I have been reading where some brewers do there mash say in an evening and brew the next day. Is this possible? And if so are there any special precautions to take? Thanks…
I’ve done it. Drain and cover it and keep it cool. I was actually talking to a Brewer this weekend who said he let a beer mash overnight and drained and brewed in the morning. I don’t know if I would try that.
My biggest concern would be losing enough heat to where the mash could start to sour. Then some bad things start happening. If you can keep the wort over 140°F or so, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue, but you’ll have a highly fermentable wort.
I believe Brewers who mash one day and boil the next run off and bring the wort to 170°-175° to pasteurize. They cover it immediately so it won’t sour.
But, if you have to go to this extent why not just add a couple more hours and complete the brew.
I overnight mash all time. I don’t runoff until the next morning though. There’s two scenarios where I use it, 1) you want a very fermentable wort. In this case I just mash in around 154 and leave it overnight, it’s usually in the mid to low 40’s the next morning (helps to have a full mashtun). 2) On smaller grain bills, where I have enough room in the tun, I’ll mash in and let it sit an hour, then do a mashout to get the temp to 165 or so, then leave that overnight. Works well for me and helps break up the brewday. Never had one go sour on me yet.
Interesting, I do get to bed early most nights and that may be a great way to git r dun earlier the next day… Sneezles61
That sounds like a recipe for a shitty tasting beer to me? Did he sound like he knew what he was doing? I would think that could introduce a lot of off flavours.
He mentioned a lot of things that I wouldn’t do. But who am I to say. Never tasted his beer.
what about it would cause off flavors? its nothing more than a long mash.
I would think letting it sit in the mash tun for 10 hours or more would cause issues if the temperature were to drop below 120° which would be pretty easy.
Wort bacteria will quickly begin growing if the wort temperature falls into the 120 ° range. Lactobacillus and other bacteria are prevalent in wort and can lead to some nasty off-flavors.
As long at the temp stays in the 140 or so range I guess it would be o.k. but I can almost guarantee your temp is going to drop that low unless you have one of those Yeti coolers. Then you’d have sour mash 
I believe he said it was a wheat beer with 80% wheat. He told me the temperature it was in the morning but I can’t recall.
If temps drop into bacteria range, yeah, you’ve got problems, but I’ve done it probably close to 40 times, using my coleman xtreme cooler with no other special precautions and I’ve never gotten up in the morning to find the temp below 140. I’m usually letting it sit 8-10 hours and usually find temps 10-12 degrees below where they started. To date, I’ve noticed no difference in quality between beers that I brewed all at once and ones that I let mash overnight.
OK, so it can be done but is there any benefit ?
The main benefit to me is that it increases convenience without detracting from quality.
