My first Decoction Mash!!!

Doing it as we speak! I am doing a double decoction. My first decoction wasn't as thick as I wanted it to be but I think I will be ok. I am improvising to get the right thickness on the second one. My goal was to get up to 145 degrees for my second 20 minute rest. I got 124 for my protein rest. I got 143 for the second. I hope that is within range. Oh well, nothing to do about it now.

More details to come...

So my second decoction was much more successful! Much thicker but not as thick as I wanted it and at this point I am positive that Beersmith is not dialed into my equipment. After infusing the second decoction I only got up to 154. My goal was 158. Again, at this point I have thinned my mash out enough to reach certain temps and I don't want to go any thinner. I will work with my equipment and beersmith in the future and make it work the next time I do this recipe.

I will update one final time after all is said and done...

You don't want a step mash to be too thick. Watch the videos that were made by Kaiser as he goes over this subject. Temperatures are easy to hit using his method.

Ref: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/decoction-mash-video-59872/

Yeah, I usually pull about twice what BeerSmith says (haven't figured out how to correct the settings.) Once you've added enough to reached your temperature you can always let any extra cool to the step temperature before adding it back to the mash.

AnOldUR said:

Yeah, I usually pull about twice what BeerSmith says (haven't figured out how to correct the settings.) Once you've added enough to reached your temperature you can always let any extra cool to the step temperature before adding it back to the mash.

Click to expand...

That is what I do.

AnOldUR said:

...Once you've added enough to reached your temperature you can always let any extra cool to the step temperature before adding it back to the mash.

Click to expand...

+1, this made the biggest difference in my decoctions. And +1 to Kaisers videos, they are amazing!

Kaiser is a great asset to our community. I'm planning to do a triple decoction German Pilsner very soon. This will be my first triple and I was wondering if I should bring the decoction to a full boil for a given time or just to boiling then flame out.

strangei did a double decoction wed and used the volumes beersmith said and i hit every temp...

If you havent seen the decoction page at breukaiser.com I highly recomend reading it.
Decoction Mashing - German Brewing Techniques
There is a lot of information not covered in the video there.

So I drank a lot of homebrew last night. Hagen was over and with good conversation and brewing the brews just went down so easy. Hit a few pints of Apfelwein and it was all over from there. I have a vague recollection of adding my coriander and orange peel. I can smell the coriander in the garbage so I think I must have used it. I used White Labs American Hefeweizen and the lag time was about 18 hours or so. Not surprised by this as I made the starter at 5:30 and pitched at 1 am. Hopefully that 7.5 hours was used as propogation by my little buddies. Got 80% efficiency which is relatively good for my system. I didn't clean my equipment last night though. Just too druck! I apparently tried to take my boots off last night but gave up and went to sleep with them on. I make this assumption because when I woke up they were untied and I was still wearing them.

I believe it shall be aptly named "Ogre's Witless Wit"