I quite enjoyed my Maibock (Mai the Bock Be With You), and it didn't last long in its keg! Can confirm that a step mash with a healthy addition of melanoiden malt will still produce a great beer if you don't want to go through the hassle of decoction mashing. 34/70 is a fantastic, and often underrated, yeast for German lagers and it's one of my go-to in a pinch. And +1 on the name, fellow metalhead 🤘
I think I may be giving decoction a break for a bit haha, it's fun but a lot of work. Glad you also enjoy the 34/70! I think I may have to use it to replace 2124 in some beers. Cheers!
The decoction method does much more than form melanoidin. Actually, it's a secondary action that occurs when the first decoction is boiled for over an hour. The decoction method uses everything in malt. Liquefaction, saccharification, conversion, dextrinization and gelatinization takes place in the decoction method. Soaking malt at a single temperature rest, liquefaction and saccharification occurs. That's why the liquid is called distillers beer, the liquid will never be ale and lager even when melanoidin is added.
@@TheApartmentBrewer this is a great video keep up all of your great Brewing in your apartment I like following you but again iam a newbie at HOMEBREW and the more videos I watch I want to watch you keep up all of your great work from Canada Toronto Ontario Etobicoke North
The video is GREAT!!! MAN, you are so close to getting the hang of the decoction method and the equipment is great!!! Beta is responsible for conversion, grain/starch have nothing to do with conversion. Beta converts glucose released by Alpha during liquefaction into complex sugars, maltose and maltotriose during conversion. The optimum temperature is 140F with a 45 minute rest. A longer rest can denature Alpha. High modified malt doesn't contain enough Beta for conversion to fully occur, that's why the rest and secondary fermentation are left out of homebrew recipes. Temperature above 150F finishes off Beta. Alpha denatures within 20 minutes at 158F, a 60 minute rest isn't needed. Mash out wasn't needed because Alpha denatured during the 60 minute rest at 158F. Test for starch after 10 minutes. If starch is present after 10 minutes wait 10 more minutes and test again. If starch is present after 20 minutes, test at 30 minutes. If starch is present after 30 minutes, Alpha denatured, and starch carry over occurs. Complex sugar isn't highly fermentable, simple sugar, glucose and monosaccharide types of sugar are highly fermentable. Maltose causes fermentation to occur during secondary fermentation. Beer doesn't need priming sugar or CO2 injection to carbonate. Beer naturally carbonates during conditioning due to the trisaccharide, maltotriose. The first decoction is the only volume of mash that an albuminus rest is performed on and depending on the level of malt modification, the rest is skipped. The rest is 115 to 120F. Alpha is active at 135F and glucose is being released, too early. Alpha needs to last a long time and activating the enzyme early in the process wipes out the enzyme, it's a time, temperature, thing. By chance, did the person that recommended the temperature throw in proteinase, Beta Glucan and Beta Glucanase with the story about what takes place in the mash? It takes longer than 30 minutes to produce melanoidin, the decoction mash darkened during saccharification. Mash viscosity reduces as mash boils and protein gum reduces. Hot break should form on the decoction, if not, the mash wasn't boiled long enough. If there were small, white, roundish pieces in the decoction after boiling, the mash wasn't boiled long enough, as well. Diacetyl is beaten to death in homebrew books. It causes a brewer to do something absolutely unnecessary which causes a negative impact on the final product. When a diacetyl rest has to be performed, the brewing method needs to be fixed. It's caused by a poor fermentation cycle. There is no sense in raising lager yeast to ale temperature and beat up yeast. Krausen is added when a diacetyl rest is performed, anyway. Homebrew instructions leave out pages about diacetyl found in books about fermentation. It's better to clean up the brewing process to reduce the chance of diacetyl forming. Besides, a test for diacetyl is easy to do and no diacetyl, no rest. To control diacetyl in beer you'll need to be a wizard, it's impossible to control diacetyl in homebrew. A diacetyl rest is a blow out patch because diacetyl returns during storage but most homebrew is pounded down, green and diacetyl isn't notice. Melanoidin malt should be boiled. Test mash pH before boiling mash. Tannin extraction is a time, temperature, and pH thing. Let me help you out a little. You'll need under modified, low protein, malt. 1. Remove a third of the base malt and place it in the decoction kettle. The remainder of the malt place in the mash tun. Dough in both with 1 qt/1 lb, RO water, no chemicals, there's enough in malt to deal with, for now, and it's better to start with a simple baseline before turning Pierre Currie and Louie Pasteur. Distilled water is used on almost all tests on malt, and someone knows where to find the tests and moved chemicals used for tests into a brewers boiler. Chemical imbalances cause off flavors and short, shelf life. 2. Dough in both mashes to raise mash temperature to 95F, go take a break, and allow the inherent pH of the malt stabilize the mash. With 7.2 pH water and lager malt, pH usually drops to 5.7, 5.8. Add some high grade sauer malz, a little at a time, to lower mash pH, 5.5 is good because mash pH will reduce during chemical precipitation. Low mash pH lessens the chance of tannin extraction when the decoctions boil and during sparge. 