Franconia Beer Message Board
A couple of observations on decoction |
| Posted by Nick B. on 2016-09-09 02:27:56 |
| Indeed I still don't understand why they wouldn't heat only the water from the tank in the kettle and leave the grains in the mash tun. I can't picture how not being able to heat the mash tun directly should matter. Through experience, you learn how hot to heat your mashing water so that when you mash in, it will heat the grains and mash tun to the required initial mash temp. Like with my mash tun at home: a 10 gal (US) cylindrical water cooler. I can't heat it directly. I heat my strike water (the water for the initial infusion) to Mash-inTemp + 10°F (yes, I brew in Fahrenheit, but volumes and weights are metric) and dump it in the cooler. Then I stir in the milled malt and put the cover on. The water heats the cooler & malt to the mash-in temp, usually 152°F. If I were to do this the Eschawo way, then I would heat the grains in the strike water kettle and dump that all into the mash tun. This would be problematic in two ways. First, it's an extra cleaning operation to clean the strike water kettle. Second, the slopping around of hot mash is something some people avoid, out of fear of "hot-side aeration". I don't think this would be a concern in a half-modern Brauhaus though, if the mash is pumped into the mash tun from below. I typically mash for 45 minutes, over which time the temp might fall by a few degrees. At about 30 minutes, I add a half-litre or so of boiling water to bring the temp back up to 152 (66.7C) or whatever. Then for mash-out, I bring the temp up to 170F by stirring in a bunch more boiling water. I let it sit at this temp for 10 minutes and then run it off into the brew kettle. (Can't call it a "copper" because it ain't copper!) I DO NOT SPARGE. I am a homebrewer, I can afford a 15% loss in mashing efficiency, especially if it leads to a theoretically superior wort. |