Decoction questions

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iMac6

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Do I have to pull off grain and liquid for a decoct, or can I just draw off liquid through the spigot on my cooler mash tun and heat that up?

Also, is a decoct essentially interchangeable with a step mash? I can't do a step mash easily in my cooler mash run, but by pulling off the liquid and doing a decoct like I said above, I can more easily step up my temps. Am I crazy or does this work?
 
Decoctions are traditionally done by heating liquid and grain together. You can use them to accomplish the same ends as a step infusion mash, but they're certainly not interchangeable.
 
One reason you pull off a thick mash as opposed to just liquid, is that the enzymes responsible for converting starches to sugars are in the liquid. If you draw off too much of the liquid to do a step mash, you are hurting the effectiveness of your saccharification rest. It is fine if your goal in stepping up is to go from saccharification to mash out temps, since you are trying to denature the enzymes for mash out anyway, and in fact most of the time you will only draw off liquid for that decoction step.
 
weirdboy said:
One reason you pull off a thick mash as opposed to just liquid, is that the enzymes responsible for converting starches to sugars are in the liquid. If you draw off too much of the liquid to do a step mash, you are hurting the effectiveness of your saccharification rest. It is fine if your goal in stepping up is to go from saccharification to mash out temps, since you are trying to denature the enzymes for mash out anyway, and in fact most of the time you will only draw off liquid for that decoction step.
Click to expand...

Bingo. Right on. Totally agree.
 
It would be good if you pay attention to the mash Ph if you're considering decoction procedures.
 
Here's a video BrewingTV did about decoction mashing.

[ame="http://vimeo.com/22026139"]http://vimeo.com/22026139[/ame]
 

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