Has anyone done a mash after work and boiled the next morning because there was a lack of time
to get it done? My garage will be 30*-40* overnite and was thinking I could wrap the top portion
of the kettle and the lid with plastic wrap and finish in the morning. I’ve got 3 more brews I want to get going on and my next couple of weekends are tied up. I’d also be looking at- mash one nite and
brew the next nite. I’d sure welcome some advise about this.
And thanks to Denny for the mash tun titorial! Mine worked great!!
I have not, but a member of my brew club just posted about this. He did. He says it worked out fine and hit his normal efficiency. I have no idea if any problems could occur from such a prolonged mash though. Hopefully others can chime in.
Sorry guys, what I meant to say was “could I mash and collect my wort one night and finish
the next morning or next night with the boil”. Or would I still be looking at a souring problem
with those temps?
True, but you’d still want to cool quickly to cut down the possibility of new bacteria growth in that prime growing area (90-140F I believe) and if you’re gonna do that you might as well get your hour boil in and just finish it all at once. No way I would mash, bring to a boil, cool, bring to a boil again the next day and cool again. Seems like a lot of wasted time/energy. I do know people will mash in at night and let the entire mash sit over night. Covered well. I thought that’s what the OP was asking.
[quote=“AL_Richard”]Sorry guys, what I meant to say was “could I mash and collect my wort one night and finish
the next morning or next night with the boil”. Or would I still be looking at a souring problem
with those temps?[/quote]
I highly doubt it’d be sour to the point that you’d notice, if at all. Souring bacteria, even at their desired temperature range, take quite a while to do any major damage. It may affect the flavor profile very slightly, but a vigorous boil and a healthy ferment would most likely cover up any potential problems.
I have done this exact same thing several times (plastic wrap and lid and all) just like you describe.
You have a slightly longer mash as the wort cools overnight, creating a drier beer than you might get otherwise.
It worked out about 7 times and didn’t work out once. One time, in the heat of summer, I got up the next day and the wort had krausen on it already… 10 gallons was infected and ruined.
I haven’t done it since. I think you will probably be okay in the winter though. I might try it again in the cold winter months.
True, but you’d still want to cool quickly to cut down the possibility of new bacteria growth in that prime growing area (90-140F I believe) and if you’re gonna do that you might as well get your hour boil in and just finish it all at once. No way I would mash, bring to a boil, cool, bring to a boil again the next day and cool again. Seems like a lot of wasted time/energy. I do know people will mash in at night and let the entire mash sit over night. Covered well. I thought that’s what the OP was asking.[/quote]
Eh, I know someone that dumps his hot wort into kegs and lets them sit for weeks before pitching yeast (even lagers). I don’t see a difference in putting a lid on and letting it cool naturally.
Thanks for the replies. I was also thinking that if I brought it to a boil I should just
go ahead and finish it. I want to clarify that I don’t think that it is wrong or a bad
suggestion from Nighthawk, just that it probably take me to late into the night.
I’ve got something to think about in the duck blind this weekend. Thanks again!
True, but you’d still want to cool quickly to cut down the possibility of new bacteria growth in that prime growing area (90-140F I believe) and if you’re gonna do that you might as well get your hour boil in and just finish it all at once. No way I would mash, bring to a boil, cool, bring to a boil again the next day and cool again. Seems like a lot of wasted time/energy. I do know people will mash in at night and let the entire mash sit over night. Covered well. I thought that’s what the OP was asking.[/quote]
Eh, I know someone that dumps his hot wort into kegs and lets them sit for weeks before pitching yeast (even lagers). I don’t see a difference in putting a lid on and letting it cool naturally.[/quote]
Take a cooking class sometime that talks about sanitation and bacteria growth. What you talk about isn’t good practice. It’s not opinion. It’s fact.
Ive used the “mash tonight, let cool, boil tomorrow” method for three brews now; it is nice to break up my day…i’ll have to report back in on the end results, but everything seemed to go just fine.
no plastic wrap, just my boil kettle with it’s fitting lid, cooling over night after bringing to a boil.
it’s been nice to start the actual brew at 11am and be done with cleaning and everything by 1 or so, giving me time for the rest of my weekend
My last batch I started heating my mash water at around 8 to 8:30, started my mash at around 9pm, sparging and run off complete at around 11pm. Covered the kettle up and wheeled all the components back into the garage and cleaned up the mash tun and all. Went to bed around midnight and woke up at 6am to fire up the boil. Wort was still sitting at around 125 or so…brought it a boil and completed my brew day by 9:30 to 10 with chilling and pitching and everything. I guess if I get any problems I will let you know but so far it tastes great yesterday when I transferred to the secondary.
I had a discussion over the weekend with a fellow homebrewer who argued over and over that I was losing gravity points this way and that wild yeasts and whatever would get in and infect my beer. My response to that was that I would be boiling the liquid anyway thereby killing anything that got into my wort and I would also be concentrating the wort thru boiling so 1 or 2 gravity points weren’t going to matter anyway. I dont think that the approx 6 hrs of time between my run-off and the start of my boil the next morning gives anything much of a chance to ruin the batch.
[quote=“mtodd”]I had a discussion over the weekend with a fellow homebrewer who argued over and over that I was losing gravity points this way…[/quote]How, exactly? It’s the same wort either way.
His argument was that any wild yeast or bacteria that got in there would start eating sugars right away and that would cause me to lose gravity points. My thinking was that anything that had a chance to get in there only had about 6 hrs to work on stuff and that I wasn’t worried about the little amount that those wild yeasts may consume in 6 hrs.
Even if that happened, which is extremely unlikely, you wouldn’t “lose” any more gravity points than you would through a normal fermentation…which is none! The OG will remain the same.
How do you figure? It sounds like what he’s talking about (pouring near-boiling wort into a sealed container) is pasteurization. That’s not only good practice, it’s the standard for the entire food and beverage industry.
How do you figure? It sounds like what he’s talking about (pouring near-boiling wort into a sealed container) is pasteurization. That’s not only good practice, it’s the standard for the entire food and beverage industry.[/quote]
The OP mentions nothing about a “sealed container”. So I’m not sure what you’re talking about.
So yes, if someone wanted to mash and boil the wort for a few minutes to kill any bacteria, then pour the hot wort into a sanitized, air tight, sealed contained I guess that would work just fine. But I don’t think that’s what we were talking about. And again, why go through all that work just to get the cold wort back up to a boil again the next day? You’re already 75% done. Why not just finish the boil at that point?
