Duff
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Yesterday I had a crack at decoction mashing and thought I'd take a couple of photos to show how I went about it. The grain bill was simple:
98.5% Wey. Bo. Pils
1.5% Wey. Carapils (thought I had more in stock)
NB and Czech Saaz. OG: 1.045 IBU: 31
I have read a couple of different methods (mainly time and temperature related) in decoction mashing and went with the following outline:
Dough in and hold at 55C for 30min
Pull 40% and heat to 70C, hold for 15min
Bring to boil and boil for 15min
Return to tun and hold at 64C for 30min
First thing I did was measure out 40% of the mash (3kg) and put it in the pot I was going to boil it in to get an idea of quantity.
The burner I used was a camping stove that you can get for $20 and has a 7500BTU output.
After the 55C rest I used a strainer to pull a fairly thick mash which was then heated while stirring to 70C and left to rest for 15min.
It was then bought to a boil for 15min, the little burner performed great for this purpose.
At the end of the boil the mash had darkened a little and had a much richer aroma. This was added back into the tun where the temperature settled at 62C so I used my immersion heater constantly stirring which bought it up to 64C for the 30min hold.
All in all, I didn't find it as intimidating as I originally thought. Hopefully I'll pick up a taste difference and if it goes well then it will probably be the norm for all my Pilsners.
This pic is of my state of the art brewery. The Pils is at the 55C rest on the left, the burner and pot ready for the decoction, my 'HLT' heating the sparge water, and the boiler with an aroma hop steep of Cascade in my SNPA clone after the boil.
Cheers.
98.5% Wey. Bo. Pils
1.5% Wey. Carapils (thought I had more in stock)
NB and Czech Saaz. OG: 1.045 IBU: 31
I have read a couple of different methods (mainly time and temperature related) in decoction mashing and went with the following outline:
Dough in and hold at 55C for 30min
Pull 40% and heat to 70C, hold for 15min
Bring to boil and boil for 15min
Return to tun and hold at 64C for 30min
First thing I did was measure out 40% of the mash (3kg) and put it in the pot I was going to boil it in to get an idea of quantity.
The burner I used was a camping stove that you can get for $20 and has a 7500BTU output.
After the 55C rest I used a strainer to pull a fairly thick mash which was then heated while stirring to 70C and left to rest for 15min.
It was then bought to a boil for 15min, the little burner performed great for this purpose.
At the end of the boil the mash had darkened a little and had a much richer aroma. This was added back into the tun where the temperature settled at 62C so I used my immersion heater constantly stirring which bought it up to 64C for the 30min hold.
All in all, I didn't find it as intimidating as I originally thought. Hopefully I'll pick up a taste difference and if it goes well then it will probably be the norm for all my Pilsners.
This pic is of my state of the art brewery. The Pils is at the 55C rest on the left, the burner and pot ready for the decoction, my 'HLT' heating the sparge water, and the boiler with an aroma hop steep of Cascade in my SNPA clone after the boil.
Cheers.
[well close enough] the steps were 50c for 35min I hit 52c,64c for 20min I hit 65,70c for 20min hit 70, heat to 76 over 10min went to 78.Beersmith said 1.080 and I hit 1.077 <_< not too bad for my 2nd decoction but my first double decoction.
