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Boiling Malts vs Steeping

I am new to home brewing and am still trying to get everything right. This weekend I tried a new recipe for a London ESB which consisted of 9 lbs of extracts, goldings hops, plus 2 lbs of caravienne. I thought the recipe was unusual because the instructions told me to place the caravienne into the cold brewing water at the beginning, and then bring the water to a boil. The caravienne grains were in the wort throughout the whole hour of boiling and ended up in a mush on the bottom of the pot. In every other beer I have made, I steeped the grains at 170 F using a grain bag, then removed the spent grains after a specified time and continued on to the boil. I never boiled the grains.

I boiled them this time thinking that it might be best to follow the recipe.

Will boiling the caravienne instead of just steeping the grains give my beer an off taste of some kind? Is boiling the grains a standard practice or did I just get a bad recipe?

Also, what is caravienne? I can't seem to find much information on that.

Thanks much

Reply to
Dennis O'Connell
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I don't have too much grain experiance, I'm just doing extracts right now, but I do know that the idea behind steeping is so the heat can extract the flavor and sugars from the grain. The amount of heat and amount of time will result in different extractions, (Lower heat for longer = more sugars, etc), that's why there are specific temperature levels that must be maintained during mashes. But the warning I've heard is NOT to boil the grains, at any cost, otherwise you're releasing tannins from the grains, which will result in very astringent and bitter tastes. In fact most directions I've read about steeping say not to even squeeze the bag of grains when you take it out, otherwise you'll release those tannins. I would let this ferment out, bottle it, and forget about it and move on to the next batch. Who knows, maybe those directions knew what they were talking about and in a few months those bottles will be fine.

mike

Reply to
MLynchLtd

Reply to
Dennis O'Connell

Yes, some of the old texts tell you to just leave the grains in throughout the boil.

You are in a good position to judge the wisdom of this advice! :) Please be sure to post back when you drink it and let us know how it tastes. The big question will be whether it is astringent or not. Astringent is similar to bitter, but different. It is really a sensation, not a taste (like alum, tea, or green persimmons), that you can feel on the roof of you mouth with your tongue.

Astringency will mellow out somewhat with time, so if your batch IS astringent, you can let it age for a while and see if it gets better. (Personally, I don't think you'll see any noticable astringency. If every beer they made was astringent, the authors of those old texts would have used a different procedure!)

Derric

Reply to
Derric

As I understand it, steeping at the correct temperatures encourages certain enzyme reactions that aid in sugar extraction. Too cold, not enough extraction. Too hot and some of the reactions are halted. Moreover, the grain husks contain tannins that get released at higher temps (beyond 170 degrees) that can contribute an astringent taste to the beer. (Ever steeped a tea bag for too long?)

Better to steep and remove rather than boil the grains.

Reply to
MerDeNoms

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