Brew Day - Stout and a Decoction Mash

I've decided for today's brew, I'll be making an Oatmeal Stout.  The focus of today's post will be on a specific type of mash called the "Decoction" mash. This post is about becoming familiar with the mash processes other than an infusion mash for knowledge sake, not necessarily for the utility (I assume I'll end up with a lower mash efficiency than normal, as my system is best made for infusion and batch sparging).

Usually home brewers will utilize the basic single step infusion mash.  The infusion mash is only really possible today because of two things: fully modified grains and accurate temperature control and measurement.  Prior to the availability of fully modified grains and accurate temperature monitoring, a decoction mash was used to reach acid and protein rests. Then a saccharification/mash out step, an infusion step and sparge was possible without actually needing a proper thermometer.

If using a lot of adjunct grains (wheat, rye, oats, etc) it's a good call to use a protein rest. A protein rest has been used for under-modified grains to break down proteins into amino acids that are usable by yeast. My recipe for this brew does not need a decoction mash or protein rest, but since it's the old school way of mashing, we're going to give it a try.

The other reason for using a decoction mash is temperature control.  Through a bit of trial and error, the brewer can determine how much boiling of a decoction is needed to get a mash up to the correct temperature .  This means with close attention to detail, the brewer can consistently brew without the need of a thermometer (although I will be using one - it would take a few tries to get this right without one).  As long as the brewer uses the same ratio of volumes of liquid in mash and decoction boil, with the same amounts of grain and same equipment, the final product should always be the same. [EDIT: I should be more clear here, working without a thermometer would require a multi-step decoction, and we'd need to figure out boil volumes to get our grains to each step]


I'll be doing the simplest decoction mash today - a single step decoction. We'll be doing a protein rest, a single decoction with a saccharification and boil, 30 minute mash and a fly sparge.  In the future, I'll be doing a heavily adjuncted (possibly a gluten-free) beer, that will utilize multiple decoctions.

Terms:
Adjunct: Sources of fermentable sugars other than barley. Usually grains that are not fully modified.  Common commercial adjuncts are wheat, rice and corn, others are millet, quinoa, buckwheat, oats and rye.   Usually require mashing with barley for proper saccharification.
Decoction: Running's from the MLT that will be heated and added back to the mash
Rest: Period of time keeping the grains and/or decoction at a specified temperature
Saccharification: The process of breaking complex carbohydrates into monosaccarides (fermentable sugars)
Protein Rest:  Holding grains at about 122F to break down proteins into usable amino acids.

All Grain Oatmeal Stout
9.5# Organic Crisps Pale Ale Malt
1# Organic Great Western Wheat Malt*
1# Organic Rolled Oats
.5# Organic Briess Caramel 120 Malt
.5# Organic Briess Chocolate Malt
.5# Organic Weyermann Carafa II Malt
.5 oz. Organic Belgian Admiral Pellet Hops @ 60min
.5 oz Organic Belgian Cascade Pellet Hops @ 20 min
.5 oz Organic Kent Golding Pellet Hops @ 5 min

*Wheat isn't really common in stouts (maybe in a Russian Imperial Stout).  I added this because I had a pound sitting around, and it kind of goes with the decoction mash.

Project Values:
Volume: 5 Gal
OG: 1.070
FG: 1.018
ABV%: 6.8
IBU: 27.4

The Single Step Decoction Mash:
The quick and dirty steps of a single step decoction mash for the grain bill:

