Skip to main content

Kitchen Brewing Part 5: Simple Decocotion Mashing

After my general disappointment with the Weizenbock I brewed, I decided to see what would happen if I tried doing a Decoction Mash on the stove. While the Multi-Step Mash I had used improved efficiency, the beer lacked a certain something.

How hard can it be?

My goal here is to do a mash that doesn't require rocket-science (or an all-day brewing session) to pull off, but will give a little extra something to my German beers. But before I go any further, I must give credit where it's due. Mary Samuels' excellent 1995 article Solve the Mystery of Decoction Mashing served as the inspiration for my stove-top technique, so hop on over there if you want all the in-depth decoction mashing details. Also, if you want charts and even more details, head over here. However, if your goal is to cut out the lengthy prose and cut to the chase of brewing beer, please read on.

Single-decoction is the easiest decoction to perform. Since I work with canning pots, I don't have a lot of room to spare, even with a thick mash. Therefore, my single-decoction is used to raise the mash from the Protein to the Saccharification Rest.

This is actually a pretty simple task that's easy to put into steps:
  1. After the Protein Rest, pull roughly half of the mashed grains into a second pot. Leave as much liquid behind in the first pot as possible.
  2. Remove the first pot from the stove and wrap it in blankets and/or towels to maintain the Protein Rest temp.
  3. Heat the decoction in the second pot to roughly 155F. Watch the thermometer, as you don't want the temp going up much faster than five degrees per minute. Keep the grains moving to avoid scorching (Note: I perform the decoction in a heavy-bottomed pot rather than another canning pot to help alleviate scorching issues).
  4. Hold the decoction at 155F for 15-20 minutes.
  5. Heat the decoction again at no more than five degrees per minute until it reaches a boil.
  6. Boil the decoction for 10-20 minutes and remove from heat.
  7. Unwrap the first pot and slowly add the decoction to it.
  8. Monitor the temp in the first pot. Once the mash reaches the desired Saccharification temp, stop adding the decoction and hold the Saccharification temp as you would with a single-infusion or multi-step mash. 
    • If you didn't have enough decoction to hit your target Saccharification temp, add heat or boiling water to the first pot until you reach the desired temperature.
    • If you have some of the decoction leftover, wait for it to cool to the Saccharification temp and then add it to the first pot.
  9. Sparge and boil your wort like you usually do.
  10. Drink a homebrew and congratulate yourself for a job well done.
Until next time, happy brewing!


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Out of the Bottle: Oak Aged La Petite Orange

I said in my previous post that I'd saved some of Northern Brewer's La Petite Orange kit to age with Sherry Infused Oak Cubes. The aged beer is ready to go, so let's see what the Oak and Sherry did. I've had more than a few Barrel Aged beers that were completely dominated by the wood and whatever alcohol (Rum, Bourbon, Sherry, etc) the barrel originally contained. In my beer, the oak and sherry are subtle. That's what I was shooting for, so I'm quite happy with that. The flavors and aromas from the original beer are still present. There's no point in revisiting them. What I really care about is the changes the wood made. Vanilla is the most significant contribution. There's also a very mild almond note at work. The Sherry really cuts through in the aroma. It provides an extra helping of dark fruits, plus a little more alcohol heat. The beer is definitely more wine-like than before. On a side note, I took my own advice and bumped the priming su
Post a Comment
Read more

Out of the Bottle: Big Beers and a Haze

I'm doing a 4-for-1 with this installment, and will be bundling my finished beers going forward, rather than writing a blog for each.  That should leave me space for more brewing oriented posts. This month, I've got beers I posted the recipes for back in November, December and January. First out of the gate is Enchanted Nightmare Imperial Stout. This beer is an amalgamation of extra grains and hops I had that were combined with some 2-Row and additional hops to create a 9.95% ABV Stout for the depths of Winter. So what if it wasn't actually ready until the Spring Equinox arrived? A beer like this can't be rushed. My beer pours nearly pitch black, and has nice ruby highlights. The head could stand a touch more staying power, but is appropriately dense. In the mouth, the body is a little lighter than I expected. The carbonation is very soft, and feels just about right for this beer style.  When I bottled this beer, I was slightly worried that the whiskey and oak were a li
Post a Comment
Read more

Kitchen Brewing Part 3: Sparge and Boil

The mash emerges from the oven. Now that we're finished with Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, it's time to Sparge. As you can see from the photo, the grains have absorbed a lot of liquid. In a traditional all-grain setup, your Mash Tun has a valve at the bottom to release the first running of Wort. The grains are then rinsed with the sparge water to extract any remaining sugars. My stove-top method doesn't afford such luxury, so a different method is called for. The grains have gained a little weight. There are a couple of choices at this point. One choice is to lift the grain bag out of Pot A and place it into the sparge water in Pot B to steep for 10-15 minutes or more. The other is to lift the grain bag up, put a colander under it and slowly pour the sparge water through the grains into the original pot. I prefer the former, because I get a better extraction rate from my grains. All that absorption means that the grains weigh a lot more than they did going i
2 comments
Read more