I havent brewed a lager in nearly 20 years and I’ve NEVER done a decoction mash.  

Why am I doing this might you ask?  One only needs to look at my brew log (<–Click on the link) to see that I’m somewhat in a rut.  I brew a LOT of hefeweizen.  I went through a pound of Halertauer Hersbrucker Hops last year and a couple hundred pounds of wheat malt.

One of my favorite bottled beers is Samuel Adams Boston Lager.  I had found a recipe a few years back that was simple, all two row with Crystal 60L and a simple hop schedule consisting of Tettnager and Halertauer Nobel Hops.  The only problem with the recipe was the mash, it was a triple decoction.

Decoction mashing is done by removing a portion of the grist from the mash tun, bringing it to a boil and then returning it back to the main mash.  A triple decoction is doing that three times for three different temperature steps.  I’ll use my RIMS to help hold the temperatures between steps.

It takes some extra equipment to do a decoction.  I’ve purchased an extra five gallon stainless pot for boiling the decoction, a one quart ladle to pull the decoctions out of the main mash, and a 5 liter Erlenmeyer flask to make a huge lager yeast starter.

We’ll see how it turns out!