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Are Decocotions Worth It?

Wildrover

Grandmaster Brewer
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In my opinion, yes.  I just put on tap a Hefeweizen where I did a double decocotion.  It was a longer but good brew day.  I actually hit all my numbers and didn't make that much of a mess.  Neither of these things are common when I choose to decoct.  Having said that, the Hefeweizen just has that something in the mouthfeel and flavor that I did not have in the Dunkelweizen I made several months ago where all I did was a step mash. 

The evidence, for me and my system anyway, is overwhelming.  I did a side by side with a store bought Hefe, where I'd bet my next paycheck the brewery does not Decoct and my beer had more character all the way around. 

If you have the time, I'd say go for it, it will be worth it. 
 
I too find a decoction adds something to the overall flavor. 
I am pretty much a newbie with a year of AG BIAB's primarily trying to do German lagers, but I try to do at least one when I can.
Am getting some pretty favorable responses on my lagers.
 
@ Wildrover - To your point regarding commercially decocted hefes, are there any? To my knowledge, not too many commercial breweries (at least the large-scale operations) will go to the trouble of decocting anymore. I just did my first decoction - a hefe, it's still in the primary - and I thought the process was really neat, and will do it again. It doesn't really add that much extra time to your brew day.

I'd love to know if there are commercial examples of a decocted hefe so I could do a side-by-side when mine is ready...
 
I believe the traditional German breweries still decoct the styles that were historically decocted, hefe included. 
 
I use single-step decoction on every batch, regardless of the style. Besides being the easiest way to raise the mash to mash-out temperature with my setup, I think it also adds flavor to the brew.
 
Back when I was habituating over efficiency I used to pull about a gallon of the first runnings off and bring it up to around 170 or so and use it to bring the mash to mash out temp.  This gave me more water to sparge with.  For someone who batch sparges I had crazy efficiency but that, and a few other things I use to do to squeeze every last bit of sugar out of that tun added a lot more time to my brew day than I really wanted.  I'm not sure if it did anything for the beer either?  Probably not as I haven't really noticed much difference in my beer since I've gone to using my first batch sparge round (without having first drained the mash tun) to bring the mash up to mash out temp and then I only have two runnings (much, much quicker). 
 
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