3. Raise the temperature of the decoction to 115F, no higher than 120F, and rest the mash for 10 minutes at the higher temperature, 20 minutes at the lower temperature. Add boiling water to raise the temperature to 153F for 20 minutes, and begin to boil the mash. For the finest Pils and Ale, boil the mash for at least one hour with out burning it. The mash will darken, and viscosity will reduce during saccharification. If the ducks line up Maillard will occur, it's an amino acid, protein, sugar, thing. Mash darkens where it touches the sides of the decoction kettle during Maillard, stir it into the mash. 4. Add the boiling decoction into the main mash to raise the temperature to 140F, 45 minute conversion rest. The mash may begin to jell up and that's OK, it means dextrinization is occurring. When mash temperature stabilizes remove 1/3 thick mash and place it in the decoction kettle and bring it to boiling and boil the mash for 30 minutes. A 30 minute boil bursts more amylopectin than a 20 minute boil. If the conversion rest stretches out a little, it's OK. Hold the main mash temperature steady. 5. Add the boiling mash into the main mash and raise the temperature, which you can vary according to your taste. I rest the mash for 20 to 30 minutes at 155F for Pils to create body and mouthfeel Pils is famous for, which comes from complex starch, amylopectin. The decoction method allows a brewer to use a wide variety of temperatures to layer different types of sugar. I use tri-decoction but the Hochkurz method is OK. 6. Mash out. Stir the mash a few times, take a break , and allow protein mud to settle on top of the grain bed. The extract should be almost crystal clear on top of the filter bed before beginning sparge. Tri decoction creates crystal clear extract. Sparge down to 1010, 1012. 7. Boil the extract and skim off hot break as it forms and continue to remove hot break until it drastically reduces before adding hops. Skim off second break. Use leaf hops with Alpha and Beta percentage within a decimal point of each other. The hop is more finer and balanced when the numbers are very close. High Alpha, low Beta hops are used mostly for making hop pillows. 8. Cool the wort and allow trub to settle. Rack the wort off the trub, check OG, aerate, add yeast. Use a blow off tube and when primary fermentation ends, rack the beer into a secondary fermenter wait 10 days and keg the beer without using sugar or CO2 for carbonation. The beer will naturally carbonate. A 1060 OG wort with body, not sweet tasting sugar and glucose wort, will take at least 8 months to condition and age. There's no fast lagering technique, there's nothing a homebrewer can invent or improve on to make ale and lager. Distillers beer ferments fast even with lager yeast and that's the liquid the guy uses for experiments and to convince people it works he throws in the part about diacetyl when there's no need at all for the rest. The stuff that homebrew scientists come up with is hilarious. The best part of using a stove for decoction mashing, mash temperature can be held stabile by the burner.
For a future brew, I actually have something you might be interested in because you're at least as much of a beer nerd as I am. I recently upgraded to a 3-vessel all-grain kit from extract brewing and nylon mesh BIAB. For my first all-grain brew, I made a hybrid West Coast/New England IPA (weird to think about, I know) and did a parti-gyle to make a session Black IPA with the second runnings. I started with a stepped mash with a 45-minute rest at 145 and another 45-minute rest at 158. For the first beer, I did relatively large 60 minute hop additions to give it that sharp hoppy kick of a West Coast IPA, but I also did a 5-minute addition of Citra and Chinook and a 30-minute hop stand of Amarillo and Simcoe. 3 days into fermentation, I also did a dry hop with Centennial and Citra. When the first beer was being cooled, I drew if a second runnings and actually got a 1.035 OG reading and it fermented down to 1.004 for about a 4.33% ABV. Very impressed. The first runnings managed to hit around 9% and it's an interesting blend. Initial taste on the tongue is totally West Coast IPA, but it blends into a juicy, slightly sweet NEIPA finish. It's REALLY good.
Sounds like a really nice brew you had there, I actually did a hybrid west and east coast DIPA a few months ago that was similar and pretty tasty. I have yet to do a partigyle but its definitely something I want to do.
Have you ever brewed Kellerbier? It's a type of lager, but unfiltered. The suspended solids are not only regarded as positive from a nutritional point of view, but also affect the taste. The beer tastes quite smooth compared to your regular filtered lager. Of course the beer is cloudy, not crystal clear.
On the subject of diacetyl, it's not *ALWAYS* a bad flavor. Case in point, a few years ago, a coworker gave me a gallon of overcooked maple syrup he got for free from a maple shack. It wasn't any good as a syrup for pancakes or anything, but I used it to make several beers. One of those was what I called a "Smoked Maple Pale Ale". I specifically fermented it at a slightly higher temperature to encourage some diacetyl and it ended up tasting sort of like liquid buttered French toast with Maple Syrup. It was one of the most popular beers I've ever brewed.
You're totally right, when in the right concentration it can definitely be desirable and adds a lot to certain types of beer. Sounds like an interesting and tasty example!
Amazing! Makes me want to get back to brewing soon! Finishing the basement first and adding some "finishing touches" to really make the home brewery more into a speakeasy!
As far as I know the protein rest could damage head resistance if you want the foam to last longer you could try skipping it next time you brew this beer, cheers from Italy!! 🇮🇹
This was very informative thanks for sharing! learned a lot here! I've never done a decoction or step mash of any kind, so that will be fun to try out! cheers my friend!
