wickman6

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Brewed what I hope to be my house ale this past weekend. I think I'll name it Danger Zone Amber Ale.
First time attempting an overnight mash, ended up being 8 hrs.
Well, my temp dropped from 156 to 130. Hoping it didn't harm anything too much.
The rest went well, up until my I discovered my hose was frozen, rendering the wort chiller useless.
After I parked the kettle in a fresh snow bank, I realized I couldve used the washing machine hookups. Oops!
So, 4 relaxed hours later, she was down to 75 deg. Pitched onto a portion of a s-o4 cake and off she went.
1 hour later, I had a krausen to make other krausens jealous!

I felt like this was my first go at it, most setbacks I've had in one brew.

Pretty anxious to see how the beer tastes! Holding my breath....

This will be my last overnight mash with my current setup, and I'll be sure the hose is ready to go next time!

pinback

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Sounds interesting. I hope it turns put alright. Sounds like even with the setbacks you recovered nicely.

So what does an overnight mash do for the brew? Its a full mash I assume? What kind of MT did you use?

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Stauffbier

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Very interesting! I've never even heard of an overnight mash.. What is the advantage of doing this?
Do you do any kind of sparge or mash out the next day? Or just collect wort and start boiling?

tv187u

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I've been around for a little over a year and haven't heard of the overnight mash... Very interesting idea though. Got any reading info on such?

wickman6

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the only real advantage is that it cuts down on time spent on brew day. however, you dont want the temp to drop as low as mine did.

I knew I would only have a couple hours on sunday to brew, so I started my mash saturday night.

I used my cooler mash tun. I doughed in with 3.5 gallons on a 10 pound grain bill, mixed and closed the lid till morning.
The next morning, I simply started my vorlouf process as if I never left. I sparged as usual, I typically only raise the grain bed to about 165 or so.

I don't worry too much about mash out most times.

Tv, check this out.
Shorten your brew day with overnight mashing | fermentarium

there's also an article in BYO that I read, might try to google it.

I know others have done this, but they kept their mash temps up above the 'Danger Zone' of sub-140 degrees, hence the name of this brew. from what I understand, thats about when the uglies can make themselves known.

johnnybrew

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Seems like your two biggest concerns are fermentability and infection. If your mash spends a lot of time in the 140-150F range you'll get a more fermentable / dryer beer. I'd be more concerned with infection, though.

Here's a link to the BYO article: Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Techniques - Is there any reason you couldn't mash overnight and just sparge in the morning?

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Dan

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I have no proof to quote in backing what I say. However, if you fermented in the highly fermentable range as you did, and your sanitation was (pretty much) spot on. The yeast are going to chow down on the highly fermentable wort you made and beat the other bacteria to the punch. Great experiment, I think you'll be fine and if it doesn't work out, well you'll learn somthing.. Actually either way; successful or not you will learn.

Your wort will be more fermentable, less body, "thinner". You probably know this already.

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Hatchbrew

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Learning opportunites. Not mistakes. Several overnight mashes, due to work schedule. Some great beer. No worries you got it.

JaimeTheLimey

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There was a Beersmith podcast (I think it was Randy Mosher talking) about the overnight mash. He seemed fairly unconcerned with the temp drop. So long as you give it the initial heat it needs for conversion you're good. I would try to get going on it as early as possible the next day though.
Glad it worked out for you. I may have to try this some time.

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erikhild59

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Is that how sour mash is done?