Would you do a decoction mash for a Czech Dark Lager? I see the BJCP lists it as "... complex maltiness dominates, typically with malty-rich Maillard products and a light to moderate residual malt sweetness." That makes me think about doing a decoction to help achieve that complexity. Thoughts?
from my understanding it takes roughly 3 hrs on a high boil to break down chaga mushrooms polysaccharides to be of any benefit for human consumption. has anybody tried using a pressure cooker to speed things up? how did it go? any tips? thanks
Hopefully this is tagged correctly, but I was wondering if anyone knew any good method for making your own soap scents? I know you can replace the water (that you use to make lye) with decoctions of flowers, but all my attempts at doing so resulted in a somewhat rotten smell that I don't want to use in my soaps... The only time it turned out smelling alright was when I used cherry/ apple blossoms and that scent was far too weak to use in anything.
I've tried boiling water with flowers in them (and then draining and boiling it again with new ones), boiling water and pouring it over flowers, and steeping water + flowers the same way you would a tea. I've also let them sit for varying amounts of time in both room temperature and the fridge.
As of now I've had to resort to essential oils for scenting every time, but it would be really nice to know if any of you have any tips on how to make your own scents.... Scented oils are hard to come by here and are also very expensive so I'd love to be able to create my own mixtures. In particular I want to make lilac soap!! You can't buy lilac oil here, not even online, and my grandmother really likes that scent so I want to make something for her :( All tips are appreciated ;;;;
Thanks in advance, sorry if I mixed up some terminology - for all the grammatical knowledge that my English degree gave me, in times like these you can really tell that it's not my first language lol. I feel like there should be a more natural way of saying 'herbal decoction' but oh well.....
Currently im using the arachas decoction so the damage i recieve is reduced drastically, the ekimmara decoction so i can regain health when i do damage and the water hag decoction so i do more damage when I’m full health. I still have enough resistance to take one more decoction but not sure which one to use. I’ve trued the troll decoction but the health regeneration is too little to make a difference.Same for the ekhidna decoction since my stamina regeneration is too low. The succubus and wyvern decoction don’t work for me since fights rarely last longer than 40 seconds.
I know decoctions last longer and are more powerful but reading about them in the wiki I saw this which I don´t fully understand.
"Decoctions do not raise your toxicity level, but rather take up an amount of space on your toxicity bar." I cannot fully understand what that means."
Can someone explain what that means exactly?
Thanks a lot
The problem with some of the books I've come across is that they are very general and discuss herbs, plants, and trees from all over the world. If you have sun burn go source an aloe and extract its gels. Great, but there are no aloes in the northeastern US.
Hoping you fine people can help with some recommendations.
I’m curious to try this facet of gameplay out cos I’ve always neglected it - I know decoctions are a key part of the build but so far (lvl 15) I’ve basically unlocked no decent decoctions due to the need to harvest rare monster mutagens first. Is it just a thing where the build takes off more slowly than others and it really gets rolling later, or could I be using decoctions earlier?
This is my first lager, and I really want it to be good. I've heard that the best way to do that for this style is to do a single decoction. It's kind of confusing me though. It seems that you're supposed to use a decoction in conjunction with a step mash? Can someone explain in detail the temperatures I need to hit and for how long? Should I mash and boil for 90 minutes or the normal 60? I've done some research but there seems to be conflicting opinions.
Here's my ingredients
9lb German pilsner malt 1lb Vienna malt 1/4 lb victory malt
1 ounce hallertau at 60 mins 0.5 ounce hallertau at 15 minutes.
Wyeast 2308
Normal lagering, unless someone convinces me otherwise.
Any other suggestions are welcome.
Planning on making an altbier to be ready in time to start pounding it in late Sept. Malt bill i am thinking of is a straight 50/50 of pils/munich maybe with a very small addition of carafa for a deeper color. Anyway, i have never done a decoction and have been reading good and bad things about it. I dont want to go crazy and do more than a single decoction. Ive also seen where brewers are using 2-8% melanoidin malt to achieve a similiar flavor. So i guess my main question is should i do a decoction? If yes, what temp steps are recommended for a single decoction? If it matters ill be using perle to bitter up to 30ish then .5oz spalter at 20 and 1oz spalter at flameout then going straight to chilling fermenting with the whitelabs kolsch yeast and lagering from mid-july until mid-sept. Sorry for the wall of text but i am excited to make this beer. Any general altbier advice is also appreciated!
We had the honor of having the Branch & Bone Artisan Ale’s crew out to our Såinnhus yesterday. This beer has officially been dubbed “Branch & Stone”.
We brewed a double decocted Märzen using hot stones to mash/decoction and direct wood fire in a copper kettle to boil.
Sugar Creek Malt Co. 58.3% Munich 25% Vienna 16.7% Pilsner 28 IBU Saaz Bayern Yeast from Omega
Mash: 122* - 138* - 158*
Hot stones were used to heat up the Strike water. Doug he’s in at 122f. After about 15 min we transferred about two gallons of mash into a second pot, added hot stones for 15 min. Returned back. Related this step again which brought us up to 158f.
