Just want to get other more experienced homebrewers’ advice…
Because of limited time I will usually mash/sparge one day and boil/pitch the next day. Never seem to have any issues with it. This week I am thinking about mashing on day one and brewing on day three and keeping the collected wort in the fridge inbetween.
Any problems with this?
You will need to at least bring the wort to 180-190 degrees for several minutes to stop enzyme action and kill souring organisms.
I had extra some time so I put 2 qts of boiled wort in a steralized container and put it in the fridge to use for a starter. 2 days later I went to use it and it smelled very sour so I tossed it. I think even with a steralized container there are organisms in the air that can start to grow.
I would be interested in knowing if you get this to work or not.
I’ve done the following about 6 times in the last 6 months with no noticeable problems: Mash/run-off late afternoon or evening, put the wort (~15 gals) into a brute barrel in a walk-in cooler at around 8 or 9 pm, then start the boil the next morning at 8 or 9am. Never heated to 180F as majorvices suggests, and never had any souring or weirdness. Wort temp in the morning usually high 30s.
But you want to do a longer pause in the action, and it might still work, if you can get the wort temp down below 40F where bacterial growth is greatly inhibited (although not completely stopped). I certainly wouldn’t leave the wort at 65F or 85F.
Thanks all. I decided to just do what I have done in the past which is pretty much what redzim describes.
Sorry, makemehoppy, I won’t have anything to report back on this time. If I ever do try it I will post about it.
I did a 7 day brew-I had 2 gal of final runnings that sat in a stainless kettle for a couple days, I decided I’d put in a Z of Mt Hood and boiled it to get to 1.40 then I pitched the last of my 3846 slurry to see what would happen. The runnings are from Fred’s Dubbel recipee.
That is more of a junk yard brew than a delayed boil.
You could also do an overnight mash and eliminate some of the cooling/ reheating and moving stuff around.
i’ve a friend who often overnight mashes and all his beers end up overattenuating…
Might be good for Belgians!
I’m finishing up a strong ale this morning I mashed yesterday. I simply ran out of time and didn’t want to spend another 2 hours boiliing and chilling, pitching etc. When I do this I always raise the temp up to at least 180 to stop enzyme conversion and then turn off and cover up. Never had an issue doing this and it beats running around at 11:00 PM at night trying to finish up a beer.
That’s what he does not do and I think its the key to being able to overnight mash.
Just to clarify, I run off into the boil kettle and then raise the temp. I don’t overnight mash.
I thought about that and added some flaked oats to the mash in my overnight mash hoping it helps a little with that. :-\
i’ll have to mention that to him (running off to BK and raising temp) - perhaps that will help his situation.
I he doing a mash out?
Its a must for over night mashing.
I’ve wrapped my cooler up in sleeping bags and the temp was still 145 (from 151) in the AM
A point or two difference in attenuation but nothing I would consider detrimental.
Dextrine malt might be a better solution.
he didn’t say - when I mentioned the tips I read in this thread, he told me he’s convinced himself its not the time saver he thought it was and has resorted back to a normal continuous brew session.
I find you actually spend more time since you have to heat up all the liquor again, where its probably at 150-160 already when you sparge into the kettle.
I have overnight mashed before, but I won’t do a 2 day brew. It seems to take me another 1-2 hours when you break up the day like that.
The longest I have gone between mash and boil is about 3-4 hours. On big brew day in May I heat up my mash
water and start the mash load everying into the truck and hit the road. En route mash! Get there set up heat
batch sparge and go…I have contemplated the overnight but always just defer to the loss of heat between steps. It
may allow for two shorter brew sessions but higher cost in the long run as onthekeg pointed out…