Experimenting with a kit

[Griff]

Hi Guys,

I going to experiment with my next kit. I want to see the effect of adding a few extras. I've got some DME and I know I can just add this to the Liquid,

My question is how do i extract the sugars from crystal and chocolate malts ?

Cheers,

Griff

[eskimobob]

My question is how do i extract the sugars from crystal and chocolate malts ?

Hi Griff,

To convert the starch into fermentable maltose, you need to mash them - this mash allows the enzymes to do their work - check out DaaBs minimash pages.

Usually you would mash these grains with a much larger quantity of pale malt which has loads of spare enzyme to convert the starch into maltose - Your kit is probably non-diastatic (no working enzymes) therefore unless your DME is diastatic you probably won't get a very good extraction from your additional malts

[Griff]

Hi Eskimobob,

I wasnt sure if these grains had to be mashed along with the the bulk of the grain like marris otter, I thought that I'd read somewhere that the sugars had already been converted and I was hopeing just to steep them in hot water - glad I asked !

Cheers,

Griff

[tubby_shaw]

Hi Eskimobob,

I wasnt sure if these grains had to be mashed along with the the bulk of the grain like marris otter, I thought that I'd read somewhere that the sugars had already been converted and I was hopeing just to steep them in hot water - glad I asked !

Cheers,

Griff

Griff, for crystal malt the mash has already taken place within the grain during prosessing so the sugars are already in the grain.
Chocolate malt is so highly roasted that there is little in the way of convertable starch left in the grain.
To use these grains in your kit just soak them in water at 70C for 15 minutes and add the resulting liquor to your kit wort, rinse the drained grains with hot water to extract the last of the goodness(sparge) and add that as well.
Then make up your kit to the required volume as usual

[Griff]

Cheers Tubby,

I'm a happy brewer again - One step closer to the dark side !

[eskimobob]

I'll crawl back under my stone now

[PieOPah]

There are 2 methods used when steeping.

Some people bring their water up to temp (around 70) and then steep for 20 minutes.

Others steep their grains from cold and bring up their water to boiling, removing the grains at this point.

The first method will ensure no tannins are extracted.
The second method saves you time.

I have tried both and found no noticeable difference. I have also tried a mixture of both, steeping my grains whilst bring the water up to temp (70) and then leaving for 20 minutes.

[davidson]

I was thinking of adding saaz hops to my kit. What advice would you give to do this.

[PieOPah]

I recently made changes to a kit that I had. Didn't like the bitter so turned it into a Porter.

What I did was to steep my grains in half the amount of water I was planning on using. After this I boiled my hops for their full schedule (60 mins - didn't want anything else in there).

After the boil I was obviously left with just under half the water I needed to make up my kit. So, I disolved in the kit and topped up with cold.

[davidson]

I was thinking of doing a pilsner lager kit with the addition of saaz hops. So I should bring the water temp upto 70C then add the hops. Then leave for 60mins. After this time add to the kit. Is this right? Sorry have not used any hops before