OP. The beer will turn out differently if you control what the enzymes are doing. Check Weyermann's site. There are a few recipes that use the step mash process. When wheat is used in a recipe, a rest in the proteolytic range is a good idea. The rest will reduce the mash viscosity and convert some of the beta glucan to glucose. A ferulic rest can be tossed in, as well.
If you want to try out the decoction method. It might be better to start out using one malt and some sour malt, until you get your feet wet. When malt and wheat are boiled the mash gets pretty thick and it takes a little bit of experience to know how to deal with it. Break in slowly, after that, red line it.
"A trick that I was taught from Neill Acer of Defiant Brewing is to do your mash (step, infusion, whatever) and THEN do a decoction after conversion is complete. Maybe to do the last temperature increase at the end. Boil 1/4 to 1/3 of the mash for 10 to 30 minutes (10 for lighter beers etc). It works wonders for malt flavor and character."
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"The idea is to boil the grains, and in my example, do the final temperature step using a decoction."
The problem that comes up when grain is boiled after conversion takes place, has something to do with hard starch. The starch is heat resistant to a point and somewhat, impervious to enzymes during conversion. When the decoction is brought to boiling, the hard starch will burst. When that happens, amylopectin is released and the decoction gelatinizes. Since, the decoction is used to denature enzymes, the amylopectin will not be converted. The starch will end up in the bottle. Product stability and shelf life will be reduced.
Are you sure that the brewer didn't instruct you to use mash liquid for the final decoction? Or, did he give you disinformation about the process that he uses, because it puts food on his table? A brewmaster or distiller, most certainly, isn't going to give anyone any idea about his process or recipes, unless, his family is in front of a firing squad. If the guy is brewing beer the way you explained it, he is adding problems. I don't believe that he performs the process the same way that you are doing it.
I began learning about the tri-decoction method in 1987 and have never used another method, since then. I understand what takes place throughout the process and can assure you that jelled mash isn't used for the final decoction and never was.
Before the first decoction is removed, mash pH should be at least 5.5. The first decoction is the one that is used for creating melanoidin. The first decoction is rested in the proteolysis range and increased in temp to 155F until conversion. After conversion, the mash is brought to boiling and the mash jells.
The jelled decoctions are added back into the main mash and used to raise the mash to a conversion temperature. Depending on what temperature is chosen. The amylopectin will be reduced by beta or by alpha. When beta is active, maltose, maltriose and B-limit dextrin are produced. When alpha is active, non-fermantable sugar and A-Limit dextrin are produced. After all that stuff takes place. The enzyme laden mash liquid is removed and boiled as the final decoction. Then, it is added back to the main mash for mash out. That, my friend, is how the decoction method works, in a nutshell.
The Schmitz decoction process boils the entire grain bill before conversion. The trick to the process is that the enzyme laden mash liquid is removed during different rest periods, before the mash is boiled. Then it is add back after gelatization, to convert the mash. The process has been around for almost one hundred years. The complexity of the process was part of the reason it died out. The process is very cool.
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