As I said before, I don't really disagree with what you're saying. I disagree with the practice of simply using it regardless of whether it's useful or not.
As for mashing techniques, yes, step mashing - adding a brief additional, lower-temperature rest - can, depending on the pale malt chosen, positively enhance foam. You don't need a RIMS setup to do that, either. Just dough in on the dry side to begin with, say 0.6:1. Then add an additional infusion to rise to a relatively high saccharification temperature, then mash out as usual.
The technique comes from adjunct brewing, where one uses 25-35% adjunct - flaked maize or rice - in order to release more proteins into the wort. As adjuncts lack the proteins which produce and enhance foam, you need to get more from the pale malt. The reason flaked oats and barley work so well to enhance foam is the relative abundance of proteins they contain; that's also why they produce excessive haze when used in too-large proportions of the grist.
You do need to be careful, however; too long at the lower temperature (around 140F) will excessively degrade the proteins you're trying to produce, reversing what you're trying to do. There's a time/temperature balance which promotes foam-enhancing proteins while degrading haze-inducing proteins. You'll have to experiment in your own brewhouse to find the right balance with your ingredients. In my brewery I get good results with 30 minutes at 140F and 30 minutes at 158F (40 and 60C). Look up the work of George Fix for more detail than even I like to dive into.
I admit I don't really know much about decoction other than that it promotes a swell malty characteristic. I need to dig into Noonan again.
It should occur to most readers that most modern pale malts are so modified that plenty of foam-enhancing proteins are produced with a normal single-infusion mash. If you're not getting sufficient foam with malts like Maris Otter, investigate something else in your process, like serving procedure. I know I get plenty of foam with just pale malt, so long as I use clean glassware and clean draught lines. Soap residue plays havoc with foam.
The degree of modification plays a huge role in how you approach mashing. Undermodified malts, or malts with excessive proteins like 6-row, need more steps. Highly-modified malts, like UK pale ale malts, shouldn't need any additional steps at all. Get a malt analysis from your supplier. If he doesn't have it handy, have him get it for you. All it takes is an email or call to
his supplier. In fact, it's instructive to compare analyses from different pale malts; as an exercise, take a look at the malt analyses from Maris Otter (Muntons or Pauls or whatever), Briess Pale Ale, Briess 2-row Pale, Briess 6-row Pale*, and a Continental Pils malt like Weyermann.
Good luck!
Bob
* Sample Briess analyses are available on their website. Go to
http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Default.htm and click around the Base Malts and High-Temp Kilned Malts tabs. The basic analyses are available in PDF format.
