Narziss' advice on Marzen

[Roachbrau]

I brewed a variation of this recipe this weekend. Equal parts pilsner, light munich, and dark munich, with 3% CaraHell. Triple decoction mash, FWH'd with Mittelfrüh and bittered with Perle to 20.5 IBU Tinseth. OG 13°P, color 9.5srm/19ebc. Fermented with WLP833. Excited to see how it turns out!

[Weizenberg]

Should turn out pretty yummy! The long intensive rests resulting from a triple decoction should really help the stubborn Munich malts to convert. The more Munich malt is involved, the darker it is, the longer the conversion times need to be.

My option would be to go for 3% Caramunich III instead of the Carahell though. It's an incredible malt!

Unfortunately, I am not endowed enough to just fly 'over the pond' to come and taste the batch on its peak!

[Roachbrau]

Yeah, no kidding on the conversion time. This was the mash schedule.

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I had to extend the saccharification rest, it was a full 60 minutes before it reached iodine negative.

[Weizenberg]

Indeed. Unsurprisingly the triple decoction is often used for the darker, more traditional Bavarian beers.

For a triple decoction it looks a bit short though. 3.5 hours is pretty average.

If the final beer turns out a bit too heavy, I can see the option of extending the rest at 54Celsius (I'd opt for 55). This increases the production of maltose, although not at the enzyme optima and the EVG will be higher. When I started making these beers, a too low EVG was a notorious problem.

Increasing the rest at 55 would also allow for a longer decoction boil time overall. The classic boil times tend to be 35, 25 and 15 minutes, but that's up to the Brewer. The last decoction will hardly yield much when working with well modified malts. I tend to just step mash the last part -- which effectively Turns the triple into a double decoction mash. It won't make much difference as far as I noticed. It's a preference.

Opting for a double deco I do increase the boil times when making darker beers. Instead of 35,25 for the first two I do 35 and 35. Again, this is purely a preference. I find that the darker malts gain more character that way.

Nowadays I tend to add a bit of the the very bright Best Heidelberg Malt in order to provide more diastatic power and thus shorten the conversion times. I then compensate with a bit more darker malt.

A longer conversion time would be needed for the decoctions themselves, especially the first decoction. They appear a bit short. Did you do the iodine test on your decoctions to ensure they fully converted before they got boiled? I wouldn't be surprised if you find that both steps need at least 15 minutes extra.

[Roachbrau]

The first decoction was iodine negative, I only rested the second decoction briefly to avoid a long rest at 55 (which ended up being 54 - shit happens.) In retrospect, I should have held the rest on the second decoction until negative.

I'll see how this batch turns out, maybe I'll boil longer next time, I had a total of 35 mins decoction boil.

[brewcrew7]

What is EVG again? Not enough morning coffee

[Bryan R]

Final Attenuation.

[Roachbrau]

[Weizenberg]

[Weizenberg]