Yay, my second batch isn't disgusting!

You get around the aging lag time dilemma by building a pipeline.

Brew a batch every week for six-to-eight weeks ... then every n-th week to match consumption.
That way ... you always have beer at the ready when it's ready.

 

Until somebody here says they have brewed that same Northern Brewer Bourbon Barrel kit and say that it makes a great beer, I'm going to go back to my post above (#4) that you may have false expectations for that recipe. Keep aging them, but don't give up on brewing your next beer. You mentioned that you plan to do a scorch ale, so I'd go ahead and get it going when you have time. If your ambient temps in Texas are getting too hot to ferment the beer, then take steps to get your fermentation chamber going so that you have better control over that important factor. You're going to get it right because you seem determined. Keep the faith.

 

Steeping grains is akin to making a cup of tea with a tea bag.

Two things;
1) Steeping has little ... if any ... effect on your wort's specific gravity.
It's all flava-flav.

2) At some point .... steeping time is a matter of diminishing returns.
More and more time t'ain't better and may actually be marginally worse.

 

Any volume of crushed grain will have a certain percentage of flour.

Flour + water = slime

In all-grain brewing ... too much slime in the mash can lead to a stuck sparge.

 

Was it a partial mash or an extract batch with specialty grains? The directions sound like the latter, so a longer soak time would do nothing. The grains are there to provide color, flavor, mouthfeel, etc., but negligible amounts of sugars. 30 mins is plenty of time to get the flavor and color.

 

I agree with what Herb and Kitty said. All of my recipes have called for only a 20-minute steeping period, but 30 minutes should not be a big deal. The grains are cracked for the steeping, and there is a certain amount of very fine particles that results from the cracking and that is the 'flour' that Herb mentioned, so that also is no big deal. Extra flavor.

 

The 'partial mash' is usually a misnomer for the steeping process. However, with the longer time period that you had and if you were using grains that can be mashed you are approaching the same procedures that are used for a full mash in the all-grain method. Consider it as basic training for your next brewing level.

 

Be patient, corbmoster, be patient. Or I'm going to make you seek permission from this forum before you move that beer out of the fermentor.

 

The Scotch ale in BCS is supposed to ferment at 66 or 68 F, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. It probably depends more on which yeast you use.

EDIT: As soon as I posted that, I started wondering if it was actually 65F. Either way, not quite the "low 60s".

 

go all grain. jump in. two feet. you'll be glad you did. need any help in the venture - be glad to help.

 

thats cool, but glasstop kitchen burners get plenty hot enough to boil up to 6gal, and you can do 6 gallon batches with a 5 gal igloo cooler... my equipment takes up the same space as an old console tv. just sayin the quality of the taste would be exponentially better