Very impressed by this recipe. I will be brewing it this weekend with a small adjustment on the grain profile. I will be using slightly more Munich an slightly less pilsner. My question for you is how much of the 11 gallons goes into the mash and how much goes into sparging? I have a system that recirculates so I am confident i might not need to sparge. However I don't want to wind up putting too much water in as the statin volume.
When are you going to invent the equipment for taste-o-vision because your maibock looks amazing and I would like to taste this beer 🍺 and since I don't live in the USA I require a taste-o-vision setup to enjoy your beer. Cheers Jim
The beer looks fantastic. I have read that the one drawback to cold crashing is head retention through fatty acids from yeast stress. How much it affects it? I don’t know. The problem with step cooling is it can take a very long time especially if you are walking it down from room temp to near freezing temperature( week to two weeks).
Interesting information, although I cant say that I've noticed a trend with beers I've cold crashed vs ones I haven't. I am happy to report that with a few extra days on gas the head retention seems to be improving significantly.
TheApartmentBrewer I’m glad too here it. The info I got about this was from John Palm’s latest How to Brew book, but the article from brulosophy on crash beer vs step cooling indicates crashing isn’t significant in flavor then step cooling.
Unless you can replicate this recipe exactly the same way it was suggested, you're going to encounter A LOT of problems like me... I'm using an Anvil Foundry and I found out that it struggles with temperature ramping up. I had to reset it twice because of the scorching at the bottom was giving me an error message. Scaling down the grain bill isn't a bad idea if you're using the same system as me. Considering the fact that you don't want to use rice hauls at the beginning since you'll end up boiling part of the cereal it's a problem already. Just use melanoidin malt and skip decoction if you're using an electric system.
I've found that electric systems tend to scorch at the lower temperature rests as well. You might be better off like you said just working with melanoidin malt.
Awesome! I really need to do some more decoctions. I'm brewing a witbier this weekend. May break out the camera for a bit of footage and try to get a grain to glass done. We'll see. I really need to get more beer in kegs!
TheApartmentBrewer well am I happy i checked the PH early. Thought i would wait 24 hours, but now I checked for the first time at 14.5 hours and i am at PH3.4 where i wanted to be. That went alot quicker that i thought 😂
Very nice flowing production. Quick question for you. I'm a propane, in the garage brewer, so often my mash temps. aren't exact. If I went the multi-step mash route using some Melanoiden, is there a "preferred" ramp-up time between mash temps? I tend to heat up slowly between steps, so as not to overshoot. BTW, I found your channel through my sub. to Jesse over at Bumpy Road Brewery. Cheerz
Great question! You definitely dont want to scorch so the conventional wisdom is to raise at a rate of no faster than 1 degree Farenheit per minute. However adding direct heat is not the only method, you can also add additions of boiling water to the mash tun to bump up the temps
That color really looks beatiful in that glass.. After two glass, it would loosen some strings😄 The name is attractive, I watched them 3 times live from very front.. Maybe you can add some specialty graing for head retention.. Cheers..
Love the vids. They're giving me lots of inspiration. I'd like to see you make a Midwest Fruit Tart. They're awesome and I think I might be attempting one soon, but I'd like to see it done by someone that appears to know what they're doing first.
I can't say I've heard of that style before but it sounds interesting. I may have to have a go at it! I'm flattered that you think I know what I'm doing haha, but most of the time I'm figuring it out as I go lol
@@TheApartmentBrewer www.sudsdudssociety.com/blogs/brewery/urban-artifact-the-gadget-midwest-fruit-tart Apparently Urban Artifact is the only thing that comes up when you search midwest fruit tart. Its really good and luckily I'm fairly local and can get it regularly, but it might just be something they made up.
Good video. It would be interesting to brew a decoction mash version next to a single infusion version to really see how much it affect the flavor. Cheers!
I'm a bit late with comment but I noticed some bubbles @22:05 until @22:30. do you degas your samples before taking gravity readings? Small amounts of carbonation can throw off hydrometers more then you would expect.
I do degas. Sometimes there are a few residual bubbles that are in there but yes, its best practice to get the carbonation out as much as possible before measurement.
@@TheApartmentBrewer I just recently learnt about this couple days ago when taking a gravity reading at work, where I was told to degas. never even thought about doing that in my own brewing until then
Great video! Always a pleasure to watch. Love that glassware. Where did you get it? I have a couple Oktoberfest beers that should be ready by September and would like to have some good mugs.
Thanks! The mugs are actually pretty easy to find online, I got mine at a biergarten in my college town though. Best of luck with the Oktoberfest party!
I really enjoyed this this video. I've not long started with whole grain brewing, the results are definitely worth the extra effort. I have found when I brew very pale beers it is much more difficult to get the FG as low as I would like. Any ideas? All the best from Wales, Iechyd da!
I love all grain brewing too! Fermenting all the way down to final gravity has a lot to do with yeast health and fermentation quality. Make sure you pitch enough healthy yeast and don't ferment too cold. Best of luck!
