Doing a Kolsch tomorrow and debating wether I want to do a step mash or not. I have never done one before, so didn’t know if it was worth my effort. Thoughts?
If you don’t know why you’re doing it, you don’t need it! To be a bit less flippant, though, it depends on what the steps are and what you want to accomplish. If you’re talking about a protein rest step, I’d skip it. Really not necessary with the highly modified malts we have. If you’re talking about beta and alpha rest steps, I’d say it’s a tossup. I have yet to convince myself that doing that makes my beer better. I still sometimes do a 145/158 step mash to see if I’m missing anything, bout so far I haven’t found any improvements in it.
+1
I have tried multiple strategies with rests and decoctions… never been able to tell a difference or brew a better beer as a result. I just go single infusion now. Many experienced and highly successful homebrewers (like Denny) have written about, and spoke (podcasts) about this same thing.
Thanks! Good to know. I kinda figured that would be the case.
