Infusion versus Decoction - Hefeweizen

[Ryush806]

So due to the fact that I ended up with double the grain for my hefeweizen recipe that I ordered, I decided I would brew it twice: once with a decoction mash and once with an infusion mash. The rests were going to be 123, 146, 154 (95 dough in for decoction). The decoction mash went great and I ended up with an OG of 1.055. Unfortunately, I just brewed it again with the infusion mash and had a terrible time hitting my temps for some reason and ended up with 1.036. Terrible efficiency.

So now I'm faced with a choice. Should I boil up enough light DME to bring the OG up in the same range? Or should I just ferment as is? I'm worried that adding the DME might throw off the recipe since I used only wheat and pilsener and I wouldn't be comparing apples to apples for the taste test. Of course I don't think I'll be comparing apples to apples anyway with such different OGs. What do you think I should do to salvage my experiment? Thanks for your help!

 

[hulkavitch]

IMO extracts add a tang...so i dont think you can make a worthy comparison without doing a succesfull infusion mash. On the plus side these side by sides have already been done by Denny he showed with BJCP judges that the decoction does not make a significant difference.

 

[Ryush806]

IMO extracts add a tang...so i dont think you can make a worthy comparison without doing a succesfull infusion mash. On the plus side these side by sides have already been done by Denny he showed with BJCP judges that the decoction does not make a significant difference.

Yeah that's kinda what I'm thinking. I've read Denny's paper (I don't think there's anything about using BJCP judges but maybe I missed something). I just wanted to try it for myself. I think I might add a bunch of DME and then ferment at a pretty high temp to make banana bread beer if nobody has any good ideas for saving my botched experiment.

 

[hulkavitch]

He mentioned that some of the judging was bjcp in a episode of brew strong with JZ and John P. about decoctions. Sorry i dont have any ideas. I would just ferment it as is, but then again maybe adding a little dme wouldn't change the flavor much. How much are you yeast are you pitching?

I think pitch rate effects flavors more then temperature. I have even heard that the temperature idea is not exactly true. You can ferment a hefe in the low 60s and get a really good balance of banana and clove

 

[Ryush806]

He mentioned that some of the judging was bjcp in a episode of brew strong with JZ and John P. about decoctions. Sorry i dont have any ideas. I would just ferment it as is, but then again maybe adding a little dme wouldn't change the flavor much. How much are you yeast are you pitching?

I think pitch rate effects flavors more then temperature. I have even heard that the temperature idea is not exactly true. You can ferment a hefe in the low 60s and get a really good balance of banana and clove

Yeah I've heard that as well. Seems that the clove flavor is part of the weizen yeast's natural metabolism but the banana occurs when it is under pitched.

I went ahead and did my banana bread beer idea. I added enough DME to get it up a little higher than it should have been according to beersmith and only pitched half of my yeast starter. I'm gonna go ahead and do 70 F so hopefully the banana is insane. I figure I already have a batch of hefeweizen and since it's really not my favorite style I'll make something SWMBO will love.