Beers made with advanced mash techniques

Dragon's Milk Triple Mash

 

I've heard the term "decoction mash" a good few times now, would someone be kind enough to explain what that is, or provide a link? Thanks

 

http://byo.com/body/item/537-decoction-mashing-techniques

And to answer the OP Pilsner Urquell would be an example of a beer that uses a decoction mash.

 

Advanced or ancient/historical?!

Decoction mashing is where a portion of the mash is removed and processed separately trough sacch rests to convert sugars prior to boiling and then remixing with the hold mash to bump the temp to the next rest step. Historically used to covert less modified malts and also to result in a richer malt profile due to creation of melanoidens.

 

problem is there are not many ancient malts made anymore!

 

Decoction mashes and double mashes are not "advanced" techniques. Pretty sure most breweries do this.

 

Nope, most breweries do not conduct decoction mashing for a number of reasons:

• Contemporary malts are fully modified and do not require decoction mashing
• Decoction costs more money (increased energy costs)
• Decoction mashing takes longer
• etc.

Cheers!

 

Decoction mash is removing a portion of the mash and raising the temperature, then adding ti back to the kettle twice. It coaxes richness from the grain. And some sweet impressions. ?

 

Richness and depth, yes. Sweetness comes from residual sugars, so that's more dependent on mash temperature and yeast selection.

 

Maria, the malty profile from decoction is from the generation of melanoidins:

“German beers, especially the darker beers, have a rich malty flavor that seems to be pretty unique to their region. Although there are many malty amber beers in the world, most get their malty richness from crystal malts. German beers, though, take a different approach. Many of them have no crystal malt at all. Instead, they rely on a family of chemical compounds called melanoidins.”

There are several different ways to get melanoidins in your beer. These can be used in various combinations depending on the type of brewing you do. One method is to use malts that come with considerable ready-made melanoidin content. The other method is to form your own melanoidin by including some extra boiling steps in your brewing day.

If you are an all-grain brewer and want to get the ultimate amount of rich and smooth melanoidin, you need to use a decoction mash. This is a process where you take a portion of the mash and bring it up to a boil. Once the decoction is completed, mix the boiled mash back in with the portion of the mash that was not boiled. The combined temperature then raises the temperature of the whole mash tun up to the next target temperature. In this manner, the mash will be brought up in steps from protein rest, through saccharification, and finally up to mash-out temperature. The amount of melanoidin depends on the number of decoction steps you use in the process. A typical method is to use double-decoction. Some German breweries use three or four decoction steps along the way.”

http://www.picobrewery.com/askarchive/melanoidin.htm

Cheers!

 

Double mashes are just a fact of life for most breweries doing two turns (a day) to fill single FV's. That's not advanced brewing. It is a copywriter showing off. If it's a big beer. It's because they are basically submerging the sparge arm during the mash. Not advanced. Just a practical solution to the limitations of the equipment.
Advanced? That would be decoction. Mostly because they take a really long time, and most breweries will not do a decoction mash because it is the difference between doing two turns in a 12 hour day versus doing one turn in a 16 hour day. And also too you need the additional equipment, which means a decoction mash tun that is designed to handle boiling but not scorching mash.
I can only think of one brewery in the city (Dovetail) that has a brewhouse designed to handle decoction mashing. They are very much interested in these old world techniques that take patience, skill, the right equipment and time to do well.

 

A good explanation of decoction mashing. I would add that the less well-modified the barley malt is, the more advantageous decoction brewing becomes. Even steely, low-grade malt can be coaxed into a decent yield with a triple decoction mash because boiling breaks down the grains as a step or infusion mash would never do. You know, like that barley I bought from a feed store and tried to malt myself! Thing is, virtually all malt is of uniformly good quality now, making decoctions completely unnecessary...as all my brewing friends tell me repeatedly. Don't care, that's the way I learned to brew 40+ years ago and I still use a triple decoction mash on almost all the beers I make. And the yield ratios I achieve are far above anything I can do with infusion mashes. Yes, it takes a lot more time and effort but for me, I enjoy brewing so much that the saddest part of brew-day is when it's over anyway so I don't mind the extra time. One limitation is that if controlling the color of beers is an issue, ie. for a competition, decoction mashing is going to unavoidably darken the wort and possibly cause SRM problems with very light-colored beers. I am also interested to know if any big brewers (especially German) still use decoction mashing.

 

The other consideration is increased energy (fuel) costs. Propane is not cheap these days.

My guess is that none of the "big" breweries in Germany are conducting decoction mashing; their accounting departments would not permit this due to cost (both time/labor costs and energy costs). I would suspect that some of the smaller/traditional breweries still decoct (maybe just a double decoction) since "that is the way we have always done it".

Some (many?) German breweries prefer to conduct a Hochkurz Mash which is a dual step saccharification mash. Whether to achieve this via decoction will be a brewery by brewery decision.

Cheers!

 

I don't know if this is a stupid question, but how was this different than the original dragons milk? I haven't had it and am curious.

 

It's mashed three times instead of two. It's got a higher OG/FG. Probably a larger grain bill.

 

Ok, I meant how it affects the flavor? I know it's a lot higher in alcohol, but don't know if it's worth picking up.