Big Brown Ale with a mash/steep question

[jpsherman]

First off I know my recipe is a bit too big to be in-style.

3# Plain Light DME
8oz Honey Malt
4oz C10
4oc Chocolate malt
2oz CaraPils
.5oz Perle (60 min boil)
S-05 yeast

Steeped malts for ~40 min (starting temp 150, ending 140)
Meanwhile dissolved DME in 1 Qt of water (I HATE trying to stir DME into hot water, damn clumps!)
Added steep water to DME water.
Brought to boil and added hops for duration of the boil.

Honey malt has some diastatic power, but not much, correct?
If I enter this as extract in Brewsmith it gives me 6.1%, as a partial mash it shows 7.1%.
Is it one or the other or somewhere in between?
As usual I forgot to take the SG.

[Gman20]

i think it would depend on whatever your SG was...i guesing SG was changing in beersmith with your abv when switching between partial grain and extract?. the higher the sg the higher the abv content right?


not sure bout the honey malt tho?

[jpsherman]

i think it would depend on whatever your SG was...i guesing SG was changing in beersmith with your abv when switching between partial grain and extract?. the higher the sg the higher the abv content right?


not sure bout the honey malt tho?

Yep. The SG went up 9 points causing the abv to go from 6.1 to 7.1

[mashani]

Honey malt is like Munich or Aromatic type Munich Malt derivatives in that it can self convert - but barely. If you want full conversion without any 2-row, mash it at a higher temperature, and mash it for 75+ minutes.

If you just want flavor you can steep it. It's fine.

IF you are going to mash the honey malt, steep the crystal and chocolate in a separate pot, then combine. That will help.

[jpsherman]

Honey malt is like Munich or Aromatic type Munich Malt derivatives in that it can self convert - but barely. If you want full conversion without any 2-row, mash it at a higher temperature, and mash it for 75+ minutes.

If you just want flavor you can steep it. It's fine.

IF you are going to mash the honey malt, steep the crystal and chocolate in a separate pot, then combine. That will help.

So I just steeped the grain right? If there was any conversion it should be minimal to none if I read you right. I was just trying to sweeten the beer, not too add fermentables.

[mashani]

So I just steeped the grain right? If there was any conversion it should be minimal to none if I read you right. I was just trying to sweeten the beer, not too add fermentables.

I didn't notice in your OP that you actually did it, but now I do ... so yeah, you steeped at mash temps - so you probably got a little bit of conversion. But not very much.

I would not worry about it as regardless you will get the flavor you are looking for. That's a lot of honey malt proportionally speaking, so it's going to stand out. If you used only 2-3 ounces it may have seemed more "extra malty" then sweet, but you used lot more.

[jpsherman]

So I just steeped the grain right? If there was any conversion it should be minimal to none if I read you right. I was just trying to sweeten the beer, not too add fermentables.

I didn't notice in your OP that you actually did it, but now I do ... so yeah, you steeped at mash temps - so you probably got a little bit of conversion. But not very much.

I would not worry about it as regardless you will get the flavor you are looking for. That's a lot of honey malt proportionally speaking, so it's going to stand out. If you used only 2-3 ounces it may have seemed more "extra malty" then sweet, but you used lot more.

This is another version of a beer I have already tried.

It had 4oz chocolate malt and 4oz C60 as steeping grains with 2.5 #amber DME, same yeast, fuggles instead of perle.

While tasty, it was came out tasting like a coffee beer.

I was trying to steer this closer to a brown ale, while using up stuff I had on hand.

Thanks for the info!!