[udubdawg]

statements like "a TRUE brewing method" (empahsis mine) make me 

but decoction works for me and I'll keep doing it.  YMMV

cheers--
--Michael

[denny]

statements like "a TRUE brewing method" (empahsis mine) make me 

but decoction works for me and I'll keep doing it.  YMMV

cheers--
--Michael

Yep.  My thoughts on decoction are well known.  If I thought it would make beer I liked better, I'd do it.  But in repeated trials that hasn't happened.  Brew whatever you like however you like, but when you start making grand pronouncements about the "true" way I'm gonna call BS.

[narcout]

I've always been interested in processes and procedures in general, I guess that's what drew me to home brewing in the first place. If their is such a thing, what is the easiest way for a home brewer to tackle the decoction mash? Are their any good, step by step articles you can recommend reading?

Thanks guys and gals.
Curtdogg

It's not specific to decoction mashing, but I think the best explanation I have read of the mashing process is in Principles of Brewing Science by George Fix.  It made a lot more sense to me than the chapter on mashing in How to Brew by Palmer.

"Beta converts glucose into complex types of sugar called maltose and malto-trios."

That's something I have never heard before.  That enzymes in the mash create more complex sugars like maltose (a disaccharide) and maltotriose (a trisaccharide) from glucose (a monosaccharide)?

[The Beerery]

I've always been interested in processes and procedures in general, I guess that's what drew me to home brewing in the first place. If their is such a thing, what is the easiest way for a home brewer to tackle the decoction mash? Are their any good, step by step articles you can recommend reading?

Thanks guys and gals.
Curtdogg

It's not specific to decoction mashing, but I think the best explanation I have read of the mashing process is in Principles of Brewing Science by George Fix.  It made a lot more sense to me than the chapter on mashing in How to Brew by Palmer.

"Beta converts glucose into complex types of sugar called maltose and malto-trios."

That's something I have never heard before.  That enzymes in the mash create more complex sugars like maltose (a disaccharide) and maltotriose (a trisaccharide) from glucose (a monosaccharide)?

"By saccharification is meant the complete degradation of starch to maltose and iodine normal limit dextrins by amylases. The iodine test is used to see if it is complete (Fig. 3.33). The starch degradation products formed during mashing differ substantially with regard to fermentability by brewer's yeast:
Limit dextrins are not fermented; these include all glucose chains of up to 1 O glucose molecules. Maltotriose is fermented by all top fermentation strains. However, it is not fermented by yeast until the maltose has been fermented, in other words during storage (late fermentation sugar). Maltose and other disaccharides are easily and rapidly fermented by yeast (main fermentation sugar). Glucose is the first sugar used by yeast(initial fermentation sugar). The percentage of fermentable sugar in the total wort extract determines the attenuation limit establishes the potential alcohol content of the beer and consequently has a decisive influence on the character of the beer. The proportion of fermentable sugars is determined by the variable activity of the enzymes. Consequently the attenuation limit is
also established during mashing." -Kunze

[BUZZSAW52]

I have read that decoction is a dated method and completely unnecessary for grains available to us today. There is always contradiction to everything. I'm still a newbie so I don't have any experience to share with decoction.


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[The Beerery]

I have read that decoction is a dated method and completely unnecessary for grains available to us today. There is always contradiction to everything. I'm still a newbie so I don't have any experience to share with decoction.


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I would answer that with a maybe, and it depends.

[beersk]

I have read that decoction is a dated method and completely unnecessary for grains available to us today. There is always contradiction to everything. I'm still a newbie so I don't have any experience to share with decoction.


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I still have the opinion that it was used before well modified malts and accurate thermometers. Completely unnecessary today.

[denny]

I have read that decoction is a dated method and completely unnecessary for grains available to us today. There is always contradiction to everything. I'm still a newbie so I don't have any experience to share with decoction.


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I still have the opinion that it was used before well modified malts and accurate thermometers. Completely unnecessary today.

Not only unnecessary, but my repeated tests don't indicate that it makes a beer that I prefer.

[The Beerery]

Decoction is not only about flavor, its about extract potential and other things as well. Take for instance wheat, it benefits from a decoction.

[bayareabrewer]

what about the taste of a decocted beer did you not like Denny?

[Werks21]

what about the taste of a decocted beer did you not like Denny?

you would be better served asking why he didnt prefer the beer. he never said he did not like it. Decoction is alot of time and energy (literally) so why go through the trouble for results that are obtained with less effort. I am not likely to use the method if I can produce great beer without it. Many say it doesnt do much with todays malts, though I will probably break down one day and decoct a batch to see for myself.

[bjanat]

This sums it up, but doesn't adress the oxygen issue http://brulosophy.com/2016/12/08/in-defense-of-decoction-a-german-purists-perspective-on-an-age-old-brewing-method/


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[The Beerery]

Very good article. Few things smell better than a boiling decoction mash.
This got me though, laugh out loud. "With an infusion mash (a most extreme case being the Anglo-American single infusion mash), specialty malts are often the only option for increasing a beer’s complexity. Just look at the high percentage of caramel malts included in so many single infusion mashing recipes…"
 

[Phil_M]

Does anyone else besides me just enjoy the process of doing a decoction mash? I'm planning a Dunkel brew day of some sort soon...should be fun outside on a wintry day.

[dmtaylor]

Does anyone else besides me just enjoy the process of doing a decoction mash? I'm planning a Dunkel brew day of some sort soon...should be fun outside on a wintry day.

I'll agree, it's fun!  As for taste, jury is still out.... I ran an experiment decoction vs. not where folks could taste a difference, but I'm left wondering if I messed up the experiment somehow, so I need to run it again.