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question on prolonged mash time

Post #1 made 11 years ago
by schlitz
Morning all,
Looking to brew my first heavy this weekend. The Bob's Black Bear IPA sounded really good and I think I'm ready to tackle something with a little "umph" to it that I can let sit in the back of the basement and age. My question is regarding mash time. I normally do a 90 minute mash but I've got an idea on how I can save some time this weekend. I'm committed to attending a middle of the day birthday party on both Sat and Sun which will make it too hard to start a batch in the afternoon. My thought is that I could get the beer going at mash temp then wrap the pot well enough for me to attend the party then do my mashout and boil when I get back. I figure I'll be gone for at least 2-2.5 hrs.
Is this a workable idea or are there too many disadvantages to a prolonged mash.
Thanks,
M
Last edited by schlitz on 20 Feb 2014, 22:04, edited 1 time in total.

Post #2 made 11 years ago
by BobBrews
schlitz,

Some brewers have mashed overnight with no ill effects. They (if memory servers me correctly) wanted to get a early start to a short brew day. They mashed in the evening the day before and let it mash mellow overnight. The only thing that I would say is that. I would crush the dark grains separately if I could and not let them mash too long. Add them to the mash while re-heating the water to mashout temps. The reason being that the pH level is effected by the dark grains and that may draw out some tannins in a longer mash? This is just a guess? No chemistry expert here :roll: .

I spent a lot of time adding dark grains late in the mash to keep them from effecting the pH level so that the regular base grains would have a better environment to convert to sugar. The results were inconclusive because of my poor quality of record keeping and my inability to differentiate between beers. :sneak:
tap 1 Raspberry wine
tap 2 Bourbon Barrel Porter
tap 3 Czech Pilsner
tap 4 Triple IPA 11% ABV
Pipeline: Mulled Cider 10% ABV

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Post #3 made 11 years ago
by Mad_Scientist
I found is quote from Braukaiser.com; "The rest temperatures are commonly between 149 *F (65 *C) and 165 *F (69 *C)."

Maybe start at 165 F with the understanding that it will drop down to 149 F by the time you return back to your brew. :dunno:
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Post #4 made 11 years ago
by PistolPatch
Yeah, starting in the morning and finishing in the arvo is fine.

When this gets extended to overnight mashing, there are two things...

1. Something always nags me on the overnight mashing. I've read a poroblenm with it soemwher but can't remebere where and it was only one person.As Bob said, most people get away with ti fine. At a guess, maybe this one person left it too long and maybe the wort strated fermenting with wild yeast which may have given it a sour taste. No idea though?

2. If left overnight, the energy (gas/electricity) and time you would spend in getting the mash back up to mash temp worries me. I picture the person either raising the bag via a pulley and then adding heat for a long time until they reach mash-out temp. Or, worse still, constantly stirring while heat is applied and the temp gets up to mash-out. But, I have been corrected on this once and I think the brewer was operating in a pretty cold climate. Who knows?

Definitely nothing to worry about between morning and afternoon.

Richard mentioned above about starting mashing high but I think this will cause problems as so much activity occurs first up in the mash that can't be 'reversed,' so just mash in at whatever temp you want the mash to be at.

:peace:
PP
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Post #6 made 11 years ago
by Lars
I've given up on overnight mashes as I found they resulted in thinner beer, fine for some styles but not others. Now I always mash out before bed, pull bag and start boil in the morning. Did a mash last night and was pitching yeast at 9:30 this morning.

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