Thats a good question, but the vast majority of the enzymes stay in the liquid, not the grain (that's why you scoop out the grain and do the decoction in a second vessel), so you're not denaturing the enzymes
@@TheApartmentBrewer ok but don’t the enzymes come from the grain? Of course most is still in the rest of the mash. But to be honest, I think I won’t try it anyway. Just too much work for an already busy brew day. But I do enjoy your videos. I love autumn like Bock. I come from Holland and there is is huge. There is an autumn version which is darker and can only be sold in the autumn months. I had multiple attempts at making one but has not been successful yet. Will try again this year with a different recipe this time
@@pietervanleeuwen5987 yup they do, but once you've mashed in and let it go for about 10 or 15 minutes, they're all in the liquid. They're just need time to work on all the available starches. So when you leave the liquid behind, you're really not hurting your mash efficiency at all. But I don't blame you at all for not wanting to do decoction, it is a LOT of work and I haven't done one since I made this beer
Sounds and looks delicious. I just converted an old mini fridge into a ferm chamber and was wondering if you cold crash in the fermenter? If so, how do you prevent oxygen suck back? Do you even worry about it? I bottle so no ability to crash in the keg unfortunately. Thanks man, keep it up!
Thanks! Congrats on the fermentation chamber build! That makes a huge difference. To be honest, I've never worried about oxygen suckback in malty and/or strong beers such as this one. In fact, a little oxygen/age makes them even tastier due to how it interacts with the malt flavors. I dont cold crash my hoppy beers and that's about it!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks! Oh also, I know you're into the traditional methods that go along with German beer.. I've been reading through this book "Historic German and Austrian Beers for the Home Brewer" and thought you'd like some of the history/methods/recipes. The author even made the ebook free on Reddit if you wanna check it out: www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/fqmgxf/with_so_many_people_on_lockdown_in_quarantine_or/? Cheers!
Nice video mate; have you tried step mashing? I was wondering whether decoction mashing was worth doing these days given modern grains....think I read that step mashing would yield similar if undetectable results....
Yup! I did a step mash w/o decoction a few months ago, and normally just do single infusions. You are totally right - modern malts don't really benefit from decoction but I believe there is a nice flavor/color contribution (and I enjoy the extra work).
Great video and looks like a tasty beer! Couple questions. Do you think the protein rest may have negatively affected the head retention? We're thinking of doing one to decrease chill haze but don't know its effect on foam. Also, does gelatin help with chill haze or just yeast haze? Been debating that or polyclar. Lastly, why didn't you call the beer St Anger?
I think you may be right with the protein rest. It definitely can negatively affect head retention if the rest is too long but I'm curious to see how it does as it ages under pressure. I can definitely say I've seen less chill haze in my lagers as long as they're not served colder than 40 F. Gelatin in my experience works best on yeast and hop debris but I think has no effect on chill haze. I'll save st anger for another one 😂 glad you enjoyed the video!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks. In our latest video we cold crashed at 40 and induced a lot of chill haze which was worse than ones we crashed at 55 or didn't crash at all. Looks like Polyclar might be the best for stripping out the chill haze proteins.
Hmm. I kept my lagers around 32 F for a few weeks and they were always hazy. When raised to warmer serving temps they dropped bright very fast. I haven't used polycar before but let me know if it works!
@@TheApartmentBrewer I've found that a 55-60 crash is enough to get hops and yeast to drop. If we do a colder crash I'll have to get my hands on some polyclar since it apparently affects proteins and polyphenols. I just want a beautiful bright pilsner, dagnabbit!
Sorry, I only did two extract batches ever, and they were the first two batches I ever brewed. So I tend to not give out extract advice so I dont give out bad advice. (My first comment got deleted)
I quite enjoyed my Maibock (Mai the Bock Be With You), and it didn't last long in its keg! Can confirm that a step mash with a healthy addition of melanoiden malt will still produce a great beer if you don't want to go through the hassle of decoction mashing. 34/70 is a fantastic, and often underrated, yeast for German lagers and it's one of my go-to in a pinch. And +1 on the name, fellow metalhead 🤘
I think I may be giving decoction a break for a bit haha, it's fun but a lot of work. Glad you also enjoy the 34/70! I think I may have to use it to replace 2124 in some beers. Cheers!
The decoction method does much more than form melanoidin. Actually, it's a secondary action that occurs when the first decoction is boiled for over an hour. The decoction method uses everything in malt. Liquefaction, saccharification, conversion, dextrinization and gelatinization takes place in the decoction method. Soaking malt at a single temperature rest, liquefaction and saccharification occurs. That's why the liquid is called distillers beer, the liquid will never be ale and lager even when melanoidin is added.
Looks fantastic. Really love how you articulate your tastings. Very descriptive.
Thank you!
@@TheApartmentBrewer this is a great video keep up all of your great Brewing in your apartment I like following you but again iam a newbie at HOMEBREW and the more videos I watch I want to watch you keep up all of your great work from Canada Toronto Ontario Etobicoke North
The video is GREAT!!! MAN, you are so close to getting the hang of the decoction method and the equipment is great!!!
