German Brewing

After spending an ordeal in the hospital and recovering from hernia surgery, I was finally back to brewing.

I brewed a Schwarzbier this morning doing my first double decoction. Unfortunately it did not go as well as I had hoped.
I managed to get my infusion temp spot on, but that was the only temp that seemed to work for me.

After each decoction I did not make it to the next desired temp rest. I'm not sure what happened, but it just didn't pan out for me. It could be that I was doing a small 3gallon batch (I am on weight lifting restriction - can't do 5gal batches yet) and there was lots of head space in the Mash Tun. I think on my first decoction, I didn't have quite enough mass to heat up to the next level.

Another thing that I was not as happy with was the amount of mess that was made. It's not that big of a deal because messes can be cleaned up. But it was just another downside.

BUT - at the end of the day, I had hit my batch volume and missed my OG by only .001. Not too shabby.

I seem to have a little better luck hitting my temps using infusion method. Is there a noticeable difference in flavor to doing infusion mashes vs decoction?

Always pull more decoction than you need, you can always let it cool and add it back, but not the other way around. 50-60% is a good rule of thumb.

Ok. I'll take that into consideration. I'll probably give it one more try. (My first all grain was not very successful...)

thanks

It gets easier with practice. Worth it in my opinion.