Steeping "base" grains

“What (good or bad) might it do to the beer?” It will very likely add starch to your beer. You really don’t want starch in your beer.

“Should I just leave it out?” Short answer: YES! Longer answer: Just brew with 6-7 lbs. of light DME. I brewed a Saison today and I used 7 lbs. of Briess Pilsen DME.

Cheers!

 

Essentially it's mini-mashing that you want to do here. This means you should do a mini-mash procedure and not a steeping procedure. 1.25 quarts / lb of grain is a typical mash ratio. Mashing is usually for about an hour, and is typically at 150-158 degrees, temperature kept steady. If you steep 1 lb of grain in too much water (read: gallons) then you will be steeping and not mashing, and won't get enough concentration of the enzymes to convert the sugars, which yes, will leave starches. So if you're going to do it, make sure you're mini-mashing and not steeping by controlling the water to grains ratio, and the temperature.

There really isn't any reason to just use pilsner malt here, but it wouldn't hurt anything either, and if you do a good job on the mini-mash, you'll have a partial mash beer which (in theory, at least) should be even tastier than a pure extract batch. In reality, pilsner malt won't add much flavor, but the experience of using it and doing a mini-mash could be well worth your effort. From there you could start doing lots of mini-mashes until you finally switch to all grain (this is how I made the switch).

Usually in extract/partial mash beers base grains are added to provide diastatic power to convert specialty grains that need to be mashed, not steeped. However, they also work just fine by themselves if you do a mini-mash.

That recipe looks a lot like my petite saison smash, which was all base malt (no specialty malt), and some hops. 3711 is a beast and you should do quite well whether you use pilsner malt or not. I fermented low (64F the whole way) and really liked the nuances, and the subtleties of that beer. I will make it again for sure.

 

In your case, steeping is basicly mashing...if you hold it @ 155 for 20-25 min and don't use too much water it will convert itself...no problem.

 

What GreenKrusty said. Just start by "steeping" (in reality, mashing) your crushed pound of pilsner in about a quart and a half of water at roughly 152 degrees for about 30 minutes. Then remove the bag, add the rest of the water and your DME and continue on as normal.

Remember that mashing is essentially steeping... at a fairly precise temperature and water/grain ratio for a slightly extended time.

 

So, I see a few folks ‘advocating’ doing a mini-mash of 1 lb. of pilsner malt. Does anybody really think that you will notice the 1 lb. of mashed pilsner malt against the 6 lbs. of DME?

I suppose I just don’t get it.

Cheers!

P.S. When I do partial mashes 1 mash for 1 hour vs. 20 – 30 minutes; I do not want any starch remaining.

 

I wasn't advocating for the mini-mash (or it's taste) as much as reassuring the OP that 1# of Pilsner will surely convert itself with minimal effort and time. Cheers

 

Nor was I. And no, I doubt it'll be that noticeable. But if you're going to start doing mini-mashes, why not start small?

 

Really no point in steeping or mashing that 1 pound of pilsner malt.

But also no real harm in doing so. Use the proper amount of water.

And you'll need to boil for 90 minutes.

 

what is a good ratio to replace Dry Extract with mashed base malts?

If original recipe calls for 6 lbs of DME, and i wanted to do half extract, half mashed, I would do 3 lbs of extract and how many lbs of base grains?

thanks

 

Let's say DME yields 45 gravity Points per Pound per Gallon (PPG). To figure out how much grain you need to get 45 Points per gallon, you'd need to know the theoretical PPG of the grain and you need to know your mash efficiency. Let's say the grain has 36 theoretical PPG, and your mash efficiency is 70%. The amount of PPG you'd get from that grain is 25.2 (i.e. 70% x 36 PPG). But you need 45 Points per gallon. So you divide 45 points per gallon by 25.2 PPG to get approximately 1.8 pounds of grain.

So with 1.8 lbs of grain being equivalent to 1 lb of DME, you'd multiply the 3 lbs of DME that you want to replace by 1.85 to get 5.66 lbs of grain.

 

Definitely go the full hour with the mini-mash.

Also, pilsner malt ---> boil 90 minutes. Someone want to regale us as to why? I can't remember but I know it's needed.

And yes, 1 lb pilsner grain mashed won't make much of a difference to 6 lbs DME. But it won't hurt anything either, as long as it's mashed correctly, coverts, and doesn't leave starch behind.

Truthfully, if you can mash 1lb of pilsner, you can mash more than that. I'd use more grain in the mini-mash, and maybe some specialty grains or more interesting base malts (perhaps munich). Not really commenting specifically on this recipe, but more as a general rule.

Before I switched to all-grain I was doing mini-mashes of as much as 5 lbs of total grains. That's when I realized that I might as well do all grain (my typical all grain batch is about 12 lbs grains). Thus, I would say that the "optimal" mini-mash is about 2-3 lbs grain total, with some base malt, some specialty malts, and the rest extracts. If you're going to go much higher than that, consider going all grain. These numbers are optional and debatable of course, YMMV.

 

The Germans claim that the British can get away with a 60 minute boil, but prefer 90 minutes because it allows for a proper breakfast.

Helps with utilization of those low AA noble hops?
Cheers.

 

It reduces (boils off) DMS precursors, which are more prevalent in lightly kilned malts such as pilsner.

 

If I'm not mistaken Pilsner malt has a decent amount of DMS so the longer boil helps get rid of it.