Decoction Experiments

[Bryan R]

[Brody]

Nice, wish they had a straight up 152f single infusion in the mix as well. Surprised the decoction fared poorly in the preference despite winning the richness and mouthful.

[Bryan R]

No, because according to the Germans you can't make beer with a single infusion.

[Brody]

[Weizenberg]

Thus is not true. Many home brewers in Germany do single step infusions. But that's for the English ales etc. When it comes to pils etc, it's all step infusions or decoctions.

You can try a wheat beer or a Helles with a single step infusion. Just don't complain when they don't have the sensory experience you are hoping for

There is a lot more going on in a mash than just amylases. I'll all has its place and purpose.

[Bryan R]

Because I have great difficulty in describing it. What would you say a step mash brings to the sensory table in your mind?

[Weizenberg]

There are quite a lot of factors. Just to clarify the differences between single-step mashes and step mashes.

The easiest example may be the case for wheat-beer where ferulic-acid (45Celsius) needs to be made, then the excess protein of the wheat malts needs to be handled (50 Celsius, in cases of very high protein content, 50, 52, 55 each 10" long). In a case of a desired "banana-bomb", further steps are required (aka the "crazy mash"). Some breweries use this mash for lagers as well. Quite impossible to do with a single step.

Then there is the fact that not all malts are the same. Even when coming from very good maltsters, there will be differences. This may not matter to the homebrewer, but to commercial outfits whose sole aim is to faithfully reproduce the drink their customers expect, this is crucial for the brand. It's simpler to adjust one of the steps rather than to figure out whether to hold the rest at 68 Celsius, 65 Celsius or something in-between maybe?

Then there is the case of brewery-made malt, which is often much greener and less modified. It often requires quite a lot more work in the lower temperature ranges and even demands a decoction step in some cases. These malts are not suited for single-step infusions at all.

Then there is the fact that in a step mash one goes through the optimal temperature ranges of certain enzymes. A single step infusion would just miss them. If you have Narziss book "Die Bierbrauerei, Vol 2" there is a very elaborate section about the relevant enzymes and their temperature ranges. There are also plenty of tables listing results of various different temperature ranges and mashing methods (e.g. Tab 3.75 p 361). There one can see that the FAN is much higher on step mashes, the hop extraction rate is actually higher (Tinseth doesn't take this into account), the total nitrogen content is also higher in step mashes.

The biggest challenge in professional brewing is to reproduce the same result with high consistency. To them, these factors matter immensely.

So the biggest argument is that step mashes allow for better adjustments. I doubt that homebrewers are too concerned with exactly reproducing a drink they are happy with over and over again. But I noticed with myself and from others, the occasional frustration in not being able to reproduce a beer exactly as before. It's quite challenging.

If you go to hobbybrauer.de, there are plenty of people doing single-step infusions. Many decoction brewers opt for the combined rest when converting the decoction itself (ie a rest at say 68C instead of a rest at 62C then 72C).

I would not be surprised to hear that English breweries sometimes opt to step infusion mash on occasion too. After all, it's quite doable.

On a sensory level, I noticed that infusions lead to less mouthfeel and less grainy/bready taste. In some beer styles, this is actually desirable. I made some very elegant Ales this way.

Another thing I noticed is that beers mashed in at lower temperatures tend to have a heftier, stronger character (not always desired). When doing a Hochkurz mash, this means mash-in at 45-50 C instead of 62C. If the malt would require a mash-in at 50C, then the show would start at 35C.

I am not saying that one cannot make a good beer with a single step infusion. For elegant Ales, this is actually a must (well, actually I do a two step infusion. I first add water to 55C, then wait 20 minutes, then more water to 68 C for e.g.).

But for a grainy, fresh German lager, with the right level of mouthfeel and balance, a single step infusion makes it impossible to control the factors and activate the enzymes necessary for achieving the desired taste.

The problem is that all this makes it rather complex. So it's simpler to start off a homebrewer by telling them: "Making beer is easy. Just take the grain, pour hot water over it, sparge it, boil the hops, cool it down, chuck in the yeast, wait, and presto! Oh, and, by the way, you are having a leg up over the commercial brewers". A whole industry has been built around this. If someone would encourage you to make a state of the art airplane this way, would you believe them? I certainly wouldn't fly in it

There is a huge difference between a step mash and a single step infusion when it comes to sensory perception.

One can do the experiment oneself quite easily. I made an Ale with an infusion mash and then I made the same with a double decoction. Same yeast, same everything. One tasted like a very elegant Old English Ale. Plenty of nice hop bitterness and a noticeable malt character which was not too much in the foreground, giving the hops plenty of opportunity to shine. The decocted version tasted more like a Belgian Ale (unsurprisingly, they decoct a lot). It had a huge mouthfeel and the malt profile was more pronounced. The hops were there, but the malt started to take up some of that sensory space so they appeared less prominent (that Ale was at 60 IBU - 100% pure Nelson).

Both were lovely to drink, but the result was two different styles.

So yes, mashing matters. The trick is to get a first-hand feel for this by doing the experiment yourself. Then there is the bewildering array of temperature ranges and their purpose. There is a lot going on in a step infusion. Throw decoction into the mix and you now have a few things going on in parallel then hand-in-hand. It takes time and plenty of reading understanding why all these decoction schedules are different and it takes a lof of first-hand experience finding out which schedule delivers what result. Unsurprisingly people find them difficult to understand, even though they are quite simple to perform.


As far as decoction vs step infusions are concerned, there is undoubtedly a difference. Certainly, one can make a lager with a single step infusion. But how does it taste? Has it got 'it'? If you want more grain, bread and malt flavours, a step infusion is unavoidable. Obviously, if one doesn't master the step infusion and the reasoning behind this, then it may well be that one will make a lager which tastes the same as the single infusion

Horses for courses.

Hope this helps. Soz the for long post.

[wobdee]

Nice explanation Nico

[Brody]

Appreciate the post, this forums turning into a solid resource.

[Bryan R]

Cheers Nico! Thanks, for it putting into words.