Beta is responsible for conversion, grain/starch have nothing to do with conversion. Beta converts glucose released by Alpha during liquefaction into complex sugars, maltose and maltotriose during conversion. The optimum temperature is 140F with a 45 minute rest. A longer rest can denature Alpha. High modified malt doesn't contain enough Beta for conversion to fully occur, that's why the rest and secondary fermentation are left out of homebrew recipes. Temperature above 150F finishes off Beta.
Alpha denatures within 20 minutes at 158F, a 60 minute rest isn't needed. Mash out wasn't needed because Alpha denatured during the 60 minute rest at 158F. Test for starch after 10 minutes. If starch is present after 10 minutes wait 10 more minutes and test again. If starch is present after 20 minutes, test at 30 minutes. If starch is present after 30 minutes, Alpha denatured, and starch carry over occurs.
Complex sugar isn't highly fermentable, simple sugar, glucose and monosaccharide types of sugar are highly fermentable. Maltose causes fermentation to occur during secondary fermentation. Beer doesn't need priming sugar or CO2 injection to carbonate. Beer naturally carbonates during conditioning due to the trisaccharide, maltotriose.
The first decoction is the only volume of mash that an albuminus rest is performed on and depending on the level of malt modification, the rest is skipped. The rest is 115 to 120F. Alpha is active at 135F and glucose is being released, too early. Alpha needs to last a long time and activating the enzyme early in the process wipes out the enzyme, it's a time, temperature, thing. By chance, did the person that recommended the temperature throw in proteinase, Beta Glucan and Beta Glucanase with the story about what takes place in the mash?
It takes longer than 30 minutes to produce melanoidin, the decoction mash darkened during saccharification. Mash viscosity reduces as mash boils and protein gum reduces. Hot break should form on the decoction, if not, the mash wasn't boiled long enough. If there were small, white, roundish pieces in the decoction after boiling, the mash wasn't boiled long enough, as well.
Diacetyl is beaten to death in homebrew books. It causes a brewer to do something absolutely unnecessary which causes a negative impact on the final product. When a diacetyl rest has to be performed, the brewing method needs to be fixed. It's caused by a poor fermentation cycle. There is no sense in raising lager yeast to ale temperature and beat up yeast. Krausen is added when a diacetyl rest is performed, anyway. Homebrew instructions leave out pages about diacetyl found in books about fermentation. It's better to clean up the brewing process to reduce the chance of diacetyl forming. Besides, a test for diacetyl is easy to do and no diacetyl, no rest. To control diacetyl in beer you'll need to be a wizard, it's impossible to control diacetyl in homebrew. A diacetyl rest is a blow out patch because diacetyl returns during storage but most homebrew is pounded down, green and diacetyl isn't notice.
Melanoidin malt should be boiled. Test mash pH before boiling mash. Tannin extraction is a time, temperature, and pH thing.
Let me help you out a little. You'll need under modified, low protein, malt.
1. Remove a third of the base malt and place it in the decoction kettle. The remainder of the malt place in the mash tun. Dough in both with 1 qt/1 lb, RO water, no chemicals, there's enough in malt to deal with, for now, and it's better to start with a simple baseline before turning Pierre Currie and Louie Pasteur. Distilled water is used on almost all tests on malt, and someone knows where to find the tests and moved chemicals used for tests into a brewers boiler. Chemical imbalances cause off flavors and short, shelf life.
2. Dough in both mashes to raise mash temperature to 95F, go take a break, and allow the inherent pH of the malt stabilize the mash. With 7.2 pH water and lager malt, pH usually drops to 5.7, 5.8. Add some high grade sauer malz, a little at a time, to lower mash pH, 5.5 is good because mash pH will reduce during chemical precipitation. Low mash pH lessens the chance of tannin extraction when the decoctions boil and during sparge.
3. Raise the temperature of the decoction to 115F, no higher than 120F, and rest the mash for 10 minutes at the higher temperature, 20 minutes at the lower temperature. Add boiling water to raise the temperature to 153F for 20 minutes, and begin to boil the mash. For the finest Pils and Ale, boil the mash for at least one hour with out burning it. The mash will darken, and viscosity will reduce during saccharification. If the ducks line up Maillard will occur, it's an amino acid, protein, sugar, thing. Mash darkens where it touches the sides of the decoction kettle during Maillard, stir it into the mash.
4. Add the boiling decoction into the main mash to raise the temperature to 140F, 45 minute conversion rest. The mash may begin to jell up and that's OK, it means dextrinization is occurring. When mash temperature stabilizes remove 1/3 thick mash and place it in the decoction kettle and bring it to boiling and boil the mash for 30 minutes. A 30 minute boil bursts more amylopectin than a 20 minute boil. If the conversion rest stretches out a little, it's OK. Hold the main mash temperature steady.
5. Add the boiling mash into the main mash and raise the temperature, which you can vary according to your taste. I rest the mash for 20 to 30 minutes at 155F for Pils to create body and mouthfeel Pils is famous for, which comes from complex starch, amylopectin. The decoction method allows a brewer to use a wide variety of temperatures to layer different types of sugar. I use tri-decoction but the Hochkurz method is OK.
6. Mash out. Stir the mash a few times, take a break , and allow protein mud to settle on top of the grain bed. The extract should be almost crystal clear on top of the filter bed before beginning sparge. Tri decoction creates crystal clear extract. Sparge down to 1010, 1012.
