adding grain to a kit..

[mat69]

i've just been to the hop&grape and got me sel 500g of crystal,500g of chocolate malt and a couple of muslin bags with the intension of adding them to a tom caxton real ale kit.so heres my question,should i steep all of it together,half of each,all of one and not the other,and at what temp and for how long.im after a real ale with a light brown ale flavour if that makes sense...or have i bought the wrong grain?im just trying to get a bit of experience in using grains before moving on to extract brewing..many thanks..

[Barm]

I'd give the crystal a wide swerve....unless you are agassi in disguise

[mat69]

or no went for 200g of each been steeping for 10mins@bout 65*,its gone as black as night and looks like treacle,smells just like the kit..

[legion]

I'd give the crystal a wide swerve....unless you are agassi in disguise

Whats wrong with using Crystal Malt, is not the core Malt used for Bitters?

[Barm]

IIRC Pale Malt is generally the basis (and major proportion used in the grist) for most ales.
Crystal Malt has a strong, sweet, sometimes unpleasantly cloying taste - usually you wouldn't use more than say 10% crystal in your grist, the vast majority being pale malt.

BTW, for those that didn't get it, my quote was (at least in part) meant to be a gag; referring to Andre Agassi's recent admission to using crystal METH, rather than anything to do with crystal MALT...

[mat69]

and there was me going "tennis?,tennis?what is barm goin on about

[Barm]

hehehe sorry if that was too obscure for y'all - I'll try to be a little less cryptic in future

let us know how your experimental brew turns out!