1. Heat 6.75 Gallons of water to 127F
• We calculate this number off of our grain bill and take into account our mash tun.  This number will be higher than an infusion mash. We have a total of 13.00# of grain and 6.75 gallons of mash water.  This equals about 1.93 Gallons per pound (you could estimate to 2 Gal per #) 
2. Mix grains and all water in MLT
3. Allow for temperature to adjust
4. Temperature should be around 122F
5. Allow to rest for 20 minutes
6. Drain 3 Gallons of MLT liquid (called decoction)
• This number will change with your system and the amount of grains/mash water used.  Normally you want to drain 30%-40% of the MLT liquid.  Essentially we need to pull the correct amount of water, that when boiled and added back into our MLT (which should still be around 120F from the protein rest) will adjust to our mash strike temperature (defined by style, here I'm looking for the mid 150's).  This might take some trial and error over a few batches to get your volumes perfect.  For our first brew, we'll just have to pay attention, take notes, and adjust our end mash temperature by adding either hot or cold water.
7. Slowly bring decoction to 158F
8. Rest for 15 minutes (Saccharification)
9. Bring decoction to a boil for 15 minutes, stirring.  Add water if decoction becomes too thick
10.  Re-introduce some decoction to the MLT
11. Temperature should adjust to standard mash temperature
12. Repeat until you hit your strike temperature 
• If you run out of decoction prior to hitting your strike temp, then we need to add more hot water.  Remember how much you need to add to get to the strike temperature so that we can adjust for next time.  We'd rather not add water if possible, as the thicker the actual mash is, the better extraction we will get.  
13. Allow to mash for 30 minutes  (Saccharification)
14. Begin heating water for sparge 
15. We'll be using much less sparge water as we're essentially using our decoction as a a first batch sparge. 
16. Fly sparge  with 2 Gallons water at 168+F.  
17. Collect 6 gallons total of sparge running's (including any leftover decoction)
18. Everything after that is standard - Boil/Hop, Cool, Aerate, Pitch, Seal, Ferment and Bottle.

Final Values:
Calculated -
Volume: 6 Gal
OG: 1.060
IBU: 25.3
Color: 30.3

Estimated -
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5.6%


Results:
So, using the volumes above, things are looking pretty good.  I knew my original gravity would be low.  But, using the boiled decoction volume of 3 gallons, I hit a strike temperature of 155F and it held for 30 minutes.  Pretty good.  I believe the low efficiency was due mostly to my equipment; I did a fly sparge and my equipment is really made for a double batch.  If I was using a round cooler, the fly sparge would have worked out better.  If I could have lowered my overall decoction volumes and saved more volume for a batch sparge, things would probably have ended up closer to my projected values. Or, I could have ran a batch sparge and attempt to boil off more water (this is probably what I should have done to reach my desired numbers).  Each of those methods would add some aspect to the flavor/body of the final product. The main thing here is that the end product will still end up as a good tasty beer.  All in all I ended up with about an extra gallon, but was off by about 1% on my ABV.

Small Scale Kitchen Brewing - Pale Ale

One of the main issues I hear from people looking to jump into brewing is that it requires a lot of space, time, money and equipment.  While this can be true, it doesn't have to be.  Most people who brew start on very basic setups, and many of those never move on to more complex systems.  More often than not, great beer is the result.

I want to make something clear here.  There are two main reasons for the outcome of one's homebrew;  the brewer and the quality of ingredients.  I will not name any names, but there is a very popular plastic system one can purchase at many retail locations, but I'd steer clear of this "guy".  I've seen it both first hand and heard it from others, a lot of ingredient kits out there have old, poor ingredients.  Don't assume anything that is a "kit" is bad though.  Just beware pre-hopped extracts, and buy from actual homebrew shops.  If there isn't one in your town (stay local, if for nothing else than freshness), go to a reputable online supply company (see side bar).

So, I have decided I am going to make a 3 gallon extract brew.   You can do a 1 gallon, less than that I don't know if you'd actually end up with much.  This brew is going to be the most basic I can think of, so it may not turn out the most tasty.  It shouldn't be bad, and it may be great, I just haven't tried such a 'simple' beer before [Edit After Brewing: I actually think this brew will be great. I underestimated the process.  This will be a good batch]

Size comparison, a 7 Gallon carboy on the left, a 3 on the right

Terms That Need Explaining:
Normally I'd jot down some terms here, but since this is the most basic, we're going to not worry about  most of them. All you need to know:

Wort - Pre-fermented beer.  Made up of fermentable sugars,  Today, it'll be a combo of extract and water
Pitch\Pitching: The act of pouring yeast cultures into cool wort.