After lautering we transferred to a copper kettle and boiled over a wood fire.
After primary fermentation it will be racked into a wooden barrel lined with pitch. It will lager in that until September.
The day was equal parts relaxing/epic. They brought out some beautiful beer to drink. Everything went smooth minus some missing arm hair.
One thing I’ve learned from doing these steinbiers, it’s not about the beer necessarily. It’s about connecting to the past through tradition with great company having good times.
The wort turned out tasting amazing. Now we wait until September!
Cheers!
I've read a quite a few home-brew books and many books on historical brewing practices but for the life of me I can't find any mention of a technique like this. I'm curious if anyone else does this.
I do a lot of mixed-fermentation brewing and I'm always interested in having a complex array of sugars available for yeast and bugs to chew on. The sacch strain(s) in my house saison culture (I have no idea what's in there, it's a hodgepodge of commercially available strains and bottle dregs) is especially aggressive and will easily cut through anything in its wake; I've experienced it taking an all-grain wort at 1.070(+) down to 1.005 in 3 days. In order to ensure that there's something left for the other critters (brett and the like) during long fermentations I do a step mash but I ALSO continue to sparge (I BIAB) into a secondary vessel after I've hit my target volume for the boil. I then boil this excess down to a heavily caramelized syrup (I'll take a gallon down to a quart or less) and add that to my kettle towards the end of the boil in the primary vessel. This technique seems especially effective at extending my fermentations and making the sacch strain reaaally work, in turn generating some yeast character I find especially desirable. I also feel it helps with mouthfeel and head retention. I adjust my hopping rate in the primary vessel to account for the additional volume introduced at the end of the boil.
This of course has the added bonus of increasingly my efficiency (dramatically) but that's not really why I'm doing it. Clearly I'm not short on time (lol) and I'm not as concerned about my gas bill as I should be.
This isn't a decoction mash but rather a 'decoction boil'? I feel as if I may have read about a similar practice in producing big English barleywines back in the day but I can't remember where I read it.
So, I tried blue lotus in several ways, so far I liked a lotus whine best. on daily basis I regualrly smoke it, but now I want to try to make a decoction, I tried it once already with some guide I found online, but it doesent work that well, almost felt nothing. Have u guys experience in making a decoction? Do I have to let it soak for a whole night or something for example? Or do any of you know a good guide I can use? Thank you
i have been playing enhanced edition for a bit now, got a sizaeable part of the game done and its great, HOWEVER, in white orchard i bought some food recipes from an inn keeper and since then have not seen any others for sale, also and more importantly i have bought recipes for decoctions and read books, yet i cant seem to find out how to make them.
Am i missing files or something? where are my food recipes and decoctions? for food, all i know it fried meat, 2 stews and some other stuff.
Is this a known bug? It keeps happening across saves. I literally can't have grills in my games anymore, because my guests keep using them to make herbal remedies. It's getting really annoying.
I keep seeing conflicting information about which skills decoctions do count towards toxicity-wise, and would like to know before I commit to a build. Any help would be appreciated!
So in Blood of Elves, after torturing the Mhyrman, Geralt gulps down a decoction before facing Rience. It is described as allowing him to hear better and see in the dark (Cat Potion?) But also that it makes him extremely aggressive and goes into a kill frenzy, actually enjoying the fight. What sort of potion would make Geralt not want to fight because under its effects he "was sure to kill them all"?
Have checked both the chest south of Ransacked Village in White Orchard and Drahim Castle and no luck. Also can’t find it at any herbalist. Is it just pure RNG?
Just come back from the allotment with a sack full of bay leaves. I’d like to extract essential oil from them, but I haven’t got the kit to steam distil. I got to thinking, if I was boiling up a chicken carcass, I’d simmer it for a few hours, sieve the solids out, then let it cool and I’d get a layer of stock with a layer of fat floating on top. Would I get the same result if I simmered my bay leaves - a tea with a thin layer of oil floating on top. At first I thought that the compounds in the oil might suffer with too much heat, but steam is the same temperature as boiling water, although I guess duration of heat may problematic. Anyone care to comment?
We're about to brew up our second only lager. Our first one was a test batch with locally malted grain in collaboration with the maltster. We did a three step mash per request of the malt master. We've never run any Decoctions.
I was planning a Pils and I have good friends at a much smaller brewery who decoct and sweat by it.
I run a 30bbl brewhouse with a separate mash mixer, so I could very well decoct our pilsner but, I'll be using Briess Pilsen so I'm wondering if I should even bother, or go with a step mash?
My goal for the final product is crisp, on the dryer side, high heat retention. And as far as I understand decoctions, you get some melanoidan from the Decoctions, but Decoctions were mostly a necessity due to undermodified malts.
Toss in some melanoidan?
I know decoctions last longer and are more powerful but reading about them in the wiki I saw this which I don´t fully understand.
"Decoctions do not raise your toxicity level, but rather take up an amount of space on your toxicity bar." I cannot fully understand what that means."
Can someone explain what that means exactly?
Thanks a lot
