Pressure cooker decoction

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Alastair70

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Just listened to the BrüLab podcast on the Maillard reaction right after planning a Dopplebock brew with a double decoction mash. Given that decoction is all about promoting melanoidin production via Maillard I started to ponder.
Has anyone done this?
I’m thinking of omitting the melanoidin malt from a small Munich lager brew, adding in a pressure cooker decoction instead and see how it turns out.
I’ll use the yeast cake for the Dopplebock once it’s fermented.
 
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Only one way to find out I suppose 👍I haven't listened to that episode, but a few thoughts on your idea:

I wonder if a pressure cooker would heat intensely enough to generate the maillard reaction you want?

There are 2 schools of thought in recipe design: brew it exactly the same way with the same ingredients (e.g. decoction) to get the same beer OR adjust the ingredients to obtain the same end flavour profile (e.g use melanoidin malt)

I have heard of an alternative technique where you take a portion of just the wort and boil it to reduce it right down, then add that concentrated wort back to the kettle. Never tried it but I am curious... Also I think an extended boil is supposed to do something similar.

Good luck, let us know how you get on if you do try it 🍻
 
It would probably work a bit. But what most people tend not to know is that the Maillard reaction works better at high pH, that is a base environment, ph > 7. If you brew beer well, then the pH of your wort will be around 5.5 cold, and 5.2 hot, and in a pressure cooker, the temperature will be higher, and so your pH will again be lower. So it will not work as well as you would think, except for the temperature of course. I have used my pressure cooker to sterilise around 7 ltr of wort, to then let it cool overnight. Since Maillard reactions add color, I should have noticed that afterwards.

And about decoction for promoting melanoidin production: no, it isn't. Decoction is an old technique to make a multi-step mash, using some simple rules about volume of hot (boiling) mash to increase the temperature of the mash in steps. Originally, the first step at 35° C was to increase the acidity of the mash (well, people didn't know that back then, but someone must have found out that it provided better beer), and more acidity is less Maillard reactions.

The only step which might have been done to improve the color (and possible the taste) was the last, were thin wort was taken, brought to the boil and boiled until the color was slightly darker, and which was then used to mash out.

I have brewed a couple of (blond) beers using a decoction, starting from 45°, to 55°, to 65°. They were still blond. Did they taste better? Difficult to say. I brewed the same beers without decoction, and they were equally well.
 
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