Split batch brewing with speciality grains

Hi All,

Being both lazy and scientificaly minded i want to test the effects of individual speciality grains without doing batch after batch.

So for example if i wanted to test the diffence between roasted barley and black pantent, could i mash only the base malt (enough for two batches ) and then separately steep the 2 speciality malts separetly, then combine them back in to their respective boils?

How should they be steeped?

Could amber vs biscuit be steeped this way too?

Would i lose anything from not mashing them? 

Are there any other methods you've tried?

Thanks

I think you won't get the greatest result.  During mash out of your base grains, you'll be going up to about 170F and denaturing the enzymes that would convert the starches in your steeping grains.  You'll get the color and some flavors from the steeping grains, but you won't get the sugars that also contribute to the flavor profile.  However, with roasted barley and black patent, you're not dealing with sugars that need to be extracted, so for those two specialty grains, I think it "would work"!

So, if the experiment is with specialty grains that you need to extract sugars you'll be able to tell the difference, but you won't learn any more than what you could learn from an extract with steeping grains experiment.

For when you're testing specialty grains that you want to extract the sugars an option is to do one gallon all grain batches in small coolers with all of the grains in small mesh bags (Small scale BIAB)!  The small coolers do have a little trouble holding temperature (from my experience!), since they don't have as much thermal mass as a five gallon batch, but since it's an experiment you could mash in at 152F and even if it falls to say 145F, you should still have full conversion and get a much more accurate result of what those specialty grains add.

Thanks for clearing that up!

My pleasure.