Jameson's All Extract California Pale Ale

Estimated Total Brew Time: 2 Hours
Final OG: 1.050

Total Brew Time:
I started at 10:45 am, and was 100% done and cleaned up by 12:30.  So 1:45 minutes total.  Much of which was just waiting during the cooling period.

Mandatory Equipment:
Stock pot ( I'll be using 1.5 Gallon stock pot)
Extra pots for side boiling (If using a stock pot smaller than your batch size)
Spoon
Stove
3 Gallon fermenter** (they exist! or you could use 1 Gallon jug for a 1 Gallon batch)
Blow Off Tubing/Airlock and Stopper (#7 for a standard 3 Gallon Glass Carboy)
Strainer
Siphon cane and hose (cane for bottling)
Sanitizer (Iodophor, San Star)
Funnel (you could siphon)

On the left: Liquid Extract, Hops and Grain
Center: Strainer, Liquid Yeast Culture, Fermenter with Airlock
Right: 1.5 Gallon Stock Pot 

Bottling equipment***

Optional Equipment:
Hydrometer
Flask
Small Grain Bag or Strainer (If using optional grains)

*We need to be able to boil our wort.  If we have 3 Gallons to boil, it's tough in 3 Gallon pot.  But!  We could theoretically boil 2 Gallons of wort, and add 1 Gallon of sanitized water prior to pitching!  Downside here is we might get a lower hop utilization. This could be offset by adding more hops.
**So the real kicker here is the fermenter.  You can use a bucket if it is food grade, you have an airtight lid, and you can somehow attach an airlock or blow off tube (whole drilled in the lid).  But a 3 Gallon glass fermenter runs about $25 online, plus shipping.  They are a bit heavy to ship ($10 at least) so check your local homebrew store.  They may be willing to get you one if they don't have it in stock.
***Will be covered later.  You could theoretically re-use old plast soda bottles with screw on caps(I wouldn't recommend it).

Ingredients for a 3 Gallon Batch:

Ingredients, top down, Malt (grain), Yeast
Hops, and Extract (bag)

4.4# Briess Organic Maltoferm Liquid Malt Extract
1/2 oz Organic California Pellet Ivanhoe @ 20 minute boil
1/2 oz Organic American Pilgrim Pellet Hops @ 20 minute boil
1 oz Kent Golding Whole Hops @ 5 minute boil
White Labs California Ale (I find liquid to be the easiest, activate 1+ hrs prior to brew).

Optional Grains
1/4# CaraMunich Malt


Scaled for a 1 Gallon Batch
1 1/3# Briess Organic Maltoferm Liquid Malt Extract
.2 oz Organic California Ivanhoe Pellet Hops @ 20 minute boil
.4 oz Kent Golding Whole Hops @ 5 minute boil
White Labs California Ale Ale - This will be total overkill for this size batch.  You could pitch dry yeast, preferably re-hydrated, and even better with a starter.

Here's where it is better to design a brew for a volume vs. scale it down, we may end up with some not so easy to measure amounts.


Projected Values from BeerSmith
Original Gravity: 1.055
IBU: 39.8
Color: 5.0 SRM
ABV: 5.6

If Using Grain (Optional):

Original Gravity: 1.056
IBU: 39.8
Color: 7.5 SRM
ABV: 5.6

Procedure:
1. Begin heating a total of 3 Gallons of water, If using grains, move to step 1a.

