain is to steep specialty grains in hot water and use this wort for an extract-based recipe. Using specialty grain allows the brewer to increase the complexity of the wort compared to what’s usually available from plain extract. Historically, brewers had to settle for light, amber, or dark extract, so steeping specialty grain was practically a necessity. Nowadays, there is a lot more variety in brewing kits and many extract producers make top quality kits for particular styles that incorporate several malts and real individuality. But if a brewer wants to create his own recipe, then steeping specialty grain gives them more flexibility. Almost every beer style can be made by using pale malt extract and steeping specialty grains: Brown Ales, Bitters, India Pale Ales, Stouts, Weizen, and Pilsener can all be made using this method. And the resulting beer flavor will be superior to what can be made using extracts alone. Award winning beers can be made solely from extract, but freshness of the extract can be an issue and using grain can make the difference between a good beer and an outstanding one. Often, the extract kit you buy may be more than a year old and the resulting beer may have a dull, soapy character due to oxidation. Stay away from dusty cans! Look for a brand that the shop sells a lot of, so that the extract is always fresh. Shops that sell their own extract kits will often go thru a 55 gallon drum of extract every couple weeks. Dry malt extract has a much longer shelf life (years), so look for dry if you aren’t sure of the liquid. Creating some new wort by steeping crushed grain adds back some of the fresh malt character that is often missing from purely extract recipes. And it’s fun to experiment, right?
The Grain
As was discussed in the previous chapter, there are basically two kinds of malts: those that need to be mashed and those that don’t. Mashing is the hot water soaking process that provides the right conditions for the enzymes to convert the grain starches into fermentable sugars. Specialty malts like caramel and roasted malts do not need to be mashed. Caramel malts have their starches are converted to sugars by heat right inside the hull. These malts contain some unfermentable sugars, leaving a pleasant caramel-like sweetness. Caramel malts are available in different Lovibond ratings (color), each having a different degree of fermentability and characteristic sweetness. Roasted malts have had their sugars charred by roasting at high temperatures, giving them a deep red/brown or black color and bittersweet, dark chocolate, or coffee-like flavors.
Mechanics of Steeping
[figure 84 – photo of average crushed grain]To use the caramel and roasted specialty malts, the grain must be crushed to expose the sugars to the water. While the grain is soaking, the hot water is leaching the sugars out of the grain and dissolving them into the wort. The factors that influence how well the sugars are extracted are the steeping time, temperature and the particle size. Obviously, the finer you crush the malt the more completely you can extract the sugars. However, most supply shops have their mills adjusted for mashing and lautering purposes and if the particle size were much smaller, it would be difficult to contain within the grainbag.
Steeping specialty grain is like making tea. The crushed grain is soaked in hot water (150-170°F) for 30 minutes. Even though a color change will be noticeable early on, steep for the entire 30 minutes to get as much of the available sugar dissolved into the wort as possible. The grain is removed from the water and that water (now a wort) is then used to dissolve the extract for the boil.
The one sticky part is the phrase, “The grain is removed from the water...” How? Well, the best way is to buy a grainbag. These bags are made of nylon or muslin and have a drawstring closure. They will hold about a pound of crushed specialty grain, making in essence a giant tea bag. Many homebrew supply shops have pre-packaged specialty grains in 0.5-1 pound amounts for just this purpose. Don’t try to put all of the grain into one bag; use two or more bags if necessary. If you put too much in one bag, the grain will swell and compact and the extraction will decrease.
The analogy to a tea bag is a good one in that if the grain is steeped too long (hours), astringent tannin compounds (a.k.a. polyphenols) can be extracted from the grain husks. The compounds give the wort a dry puckering taste, just like a black teabag that has been steeped too long. The extraction of tannins is more prevalent if the water is too hot—above 170°F, although a pH>6 is the primary factor . Previous practices for steeping specialty grains had the brewer putting the grain in the pot and bringing it to a boil before removal. That method often resulted in tannin extraction. You can also use cold water to steep the grains overnight, and some brewers prefer this method, saying that it improves the flavor of the darker grains.
