Reaching the Boiling Point: Decoction at Home

Brewing is the art of combining the right ingredients with the right process!

When preparing to brew historic or authentic recipes, a lot of homebrewers bend backwards when it comes to ingredients. They harvest original yeast from bottles, buy grain malted on a small scale, and grow hops in their backyards. But then they often shy away from using decoction. Why?

Many homebrewers see decoction as an outdated concept, not worth the effort and much too complex for at-home use, but these prejudices couldn’t be further from reality. This seminar shows that homebrewers are absolutely capable of using a decoction mash at home. Speaker Jan Brücklmeier will demonstrate modern twists on decoction mashing, making the process very easy to do.

Learning Objectives

• Learn the basics of decoction, including the history and concept
• Understand the parameters and their influence on the beer, including number of decoctions, rest temperature, rest duration and boiling duration of decoction, decoction thickness, and grain vs. worth
• Discuss classical decoction mashing schedules and which schedule delivers which type of beer
• Make your way through how to plan for a decoction mash and do the math
• Learn Earl’s decoction mash for homebrewing, a modern, simple process

About the Speaker

Born and raised in Munich, half a mile away from Oktoberfest and the Augustiner brewery, and with one grandmother in the beer business and the other a former pub owner, Jan Brücklmeier’s destiny was almost predetermined. He brewed his first batch of beer in the late 1980s and made his passion a profession when he studied brewing sciences and beverage technologies at the world-famous beer university, Weihenstephan, from which he holds a master’s degree. Jan has written two books about homebrewing and beer.