decoction question?

[martinworswick]

i'm brewing an ipa this weekend but pilsner malt is my only base and by all accounts its quite undermodified so i'm going to try a decoction for the first time but

do you do the decoction with all malts ie, decoct crystal and munich or add them at the sacc rest?

i may add some unmalted wheat, would you cereal mash this or add it to the decoction?

cheers
martin

 

[Malticulous]

A decoction is usually done with all the grains. The wheat will work fine in the regular mash, but yields better extraction with a cereal mash. The decoctions will certainty help. I don't know how you could only get the wheat because you want the enzymes from the base malts to also work on the wheat during all the step temps.

I like to bake raw wheat in a 300F oven for 20 minutes to torrify. It works very well in my pale ales. I've cooked it by boiling without base malt and it's a sticky mess.

Are you getting the pilsner from a small local maltster?

 

[martinworswick]

yes, the malt does come from a small local maltster, its mentioned on a new zealand beer website that its not very well modified and needs acid treatment depending on your water,and you also get heaps of protein in the kettle from it. i'm not 100% sure what all that means though.

i could scrape together/borrow enough base to brew with but i want to try a decoction for the experience,so i figured why not?

i may try torrifying the wheat to make it easier to use,thanks for the tip!