Will this lazy "decoction" work?

I would like to make a lager for this fall/winter and I am limited with size constraints to a 3 gal better bottle in the FC at the moment and would like to try something a little bit lazy.

For a 2.8 gal batch, I was figuring that I could mash in my smaller BK using BIAB technique and mash in at 122 and rest for 20 mins, then with direct heat in the kitchen get bump to 149 and rest for 30 mins, then with direct heat in the kitchen bump to 158 and rest for 30 mins.

Here is where my question about the decoction comes in. Could I then ramp up to 'mash out' temps and just continue to boil the wort/grains in a pseudo decoction for 20 mins before lifting the grains out and sparging, starting the clock and adding my hops?

My grain bill would be 5.5 lbs, 3.5 lb munich and 2 lb vienna.

Is this absolutely stupid, or could it work? Thanks for the input.

No, I don't think you'd be happy with that.

The reason decoctions work is due to the thick mash being pulled out, and the pH never exceeds 6. If you boil the whole mash, I'd think you'd be dealing with a pH of over 6, and really have an issue with tannin extraction.

If you don't want to do a decoction, you could try adding some melanoidin malt to the grainbill.

I am not opposed to doing a true decoction. More of a curiosity thing than anything else. It just seemed a little bit silly to do a full decoction for such a small batch.

I appreciate the input about pH. Thats a good point. What if I tried out that 5.2 stuff? I've never tried it so have no clue as to its ability to buffer in this kind of environment, but the thought popped into my head so I figured why not ask?

The melanoiden malt is also a good idea.

Thanks for the input Yooper!

I've done a decoction mash on a one gallon batch. If you're going to do it, do it right. It is well, well worth the effort.

if you want to do a decoction cheat, just pull a few pints worth of grain and boil them 45 min into the mash, then dump back in and repeat. you'll get enough of the tasty melanoidens, but you won't have to rely on that to alter your temps. i've done it on a few beers, and they always turn out great.

yep.. I've done a couple with a decoction for mash out only... that actually seemed to bring out some flavor but was easy.. probably not nearly as much as a decoction step mash.. but I liked the results. I just pulled a thick decoction after an hour and boiled it for 20 mins then added back.

cool, thanks for the ideas all!

I did a decoction mash-out on my alt and it turned out great. Mine was a partial mash of 4 lbs. of grain. No reason why yours wouldn't turn out great too.

Sounds like the mash tun's going to get a bit more action then and I'll ditch the stovetop idea.

If your pH is good, YOU CAN to a full decoction without extracting tannins. I know, since I did it. I was curious if I could speed up my brewing day so after starch conversion was finished my whole mash got boiled for 20 min. I added hops to the mash as well. After sparging it was chilled and went right into the fermenter.

There were no tannins in the final product. It turned out OK. I'm not looking to brew OK beer so I haven't repeated this

I'm not after OK homebrew either. I'm always after the question "where did you buy this" from guests.