Decoction notes

[mr x]

A few things I noticed in doing this last decoction for my Munich Dunkel:

Go easy with the heat until you get the wort well up in temperature and give it time for the sugars and water to blend. I didn't do this, and I found that even with a thick base pot on a glass top stove, I quickly got heavy caramelization and a small scorched sugar spot in the bottom of the pot. Luckily, the sugars burned to the bottom stone hard, and did not contaminate the rest of the mash with burnt flavour. While stirring, I could feel the spoon scraping through thick goo on the bottom, which was the sugars coming out and quickly heating. After getting the heat down and stirring for a bit, the mash seemed to loosen up and I could get back up to a good boil, whereas I was getting to a scorch point at only 150ish in temperature before hand.

[akr71]

Hmm, good to know. I'm hoping to do my first decoction sometime soon. A Marzen/Ofest perhaps? I'm sure when I get around to it, I'll have a tun of questions (pun intended).

Would a double boiler help avoid the scorching and carmelization?

[mr x]

Might help, but it would have to be a fair size to get any effect.