The fraud that has become decoction

[elproducto]

I found capping the spunding valve with 4 points left in fermentation does wonders for my carbonation.

 

[Witherby]

The stats are different on those beers, ABV, IBU which most likely affects tasting differences. Can't find malt listings or mash process for those beers on their website.

The most recent episode of the Craft series Beer and Brewing podcast is with Hagen Dost, co-founder of Dovetail in Chicago. In explaining why they decoct their lagers, he tells a story about his time in brewing school in Germany when they got to brew with the same recipes and ingredients on the Hacker pilot system and could directly compare the commercial version. The pilot system had direct fired kettles and mash tuns, did decoctions, and open fermentation. The decocted version was maltier (his word).

Podcast Episode 332: Chicago’s Dovetail Finds Harmony and Cohesion in their Modern Approach to Traditional Methods

According to another interview, “our kettle is direct-fired. When we boil and do decoction, we’re actually heating and boiling with fire to get a maillard reaction. That’s kind of the same thing you get when you put a steak on a grill. We feel that gives it a little more complexity of flavor.”
Traditional Brewing with Northcenter's Dovetail Brewery

Definitely recommend the podcast. Lots to think about if you are, like me, a decidedly high oxygen lager brewer with decoctions and open fermentation more in the vain of small Franconian breweries.

He also mentions that Narziss tried to convince Pilsner Urquell to switch from decoction to step mashing. Guess you can’t be right all of the time.

 

[Civilian]

That was a great podcast, next time I go to Chicago I'm going to check them out (my daughter is in vet school there).