7. Boil the extract and skim off hot break as it forms and continue to remove hot break until it drastically reduces before adding hops. Skim off second break. Use leaf hops with Alpha and Beta percentage within a decimal point of each other. The hop is more finer and balanced when the numbers are very close. High Alpha, low Beta hops are used mostly for making hop pillows.
8. Cool the wort and allow trub to settle. Rack the wort off the trub, check OG, aerate, add yeast. Use a blow off tube and when primary fermentation ends, rack the beer into a secondary fermenter wait 10 days and keg the beer without using sugar or CO2 for carbonation. The beer will naturally carbonate. A 1060 OG wort with body, not sweet tasting sugar and glucose wort, will take at least 8 months to condition and age. There's no fast lagering technique, there's nothing a homebrewer can invent or improve on to make ale and lager. Distillers beer ferments fast even with lager yeast and that's the liquid the guy uses for experiments and to convince people it works he throws in the part about diacetyl when there's no need at all for the rest. The stuff that homebrew scientists come up with is hilarious.
The best part of using a stove for decoction mashing, mash temperature can be held stabile by the burner.
For a future brew, I actually have something you might be interested in because you're at least as much of a beer nerd as I am. I recently upgraded to a 3-vessel all-grain kit from extract brewing and nylon mesh BIAB. For my first all-grain brew, I made a hybrid West Coast/New England IPA (weird to think about, I know) and did a parti-gyle to make a session Black IPA with the second runnings. I started with a stepped mash with a 45-minute rest at 145 and another 45-minute rest at 158. For the first beer, I did relatively large 60 minute hop additions to give it that sharp hoppy kick of a West Coast IPA, but I also did a 5-minute addition of Citra and Chinook and a 30-minute hop stand of Amarillo and Simcoe. 3 days into fermentation, I also did a dry hop with Centennial and Citra. When the first beer was being cooled, I drew if a second runnings and actually got a 1.035 OG reading and it fermented down to 1.004 for about a 4.33% ABV. Very impressed. The first runnings managed to hit around 9% and it's an interesting blend. Initial taste on the tongue is totally West Coast IPA, but it blends into a juicy, slightly sweet NEIPA finish. It's REALLY good.
Sounds like a really nice brew you had there, I actually did a hybrid west and east coast DIPA a few months ago that was similar and pretty tasty. I have yet to do a partigyle but its definitely something I want to do.
Looking back that kitchen setup is wild!
Your videos are always informative, and your gear is one of the more interesting and unique setups I've seen on BrewTube. Cheers!
That opening was hilarious. Love the videos!
Have you ever brewed Kellerbier? It's a type of lager, but unfiltered. The suspended solids are not only regarded as positive from a nutritional point of view, but also affect the taste. The beer tastes quite smooth compared to your regular filtered lager. Of course the beer is cloudy, not crystal clear.
Finally got around to making this one, tastes really good, nice winter warmer!
On the subject of diacetyl, it's not *ALWAYS* a bad flavor. Case in point, a few years ago, a coworker gave me a gallon of overcooked maple syrup he got for free from a maple shack. It wasn't any good as a syrup for pancakes or anything, but I used it to make several beers. One of those was what I called a "Smoked Maple Pale Ale". I specifically fermented it at a slightly higher temperature to encourage some diacetyl and it ended up tasting sort of like liquid buttered French toast with Maple Syrup. It was one of the most popular beers I've ever brewed.
You're totally right, when in the right concentration it can definitely be desirable and adds a lot to certain types of beer. Sounds like an interesting and tasty example!
Amazing! Makes me want to get back to brewing soon! Finishing the basement first and adding some "finishing touches" to really make the home brewery more into a speakeasy!
Thanks! That sounds like an awesome project, good luck man!
Your best beer ever..... better than Midnight Snack..... sign me up
Cheers Steve
Definitely was a good one, wouldn't say best ever but I can definitely squirrel away a bottle for you! Cheers jesse!
That looks wonderful ! Thanks for the lesson.
As far as I know the protein rest could damage head resistance if you want the foam to last longer you could try skipping it next time you brew this beer, cheers from Italy!! 🇮🇹
True, if you overdo it and extend it past 15 minutes or so. Cheers!
Another great video. Thank you. Well, I’ll just have to brew a Maibock now, it sounds absolutely delicious 🍻
This was very informative thanks for sharing! learned a lot here! I've never done a decoction or step mash of any kind, so that will be fun to try out! cheers my friend!
Cheers! Im glad you enjoyed it!
Very impressed by this recipe. I will be brewing it this weekend with a small adjustment on the grain profile. I will be using slightly more Munich an slightly less pilsner. My question for you is how much of the 11 gallons goes into the mash and how much goes into sparging? I have a system that recirculates so I am confident i might not need to sparge. However I don't want to wind up putting too much water in as the statin volume.
Damage Inc..............nice Metallica reference
That is a picture perfect beer. Well done!
Thank you so much!
When are you going to invent the equipment for taste-o-vision because your maibock looks amazing and I would like to taste this beer 🍺 and since I don't live in the USA I require a taste-o-vision setup to enjoy your beer. Cheers Jim
I wouldn't mind a taste-o-vision for the beer other brewtubers make either!
