Decoction SMaSH micro batches: A day of firsts

[Hopelesst]

My second batch is fermenting away in the basement and my mind is running wild with all the thins I want to do. I figured I could combine a few of them to get it out of my system while learning a lot.

I want to play with SMaSH brewing to learn about malt and profiles. I also want to try decoction mashing to see if it's something I enjoy or something I'll swear off after the first try. And finally I want to continue building small batch and BiaB experience so that my I can start to streamline my process.

Does it sound like a good idea to stove-top-decoction a wort, split it into two one gallon batches, boil each with a separate hop and ferment in glass jugs?

I have a few noob questions.
1) My recipe math seems like I've got too much grain going in the beer. Lets say I want to end with gallons of 1.050 wort from munic malt. That means I need a total of 100 points. If my efficiency is 70% and the grain gives me 33 ppg I'll actually get 23 ppg from them (33 x 70% = 23.1). In order to hit my gravity I'd need 4.35# of munich (100 points total \ 23 ppg). Am I doing this right?

2) I was thinking of using munich because it's a grain that could benefit from the decoction mash and because I have no idea what german beers taste like. I was thinking of doing one of the batches with Tettnang and one with Saaz to get familiar with classic euro hops (I was gonna do three equal additions, @60, 30, and 10 to get a feel for the bittering and the aroma). Do these sound like decent combinations?

 

[Draken]

My second batch is fermenting away in the basement and my mind is running wild with all the thins I want to do. I figured I could combine a few of them to get it out of my system while learning a lot.

I want to play with SMaSH brewing to learn about malt and profiles. I also want to try decoction mashing to see if it's something I enjoy or something I'll swear off after the first try. And finally I want to continue building small batch and BiaB experience so that my I can start to streamline my process.

Does it sound like a good idea to stove-top-decoction a wort, split it into two one gallon batches, boil each with a separate hop and ferment in glass jugs?

I have a few noob questions.
1) My recipe math seems like I've got too much grain going in the beer. Lets say I want to end with gallons of 1.050 wort from munic malt. That means I need a total of 100 points. If my efficiency is 70% and the grain gives me 33 ppg I'll actually get 23 ppg from them (33 x 70% = 23.1). In order to hit my gravity I'd need 4.35# of munich (100 points total \ 23 ppg). Am I doing this right?

2) I was thinking of using munich because it's a grain that could benefit from the decoction mash and because I have no idea what german beers taste like. I was thinking of doing one of the batches with Tettnang and one with Saaz to get familiar with classic euro hops (I was gonna do three equal additions, @60, 30, and 10 to get a feel for the bittering and the aroma). Do these sound like decent combinations?

Sounds like beer. I can't comment on the hops as I am still learning those myself, but your math is dead on for the amount of grain. I would suggest having a pound of Munich dme on hand in case you miss your gravity on the mash and need a boost.

There is a great graph here:
http://www.brewsupplies.com/_borders/hopsgraph.jpg
I would use it to help determine how many IBUs you want to end up with based on the style beer your looking for.

I have also been thinking about doing a decoction. How many steps are you aiming for?

 

[Hopelesst]

I have also been thinking about doing a decoction. How many steps are you aiming for?

I wanted to do the classic 3 step decoction for my first go for two reasons. First, it gives me one more decoction's worth of experience than the modern two stage schedules. And secondly because it'll exaggerate the time required for the technique and give me an idea of whether it's something I think will be worth all the effort down the road.

And thanks for that chart! I have been pretty lost on how to decide my own bitterness levels without a recipe to pull from but haven't thought to go looking for a chart. That's gonna be very helpful as a reference!