Left I'm boiling water to sanitize it.  
This will be added to the main wort (right) once both are cooler 

• I'll be using a 1.5 Gallon stock pot.  I'll start with 1.5 Gallon for wort, and boil two more Gallons on the side in other, smaller pots (3 total).  These will only have water in them, no wort.   
• Use less if you only have a 3 Gallon or smaller pot.  Give yourself enough room for a rolling boil.  And be aware that while boiling, wort has the tenancy to foam up, so give yourself a little extra room.  BeerSmith claims 2.82 Gallons is the perfect amount for a 3 Gallon brew pot, assuming we are going to add about 1/2 gallon after boil.

1a. If Using Grains (Optional)

• Put your grains in your small grain bag (Note, I did not have a gran bag, I used a small strainer to soak the grains, careful if using this method.  Don't let those grains escape.  See picture)
• Place your bag of grains in your water 
• Begin heating your water, keep your grain bag off the bottom of the pot as much as possible. Use medium-low heat or else your'll burn the bag and the grains on the bottom..
• Heat the water to about 160°F
• Remove grain bag
• Continue heating to boil

Optional: I'm steeping my grains in a strainer.
 Try to get as much grain soaked without it escaping

2. Once boil begins, add 4.4# Briess Organic Maltoferm Liquid Malt Extract (or whatever extract you have) and stir

Adding the MaltoFerm Extract

• Add it slowly!  And stir constantly.  You probably want to turn off your stove, as the extract will easily burn on the bottom of the pan.  In the future we could use this caramelizing action to our f[l]avor..

3. Once extract is dissolved, return the wort  to a full rolling boil (we now have wort!).
4.  Add our fist addition of hops, 1/2 oz of California Ivanhoe Pellet Hops and Pilgrim Pellet Hops
5. After 15 minutes of boiling add 1 oz Kent Goldings Whole Hops.
6. Boil 5 more minutes.

Fermenter after adding iodine (sanitizer)

• From here out, 100% of everything must be sterilized. Hands, tubing, spoons, fermenters, anything!!!!  Make yourself a batch of sanitizing solution. Start by santizing your fermenter, then you can dump that solution into something else to use for remaining equipment.

7.  Begin to chill and use a sanitized strainer to remove hops and any particles.  Add the additional boiled volume.  If it does not fit, cool on the side, we can always mix everything together in the fermenter (this is how I am doing it, using a 1.5 Gallon pot).

• There's a lot of ways to do this.  The key is the faster, the better.  I've know people to just throw a lid on and walk away until morning, just asking for problems.  The easiest way to chill in this situation is to just get a bunch of ice, and place you stock pot (covered!) in an ice bath in your sink.  Plug your sink, add a some water and a good amount of ice.  Place your stock pot w/ cover in the bath.  Make sure no water makes it into your beer (see pic below).  If you need to add water, it needs to be sterilized by boiling first.

After iodine has settled.  

8. Once the wort is chilled to the mid 70's, we aerate the wort by stirring vigorously with a sterilized spoon.
9. Siphon or pour using a funnel into your sanitized fermenter
10. Pitch your activated yeast
11. Pop on your air-lock and store in a dark place.
12. Allow fermentation
13. Bottle****
14. Enjoy****

****Post coming soon

Swirl, nature is beautiful .. Sanitize your carboys

Fermetner and funnel

And the wort boils!

Ice Bath - Once we've finished boiling,
we need to cool ASAP, 

Stove utilization, added pots to lower the chance of boil over

Final Product and a Hydrometer taking a
Gravity Reading

Happy Carboy, Happy Yeast, Happy Me

Jameson's American Amber Ale

HLT connected to the MLT via 1/2" tubing.
HLT on a 55,000 BTU burner (and a ugly setup) 

EDIT: I'm working on fixing layout issues.....
Liveblog - Jameson's Amber Ale - Brewing to start @ Noon

For today's brew, I'll be making a 5 Gallon All-Grain Amber ale.  