The beer looks fantastic. I have read that the one drawback to cold crashing is head retention through fatty acids from yeast stress. How much it affects it? I don’t know. The problem with step cooling is it can take a very long time especially if you are walking it down from room temp to near freezing temperature( week to two weeks).
Interesting information, although I cant say that I've noticed a trend with beers I've cold crashed vs ones I haven't. I am happy to report that with a few extra days on gas the head retention seems to be improving significantly.
TheApartmentBrewer I’m glad too here it. The info I got about this was from John Palm’s latest How to Brew book, but the article from brulosophy on crash beer vs step cooling indicates crashing isn’t significant in flavor then step cooling.
Looks like all the hard work was worth it. Bit out of my league at the moment, maybe next year. Great content fella and a 👍 from me. Take care.
Unless you can replicate this recipe exactly the same way it was suggested, you're going to encounter A LOT of problems like me... I'm using an Anvil Foundry and I found out that it struggles with temperature ramping up. I had to reset it twice because of the scorching at the bottom was giving me an error message. Scaling down the grain bill isn't a bad idea if you're using the same system as me. Considering the fact that you don't want to use rice hauls at the beginning since you'll end up boiling part of the cereal it's a problem already.
Just use melanoidin malt and skip decoction if you're using an electric system.
I've found that electric systems tend to scorch at the lower temperature rests as well. You might be better off like you said just working with melanoidin malt.
I'm Definitely stealing this recipe!!!! Haha. Great work
Beautiful looking beer my guy. The 34/70 is what i use (since i make lagers at ale temps). It’s a work of art. Cheers 🤙🏻
It's a versatile yeast and works well at a surprisingly awesome variety of temperatures! I love it!
Have you tried fermenting this yeast under pressure, yet? I'm planning on making this specific recipe but under pressure.
What a video, what a beer! Really enjoyed watching, thank you. One question though, what would you tweak to get a more robust long lasting head?
It turned out that all it needed was s but more time under pressure, now it keeps a layer for the whole time you drink the beer!
Looks like you crushed it. That colour is perfect 🍺
Thanks!
Excellent! Looks like a a fantastic beer.
Thanks!
Awesome! I really need to do some more decoctions. I'm brewing a witbier this weekend. May break out the camera for a bit of footage and try to get a grain to glass done. We'll see. I really need to get more beer in kegs!
Awesome! Would love to see it!
That’s awesome!!!! 👍🏻👍🏻🍺🍺
Nice. Really enjoy your videos. I just sat down after leaving my Berliner Weisse for kettle souring. My fist sour so crossing my fingers.
Very awesome! A Berliner Weisse is a style I have yet to attempt but it's on my list. Hope it turns out well for you!
TheApartmentBrewer well am I happy i checked the PH early. Thought i would wait 24 hours, but now I checked for the first time at 14.5 hours and i am at PH3.4 where i wanted to be. That went alot quicker that i thought 😂
KEE-ser or KAY-ser??? YA KILLIN' ME HERE, SMALLS
Very nice flowing production. Quick question for you. I'm a propane, in the garage brewer, so often my mash temps. aren't exact. If I went the multi-step mash route using some Melanoiden, is there a "preferred" ramp-up time between mash temps? I tend to heat up slowly between steps, so as not to overshoot. BTW, I found your channel through my sub. to Jesse over at Bumpy Road Brewery. Cheerz
Great question! You definitely dont want to scorch so the conventional wisdom is to raise at a rate of no faster than 1 degree Farenheit per minute. However adding direct heat is not the only method, you can also add additions of boiling water to the mash tun to bump up the temps
That color really looks beatiful in that glass.. After two glass, it would loosen some strings😄 The name is attractive, I watched them 3 times live from very front.. Maybe you can add some specialty graing for head retention.. Cheers..
Love the vids. They're giving me lots of inspiration. I'd like to see you make a Midwest Fruit Tart. They're awesome and I think I might be attempting one soon, but I'd like to see it done by someone that appears to know what they're doing first.
I can't say I've heard of that style before but it sounds interesting. I may have to have a go at it! I'm flattered that you think I know what I'm doing haha, but most of the time I'm figuring it out as I go lol
@@TheApartmentBrewer www.sudsdudssociety.com/blogs/brewery/urban-artifact-the-gadget-midwest-fruit-tart
Apparently Urban Artifact is the only thing that comes up when you search midwest fruit tart. Its really good and luckily I'm fairly local and can get it regularly, but it might just be something they made up.
Good video. It would be interesting to brew a decoction mash version next to a single infusion version to really see how much it affect the flavor. Cheers!
Definitely something to consider. I may have to try that on the future some time!
Good idea. I just do a single infusion for my maibock but that's mainly out of laziness and the need for a shorter brew day.
I'm a bit late with comment but I noticed some bubbles @22:05 until @22:30. do you degas your samples before taking gravity readings? Small amounts of carbonation can throw off hydrometers more then you would expect.
I do degas. Sometimes there are a few residual bubbles that are in there but yes, its best practice to get the carbonation out as much as possible before measurement.
