Brewing with babies

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mdawson9

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Got your attention? My wife and I brought home kids 3 and 4 about 6 weeks ago. Trying to figure out how to keep the pipeline going with very limited time. I have adopted the no chill method (only waiting 4 hours or so and still use immersion chiller). My question is, can I steep the night before and do the boil in the morning.
That would help a lot. Any other ideas?
And I'm an all extract plus grains brewer.
Thanks !
 
You should be fine steeping the night before. You only need to worry about infection after the boil.
 
Bot so fast!

Grain has a lot of bacteria on it, and if you don't heat it up above a certain temperature (I'm not sure what it is) and kill the bacteria, the bacteria can go crazy in the nice warm incubator you have made for it, making lots of undesirable products; one that comes to mind is Lactbacilluis which is often used to sour beers like Berliner Weisse, and is one of the souring organisms in Lambics..

After steeping raise the temp until about to boil, cover and leave alone and you should be good.
 
Calder said:
Bot so fast!

Grain has a lot of bacteria on it, and if you don't heat it up above a certain temperature (I'm not sure what it is) and kill the bacteria, the bacteria can go crazy in the nice warm incubator you have made for it, making lots of undesirable products; one that comes to mind is Lactbacilluis which is often used to sour beers like Berliner Weisse, and is one of the souring organisms in Lambics..

After steeping raise the temp until about to boil, cover and leave alone and you should be good.

I would do that but the first thing I will be doing in the morning is add water and boil. You are saying that this wouldn't kill the bad by products right?
 
Alternatively, you can just toss the steeping grains in cold water in the morning. In the time it takes to go from room temp to 170 on the stove, you just steep away. Just pull them before you hit 170 and you are fine. You gotta bring the water up to temp anyway, so it doesn't add any time to you brewday.
 
billl said:
Alternatively, you can just toss the steeping grains in cold water in the morning. In the time it takes to go from room temp to 170 on the stove, you just steep away. Just pull them before you hit 170 and you are fine. You gotta bring the water up to temp anyway, so it doesn't add any time to you brewday.

That's what I have been doing but I'm having issues with bland/lack of malt flavor. I was planning to really steep at 155 for a full 30 minutes and sparge to see if that helps.
 
I would do that but the first thing I will be doing in the morning is add water and boil. You are saying that this wouldn't kill the bad by products right?

If you don't raise the temperature after steeping, the lactobacillus will start creating lactic acid. Boiling will kill the Lactobacillus, but will not drive off any acid it may have created in the mean time. If you leave the wort overnight (between steeping and brewing) and don't kill the lactobacillus (and other bacteria), any by-products they create will become part of the final product.
 
Calder said:
If you don't raise the temperature after steeping, the lactobacillus will start creating lactic acid. Boiling will kill the Lactobacillus, but will not drive off any acid it may have created in the mean time. If you leave the wort overnight (between steeping and brewing) and don't kill the lactobacillus (and other bacteria), any by-products they create will become part of the final product.

Got it. Thanks! I raised the temp up to just under boiling (200 ish), turned the heat off and covered.
 
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