Bohemian Pilsner

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I had no problems with the Weyermann Bo Pils malt (floor malted variety). No protein rests, no decoctions, just a straight Hochkurz mash and the beers turned out perfectly fine, and the efficiency was fine as well. A little lower than I wanted but nothing in that or the finished beers that would suggest there was any need to get all fancy with the mash schedule.

I had tried doing a full step mash with one batch of it, but the urn ****** up when all the **** released from the grains caked onto the element and it wouldn't heat up. And this was at the acid rest step. I then had to get out the old stock pot, drain some of the "wort" into it, boil it and return it to the urn (did this 3 or 4 times) to bring it up to the mid 60s degrees.

Long story with that batch but it was **** compared to the following ones where I ditched the full step mash and just started it at 62/63. It never cleared up either; I had one bottle in the fridge for 3 months and it was still full of ******* haze, despite the use of isinglass and Polyclar during the cold conditioning period prior to bottling. Its flavour was also way off what I wanted. It tasted like a S&W Pacific Ale of all things. Not bad per se, but not what I want in a Bo Pils.

The later batches all turned out the way I wanted them to when I first compiled the recipe. Much, much better flavour - exactly what I would expect from a Bo Pils. They also cleared up very quickly. All batches were brewed to an identical recipe; the only thing that differed between the **** one and the good ones was the mash schedule. I'm not saying that a full step mash or a decoction can't be done with this stuff obviously, just that I don't think it's necessary to achieve a decent outcome, not because my attempt failed, but because a more standard approach worked really well for me.

I'm no expert of course but based on my experience with it, I don't think this malt is under modified and needs anything more than a single infusion, although I do like doing the Hochkurz schedule in these beers. I am gonna use it with some melanoiden next batch and see what differences appear in the finished beer, and also try a single infusion mash on one batch to see how that goes.
 
MartinOC said:
From what I've read, Weyermann Bo-Pils is undermodified & needs a decoction (or two)... The alternative is to use straight pils malt + a bit of melanoidin to replicate the decoction process & save yourself the hassle.

$0.02
Melanodin wont' replicate decoction, but then again, decoction hardly seems wort the effort anyway - unless you enjoy the process and have a whole Saturday to burn that is.
According to this bloke anyway.

http://nateobrew.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/triple-decoction-vs-no-sparge.html
 
Decoction takes me very little extra time, a bit of stovetop room while the remaining mash does its thing and if boiling malt for 40 minutes doesn't influence the flavour then I'm a snapdragon.

If you were to do a full traditional/historical decoction, that might be a different story but I'll regularly do a 2 stage decoction for altbiers, strong belgians and pils and it's easy and resonably fun if you're a beer brewing nerd who loves the smell of malt in the moorning.
 
I still have some areas of black shyte on my urn element from attempting a protein rest in 2011.
 
manticle said:
Decoction takes me very little extra time, a bit of stovetop room while the remaining mash does its thing and if boiling malt for 40 minutes doesn't influence the flavour then I'm a snapdragon.

If you were to do a full traditional/historical decoction, that might be a different story but I'll regularly do a 2 stage decoction for altbiers, strong belgians and pils and it's easy and resonably fun if you're a beer brewing nerd who loves the smell of malt in the moorning.
Well, my pretty little flower, if you used that method I can see how the time penalty is minor. But on the first occasion I had a go my knowledge of the process was basically zero, so I consulted the ominisent you tube and basically followed Dawsons method where by you raise / hit the rest temps based on adding back decoction material. Since I don't own one of northern Brewers finely calibrated 'one quart dippers' I had to revert to a more labor intensive ladle from the kitchen drawer.
I also didn't heed his advise at around 15:16 until it was far to late.
T'was a long day and I was of little use for anything by the end.
Fully agree though the malty aroma of bubbling malt is olfactory comfort food. Like boiling a big rich stout is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIQPQmELWPo
 
manticle said:
Decoction takes me very little extra time, a bit of stovetop room while the remaining mash does its thing and if boiling malt for 40 minutes doesn't influence the flavour then I'm a snapdragon.

If you were to do a full traditional/historical decoction, that might be a different story but I'll regularly do a 2 stage decoction for altbiers, strong belgians and pils and it's easy and resonably fun if you're a beer brewing nerd who loves the smell of malt in the moorning.
Did my first decoction, a double, on a Czech pale lager a couple of months ago. Surprisingly easy and didn't drag things out noticeably. It was a bit weird taking mash out of a braumeister to put it in a pot on the stove but.....
 
Dave70 said:
Well, my pretty little flower, if you used that method I can see how the time penalty is minor. But on the first occasion I had a go my knowledge of the process was basically zero, so I consulted the ominisent you tube and basically followed Dawsons method where by you raise / hit the rest temps based on adding back decoction material. Since I don't own one of northern Brewers finely calibrated 'one quart dippers' I had to revert to a more labor intensive ladle from the kitchen drawer.
I also didn't heed his advise at around 15:16 until it was far to late.
T'was a long day and I was of little use for anything by the end.
Fully agree though the malty aroma of bubbling malt is olfactory comfort food. Like boiling a big rich stout is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIQPQmELWPo

I promise the way I do decoction is much less painful than watching that video.
 
Now that I have my Smartpid running in the Guten Im gonna step mash the **** out of it. Starting with a bo pils or 2. Sunday hopefully. Last week or some thing I was reading on the BYO website about a bo pils step mash. Between now and then BYO have gone pay per veiw so they can bite me.

It started with a protein rest or something lower temp. Then it had a rest at 66c and then one at 72c!?!?! I was going to go with a hochkurz. I still might but I was wondering what other kind of mash steps I could be doing with a bo pils.

No im not keen on a decoction at this point in time.
 

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