@@TheApartmentBrewer I just recently learnt about this couple days ago when taking a gravity reading at work, where I was told to degas. never even thought about doing that in my own brewing until then
Yup! It can have a huge impact if you've spunded and you're trying to get FG!
Great video! Always a pleasure to watch. Love that glassware. Where did you get it? I have a couple Oktoberfest beers that should be ready by September and would like to have some good mugs.
Thanks! The mugs are actually pretty easy to find online, I got mine at a biergarten in my college town though. Best of luck with the Oktoberfest party!
TheApartmentBrewer is that the 0.5 L glass?
22:32 You look Younger, did you DIY YOU HAIR? NICE VIDEO 📹. #STAYSAFE #KEEPBREWING.
I really enjoyed this this video. I've not long started with whole grain brewing, the results are definitely worth the extra effort. I have found when I brew very pale beers it is much more difficult to get the FG as low as I would like. Any ideas? All the best from Wales, Iechyd da!
I love all grain brewing too! Fermenting all the way down to final gravity has a lot to do with yeast health and fermentation quality. Make sure you pitch enough healthy yeast and don't ferment too cold. Best of luck!
So you take a lot of the grain from the mash and boil it for 30 minutes...and denature all the enzymes of that portion. Doesn’t that cause problems?
Thats a good question, but the vast majority of the enzymes stay in the liquid, not the grain (that's why you scoop out the grain and do the decoction in a second vessel), so you're not denaturing the enzymes
@@TheApartmentBrewer ok but don’t the enzymes come from the grain? Of course most is still in the rest of the mash. But to be honest, I think I won’t try it anyway. Just too much work for an already busy brew day. But I do enjoy your videos. I love autumn like Bock. I come from Holland and there is is huge. There is an autumn version which is darker and can only be sold in the autumn months. I had multiple attempts at making one but has not been successful yet. Will try again this year with a different recipe this time
@@pietervanleeuwen5987 yup they do, but once you've mashed in and let it go for about 10 or 15 minutes, they're all in the liquid. They're just need time to work on all the available starches. So when you leave the liquid behind, you're really not hurting your mash efficiency at all. But I don't blame you at all for not wanting to do decoction, it is a LOT of work and I haven't done one since I made this beer
Sounds and looks delicious. I just converted an old mini fridge into a ferm chamber and was wondering if you cold crash in the fermenter? If so, how do you prevent oxygen suck back? Do you even worry about it? I bottle so no ability to crash in the keg unfortunately. Thanks man, keep it up!
Thanks! Congrats on the fermentation chamber build! That makes a huge difference. To be honest, I've never worried about oxygen suckback in malty and/or strong beers such as this one. In fact, a little oxygen/age makes them even tastier due to how it interacts with the malt flavors. I dont cold crash my hoppy beers and that's about it!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks! Oh also, I know you're into the traditional methods that go along with German beer.. I've been reading through this book "Historic German and Austrian Beers for the Home Brewer" and thought you'd like some of the history/methods/recipes. The author even made the ebook free on Reddit if you wanna check it out:
www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/fqmgxf/with_so_many_people_on_lockdown_in_quarantine_or/?
Cheers!
Nice video mate; have you tried step mashing? I was wondering whether decoction mashing was worth doing these days given modern grains....think I read that step mashing would yield similar if undetectable results....
Yup! I did a step mash w/o decoction a few months ago, and normally just do single infusions. You are totally right - modern malts don't really benefit from decoction but I believe there is a nice flavor/color contribution (and I enjoy the extra work).
Great video and looks like a tasty beer! Couple questions. Do you think the protein rest may have negatively affected the head retention? We're thinking of doing one to decrease chill haze but don't know its effect on foam. Also, does gelatin help with chill haze or just yeast haze? Been debating that or polyclar. Lastly, why didn't you call the beer St Anger?
I think you may be right with the protein rest. It definitely can negatively affect head retention if the rest is too long but I'm curious to see how it does as it ages under pressure. I can definitely say I've seen less chill haze in my lagers as long as they're not served colder than 40 F. Gelatin in my experience works best on yeast and hop debris but I think has no effect on chill haze. I'll save st anger for another one 😂 glad you enjoyed the video!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks. In our latest video we cold crashed at 40 and induced a lot of chill haze which was worse than ones we crashed at 55 or didn't crash at all. Looks like Polyclar might be the best for stripping out the chill haze proteins.
Hmm. I kept my lagers around 32 F for a few weeks and they were always hazy. When raised to warmer serving temps they dropped bright very fast. I haven't used polycar before but let me know if it works!
@@TheApartmentBrewer I've found that a 55-60 crash is enough to get hops and yeast to drop. If we do a colder crash I'll have to get my hands on some polyclar since it apparently affects proteins and polyphenols. I just want a beautiful bright pilsner, dagnabbit!
Any tips for us that are still doing either extract or partial extract?
Sorry, I only did two extract batches ever, and they were the first two batches I ever brewed. So I tend to not give out extract advice so I dont give out bad advice. (My first comment got deleted)
@@TheApartmentBrewer glad you got the comments deal sorted out
Are you a Jason Blaha boy?