Decoction resulted in astringent beer. Is low gravity to blame here? Input please.

So I've been doing decoction mashouts for about 6 months. I'm quite comfortable with them. I'm aware that the often-referenced high gravity and low mash pH keep tannins from leeching.

So 10 days ago I brewed a low gravity wheat beer (1.038). Mash pH of 5.2 as measured by colorplast strips. I did my usual decoction, hit 166*F mashout temp. Normal boring fly sparge. I've been brewing all grain for 5 years now and I've never tasted this kind of husky astringency in one of my beers before.

I'm aware that cold conditioning will remedy the situation, but I'm curious if the lower gravity of the mash could be to blame here? I really have no idea what could be the cause of this. Even if the great minds on this board think gravity wasn't the culprit this time, I'm curious what the bottom gravity threshold is to pull a decoction.

Looking forward to some thoughts or husky/non-husky lower gravity decoction stories.

Cheers all. Have a great weekend.

Bump, 'cus it's buried and I know someone has a thought or two, right?

Almost 50 views and not a single thought on the gravity limitations of decoctions, aye? I guess it's time to let the thread die.






Good thing the beer got dosed with 13 lbs of diced local strawberries a couple of days ago. That should help mask the harshness...

Maybe oversparged. Idk

chuckstout said:

Maybe oversparged. Idk

Click to expand...

This. OG does not determine mash thickness.

Lowest gravity decoction I've done is 1.044, and I didn't notice anything different with that than my higher gravity recipes.

Maybe since it was lower gravity and I'm assuming you used your usual mash thickness, your sparge water had a greater impact on the sparge (lauter? grain bed? whatever it's called when you're sparging) than regular batches. Do you adjust the pH of your sparge water to keep it around ~5.7ish? Also, at what temp did you sparge? I know since I batch sparge I need to reduce my sparge water temp for low gravity beers so I don't go above 170*F, but I'm pretty sure that's a moot point with fly sparging. Just a few thoughts.

Over 200 views. Heh. I looked over my brewday notes and realized that I made an error when measuring out my mash water. I mashed in at 2 quarts per pound. The thin mash is what ruined me. So, if anyone comes across this thread wondering what mash thickness is required for a safe decoction, it's going to have to be thicker than 2 qt/lb. How MUCH thicker, I donk know... prost.