Jameson's American Amber Ale

Ingredients:

8 Lbs Organic Gambrinus Pale Ale Malt (2.0 SRM)

1 Lbs Organic Briess Munich Malt (10 SRM)

1/2 Lbs Organic Briess Caramel 60L (60 SRM)

1/2 Lbs Organic Briess Caramel 120L (120 SRM)

1/2 Oz. Ivanhoe Pellet Hops (7.6% AAU, 15.7IBU @ 60min boil)

1/2 Oz Pilgrim Pellet Hops (10.2% AAU, 12.2 IBU @ 20min boil)

3/4 Oz New Zealand Saaz (Motueka) Whole Hpos (8.3 AAU, 3.1 IBU @ 5 min)

STRIKE TEMP: 154F

Sparge Type: Batch

Equipment

15 Gal Polarware Brew Pot (Hot Liquid tun- HLT) -  For a 5 Gal batch, a 7 Gal brew pot is sufficient

52 QT. Mash/Lauder Tun

55,000 BTU KingKooker -  outdoor propane cooking element

Quick Probe Thermometer

Hydrometer

Test Tube

Refractometer (not needed, but I like toys)

Homemade Wort Chiller

Inside the MLT.  Note hidden below the grain bed lives a SS braid that is connected to the installed valve on the bottom.  The top SS braid is useless as water takes the path of least resistance, so it does not evenly distribute liquid over the grain bed.  This, along with he rectangular shape is the reason for doing a batch sparge over a fly sparge.  We'll get poor efficiency using a fly sparge.

Projected Values @ 72% Efficiency:

OG: 1.052

FG: 1.013
ABV: 4.9%
IBU: 31
Color: 13.4 SRM

Awaiting Strike temperature.  Mash looks a little thin,
 but it will be OK

Procedure:
1. Heat 15Qt Water to 171F
2. Mix Heated H20 with Grain in MLT - Mix in 1/3 of H20 and grits at a time
3.  Allow 10 min for temp to adjust
4. Temp should be at 155-157F
      a. If too hot add cold H20
      b. If too cool, add hot\boiled H20
5. Once desired temp is reached, allow to sit for 50min AKA "Mash" step.  Desired"Strike" temp is 154F for this brew.  Higher temp (higher 150s) will result in a fuller body beer "malty".
6. During the mash step, heat 3.5 Gal H20 to 169F

Once strike temp is achieved, close and wait.

7. Begin "Batch Sparge"
    a. Drain all liquid from MLT - Collect the first 1/2-1Gal of liquid and carefully pour back on grain bed - try not to disrupt the grain bed.  Do this until your runnings are clear of any grain.  This helps set the grain bed.
    b.Once fully drained, add 1/2 of the spare liquid to the MLT (3.5/2 =1.75 GAL)
    c. Stir the grain bed to "knock off" converted surgars from the grain
    d. Repeat step a of the mash (drain and recirculate)
    e. Repeat with final 1.75 Gal sparge H20

First runnings, to be re-circulated into the MLT

8. After sparge completion,  we re looking to have collected 5.5-6 Gal of liquid wort
9. Boil!
   a. Begin boiling collected wort
   b. Once a rolling boil begins (the more rolling, the better hop oil utilization!) add 1st addition of hops (1/2 oz pilgrim)
   c. After 40 min of boil, add 1/2 oz Ivanhoe Hops
   d. After another 15 min (55 min total of boiling hops) add 3/4 oz. New Zealand Saaz hops
   e. Boil for 5 min more minutes (total boil time is 60 min)
10.  Cool off boiled wort to 65F (Ice bath, chiller counterflow, manifold...) - I'll be using a home made copper chiller made of a cheap length of copper tubing attached to a garden hose.  Approx cool time is 1hr
11. Move cooled liquid to fermenter
12. Introduce oxygen (you boiled it out!) by shaking or stirring you wort - try to do this as sanitary as possible.  You will be introducing wild yeast in as well, but hopefully you're yeast is nice and active
13. Pitch you yeast
14. Seal up with an air lock\blow off tube

Liquid For Collection, transfer to HLT
for the boil. Mouthwatering color

15. Now  it's the waiting game!  Approx 1 week to transfer into a secondary fermenter, another week until bottling, and another 2-4 weeks of aging.