Water chemistry is the primary factor in tannin extraction. Steeping the heavily roasted malts in low alkalinity water (i.e. low bicarbonate levels) can produce conditions that are too acidic and harsh flavors can result. Likewise, steeping the lightest crystal malts in highly alkaline water can produce conditions that are too alkaline and tannin extraction will be a problem again. For best results, the ratio of steeping water to grain should be less than 1 gallon per pound. Adding some of your malt extract (~1/4-1/2 cup) to the water will help buffer it. For more information on water chemistry for steeping and mashing, see Chapter 15.
Steeping differs from mashing in that there is no enzyme activity taking place to convert grain or adjunct starches to sugars. Steeping specialty grains is entirely a leaching and dissolution process of existing sugars into the wort. If grain with enzyme diastatic potential is steeped, that’s a mash. You can “steep” the enzymatic malts, but as the follow chapters in Section 3—All-Grain Brewing will explain, if you don’t steep them under right conditions, you won’t get good conversion of the sugars. Meanwhile, let’s use steeping to make a batch of Porter.
Example Batch
[see figure 85 – porter ingredients by stove]As an example, I will describe the steeping procedure using a Porter recipe (one of my favorite styles). A Porter is an ale with a dark color, very malty flavor, and a bit of a roasted finish. A Porter differs from a Brown Ale by being more assertive, darker, and more full bodied, but with less of a roasted malt flavor than a Stout.
Recipe – Port O' Palmer Porter (5 gal. batch)
Procedure
The only change from your regular extract brewing procedure is that you will be steeping the grain in the brewpot before you add your malt extract. For best flavor results, the ratio of steeping water to grain should be less than 1 gallon per pound.
1. Heat 1 gallon of water in the brewpot until it reaches 160°F ± 10°.
[see figure 86 – checking temperature]
2. Immerse the grain bag in the pot for 30 minutes. The grain bag may be dunked and swirled like a tea bag during this time to make sure that all of the grain is wetted. Moving it around will help to improve the yield, but don’t splash. Maintaining the temperature during the steep is not vital. [see figure 87 – dunking the grainbag.
3. After 30 minutes, remove the grain bag from the pot, and let it drain to avoid dripping on the stove. [see figure 88 – draining the grainbag]
4. Now you have a preliminary wort to which the malt extract is added. Stir in 1 can (3.3 lbs.) of pale malt extract. Add more water to the pot to bring the wort volume up to 3 gallons. [see figure 89 – stirring in the malt extract]
5. Bring the wort to a boil and add your hop additions as listed in the recipe.
6. When the wort boiling is done, add the remaining can of pale malt extract to the kettle. This is the "Extract Late" part. Stir it in to make sure it is fully dissolved. After 10 minutes total time has elapsed, the additional extract is pasteurized and you can proceed to cooling the wort, pouring it into the fermentor, pitching the yeast, etc.
Summary
Yes, that's it. It's just like normal brewing but with a giant tea bag. The next section transitions you to mashing, which is steeping at a specific temperature for more time to allow the enzymes to fully convert the malt starches to sugars.
Figure 83 - Action shot of steeping specialty grain.
Figure 84 - Photo of average batch of crushed grain. Note that the husks are broken but mostly in one piece, while the kernels are a mix of sizes from coarse to fine.
Figure 85 - Porter recipe ingredients gathered by the stove, including the steeping bag.
Figure 86 - Checking the temperature of the water. Anywhere between 150-170F (60-75C) is fine.
Table 16 - Typical Malt Steeping Yields
Steeping data is experimental and was obtained by steeping 1 lb. in 1 gal at 160°F for 30 minutes.
All malts were crushed in a 2 roller mill at the same setting. Your results may differ.
Figure 87 - The grainbag is being dunked up and down to fully wet the grain and improve extraction.
Figure 88 – Okay, the specialty grains have steeped for 30 minutes and are ready to come out. The bag is drained and the grain is discarded.
Figure 89 – Joe Brewer stirs in the malt extract and the boil is off and running. Brewing proceeds exactly as described in Chapter 7.