Hi folks I'm after some advice please. I'm a novice brewer and only brew kits. I got some Maris otter, Munich malt and Torrified wheat. I thought I could steep with them but I found out I can't. My question is how do I use them to improve kits? I only have a stove. Thanks very much.
Base malts bought by mistake
- Thread starter georgie61
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An Ankoù
Landlord.
You've no choice but to mash them. The base malts contain no or little fermentable materials until their starches have been broken down into sugars and thus is done by steeping them in water between about 62 and 72C- typically towards the centre of that range.
If you want to use them to improve your kits, you need to find partial mash recipes.
If you're still interested ill look through my books.
If you want to use them to improve your kits, you need to find partial mash recipes.
If you're still interested ill look through my books.
An Ankoù
Landlord.
I presume you're talking about the kind of kit which has a thick syrup in a tin to which you add water and sugar.
Ok. The books which include partial mash only give recipes. Thise recipes are not about improving a kit, but using fermentables from part extract and part mashed grains. For your purposes, the kit is your malt extract and you would use the wort from the grains to replace any sugar or dry malt extract that the kit calls for. You will need about 25% more grain than sugar as the husks, etc, get thrown away.
You do the mash and sparge the grains to collect the wort and then add the contents of the tins and top up the volume you would normally expect. Usually 40 pints? (It's been a long time since I used a kit).
Here's a website that tells you how to do the mash.
Come back to us if you have any difficulties understanding any of it.
https://byo.com/newbrew/partial-mash/
Is it a bit of a faff? Yes. You might as well go full mash, in my opinion, or use malt extract in place of sugar to improve your brews.
Ok. The books which include partial mash only give recipes. Thise recipes are not about improving a kit, but using fermentables from part extract and part mashed grains. For your purposes, the kit is your malt extract and you would use the wort from the grains to replace any sugar or dry malt extract that the kit calls for. You will need about 25% more grain than sugar as the husks, etc, get thrown away.
You do the mash and sparge the grains to collect the wort and then add the contents of the tins and top up the volume you would normally expect. Usually 40 pints? (It's been a long time since I used a kit).
Here's a website that tells you how to do the mash.
Come back to us if you have any difficulties understanding any of it.
https://byo.com/newbrew/partial-mash/
Is it a bit of a faff? Yes. You might as well go full mash, in my opinion, or use malt extract in place of sugar to improve your brews.
@georgie61 yes, as @An Ankoù says, you need to steep those grains in hot water (aim for as close as you can get to 66°C) for about an hour, then strain off the liquid (‘wort’) and you will be amazed how sweet and tasty it is. You use that instead of the water and sugar in your kit.
To get familiar with the process, I’d suggest just try a little experiment with a handful of the Maris Otter: stick it in a small pan with just enough water to cover, and hold it as close as you can at 66 deg for an hour (or 30min will do for a test). Then strain off the liquid, let it cool and taste it
To get familiar with the process, I’d suggest just try a little experiment with a handful of the Maris Otter: stick it in a small pan with just enough water to cover, and hold it as close as you can at 66 deg for an hour (or 30min will do for a test). Then strain off the liquid, let it cool and taste it
As above but can you confirm the Maris Otter and Munich malt are crushed.
![BREWING THERMOMETER STICKERS ACCURATELY MONITOR FERMENTING BEER & WINE LIQUID TEMPERATURES 5PCS HOME BREW SPIRITS WINE LCD ADHESIVE [US]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/311DDjo2X3L._SL500_.jpg)
Good point!!
Some good partial mash recipes on the Cooper's site.
Thanks very much for the advice and the link to the website. I'll be back if I get any pr
Yes. They are crushed.
Thanks for the heads-up
Hi and welcome to the helpful suggestions club!
As your grains are crushed your options are much wider, and easier.
I was in the same boat as you just over a year ago, being restricted to a four ring stove top with a casserole and assorted large saucepans for brewing.
So I am familiar with the quantity of grains, and the volume of sweet malty liquid (or 'wort' as it is known in brewing) we can get from them on that scale.
I went for small volume all-grain brews from the start, so it can be done. My brews increased from 6 to 7L (single casserole mash), to a whopping 11L using a big saucepan as well. This became rather congested when doing the scooping and rinsing of the grains (known as 'sparging') in a second, then third saucepan in rotation, ending up where I started. Hence ~3L mashing water increased with the rinse sparge water to become my total mash volume to boil with hops, then fermented.
As assumed above, you will need some sort of suitable temperature indicating thermometer to do any of this. If 66°C is around the middle of its scale, that will be perfect.
The most useful 'special equipment' I used was a 'holey spoon' .
I think it's called a 'perforated skimming ladle' or some such. It's a Prestige stainless steel one.
I don't mean 'blessed',
I mean like this:
You could do as @An Ankoù and @The-Engineer-That-Brews suggest and add your all grain wort to the commercial syrup malt kits, in place of the recommended sugar or dry malt extract to give more flavour and body to your beers.
If you then boil leaf or pellet hops in this you are making a mini all grain brew to combine with your tinned kits as in 'partial mash' brewing suggested by the people above.
Again scoop off the boiled hops and scum with the same ladle, then pour through a sieve:
Or use a net bag from a supermarket to boil them in :
Don't be overly concerned by a certain amount of crud (known as 'trub') getting through and into your fermenter.
The yeast actually need that as nutrients for healthy growth and in the fermentation process.
You do realise you will make yourself very unpopular with the regular cook in the house, occupying the hob and all the pots and pans?
That's why my family clubbed together and gave me an all-in-one brewing vessel in June as a birthday present.
Don't despair and give up , it's a learning process. You can make plans, but it's just a 'suck it and see' experience in the end that almost all of us have been through as well.
Safety warning - do take care when pouring large volumes of hot sweet malty wort around.
You don't want to splash it on you, nor waste it - you want to drink that later!
And as has been said, you'll probably end up doing all grain sooner than you thought!
Keep us posted,
531Man.
Really helpful post.
Yes - fortunately my Mrs. works 3 days a week so I do all my brewing / bottling when I have the kitchen to myself.
MrRook
Landlord.
The only difference between a steep at 66 for 30-60 minutes and a partial mash at 66 for 30-60 minutes is that the partial mash has some base grain.
Yes quite correct - I suspected that there was a possibility, when seeing the term 'steep', of an ambiguity in the OP.
Seeing that he hasn't done an all grain or any grain brewing before, I thought it might be that he may not know the difference between 'steep' being specifically used in brewing for soaking adjuncts at a range of temperatures, with no attempt to convert starches to fermentable sugars, but to extract other components in them such as colour and flavour;
And 'mash' which is entirely concerned with that conversion, or saccharification, as it is known, using malted base grain that possesses adequate diastatic enzyme activity to carry that out.
If that doesn't read well -
This article explains it better than me:
https://homebrewanswers.com/steeping-vs-mashing-grain/
I thought at the time that my post was way long enough already, without going into that as well at the time.
See, I've done it again!
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Hi Georgie were abouts in the country are you, i have a 30L klarstein fullhorn which i may be selling soon i don't want to post it is to big
I'm in Bedfordshire. Thanks for the offer but buying more equipment might test my Mrs patience a bit far.
Use sanitser (starsan?) Maybe plan what you intend to do and stick to it, then no last minute panics,,, (I could write a book,,, 
) Write it up afterwards and you have a useful reference for next time. Enjoy!
) Write it up afterwards and you have a useful reference for next time. Enjoy!