12:54 PM
I heated 5.5 Gal of water to 176F.  I then mixed my grain and about 4 Gal of the heated H2O.  After about ten minutes, the temperature of the mash was at 153F. I also added 1 Pint of cold tap water (probably unnecessary I thought my temp was too high and didn't wait.  Remember, relax, don't worry have a. homebrew I did not),   Looking good though- missed the strike temp, but not by much. The mash is a bit thinner than I wanted, but it'll be OK (these are things to improve on!).  Now we wait 50 minutes for starch conversion!

1:45 PM
I heated about 5 Gal of water to 179F.  While I heated the water, I drained all liquid at a out of my MLT by doing the following:
1. Begin draining liquid at a slow pace by opening the valve on MLT.  I have a 1/2" hot water transfer tube attached to the 1/2" barb on my MLT.  The other end of the tube is in a food grade plastic bucket for collecting my drainings.
2. The first 1/2 Gal or so was re-introduced to the MLT.  This was done with a slowly as to not upset the grain bed.  This was done until the drainings were clear of particles.
3. Slowly drain all liquid from the MLT
4. Add heated water from the MLT until the grains are covered
5. Repeat steps 2-3
6. Repeat again 4-5

I ended up with about 6 Gal of liquid.  I put this in my HLT and put it back on my burner.  Time to boil! I cranked up the heat and got it to a rolling boil (it almost boiled over!) by 2:25 and added my first hops, 1/2 oz of Organic California Ivanhoe pellet hops.



OHH yeah, I forgot to mention, I have already taken my Wyeast activator out of the fridge, and popped the nutrient packet.  

The Boil! 

3:05 PM
Hop addition #2 - 1/2oz Pilgrim pellet hops.  Also begin cleanup of MLT (I should have done this earlier, but I was being lazy.  The longer it sits, the harder it is to clean).  Place chiller in pot.

3:20PM
Hop Addition #3 - 1oz New Zealand Saaz Whole hops

3:25 Cooling
Shut off the propane tank and start a trickle of water through my chiller.  Cool wort to approx 65F.  Keep covered.  Everything must be 100% sanitary from here.  I turned up the flow on the chiller to get cooler water to use to fill up a bucket for sanitizing solution (I use iodine).  Also fill up my carbouy with water and santizing solution.   Allow to sit for a few minutes and pour out.  Once cooled to 65F, transfer into carbouy/fermenter.  Shake vigorously to dissolve oxygen.  Oxygen is removed from the wort during boiling.  It is crucial to have sufficient dissolved oxygen for the beginning cycles of yeast.  After the yeast has consumed all the oxygen in the wort over the first few days, it will no longer need any oxygen.

Final Numbers:
Mesured Gravity (OG): 1.052
Target Gravity: 1.502
Target Volume: 5 Gal
Actual Volume: 5 Gal
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.013*
Calculated Mash Efficiency: 80.5%*
Target Efficiency: 72%
Calculated IBUs: 31*
Est. ABV: 5.1%

Sunday:
By morning, the brew has a nice thick krausen (foamy head) and the airlock is bubbling once a second or so.  Looks like a healthy, happy colony of yeast.!

*Calculated with BeerSmith Pro 2.  There will be future posts on how these numbers are calculated, as well as using brewing software to track your brewing process.  

Heating Water for the mash

Getting close to our strike temp

Heating our sparge water up to 168

The sparge!  Liquid is draining out the MLT, while the next
batch of hot water waits in the HLT

Pushin' it to a boil.  I've taken the cooker off my table system
as I no longer need it up so high.

MLT after mash and sparge.  You can see the bottom
SS braid poking through the grain bed

Mash temp after about 10 minutes - reading in the high 150s