Decoction Brewing

[liamodr]

Hey everybody. I'm thinking of doing a decoction brew with 1 or 2 decoctions. However I'm unsure as to whether I sparge as normal after I reach my mashout temperature. Do I still sparge as per a normal infusion mash or do I mash at my full preboil volume. I'm a novice to this all grain brewing so excuse my ignorance.

 

[Aleman]

If you are an all grain novice, take some advice . . . don't do a decoction mash . . . There is very little to be gained, and an awful lot more to get wrong. for the first few all grain brews keep to a nice simple single infusion mash approach.

The only time you need to do a decoction is if you have access to Moravian malt . . . which I have yet to see available outside of the Czech republic

 

[arturobandini]

Phew, another myth debunked.

Cheers Aleman, I was starting to put serious thought into how to go about doing various decocations that were apparently "mandatory" for some of the brews I have lined up.

 

[Aleman]

Don't get me wrong, decoction mashing does add an interesting flavour element to a beer, but you can get pretty close to that with appropriate malt selection . . . but to spot the difference you really have to have your brewing technique down pat.

 

[arturobandini]

Yep, I wasn't dismissing decoction mash as a technique but there is a school of thought that it is impossible to brew certain beers without doing it. Glad to hear it isn't!