Drawbacks to a long mash, 8+ hours?

I was planning on brewing when I get home from work tonight and to cut down on time I've contemplated mashing before I go to work and then finishing up when I get home. I have a cooler mash tun so I would guess it would hold temps reasonable well over the day. I'm brewing a cascadian dark ale so I want a relatively dry overall beer. Is this going to end up giving me too dry of a beer with too little body?

Unless you have some sort of auto heating setup I see no way of holding a mash for 8 hours above temps that would cause souring. I would put the brew day off until you have the amount of time needed to do it. Things can and will start growing in your mash tun if you let them sit long enough.

A lot of folks mash overnight. If you keep the temps up (some folks wrap a sleeping bag around the cooler for extra temp holding, or set it near the waterheater or the furnace to help maintian the temps.)

Permo gives some good info for overnight mashing.

permo said:

I have moved almost exclusively to overnight mashing, it's great. I do however adjust my mash temps up to help create a less fermentable wort in beer that I want some body in. I am using this is a guideline

150 - kolsch, tripel, etc.etc...where the drier the better
153 - IPA, high attenuation desired but not crazy!
155 - standard mash temp for balanced beer
157 - beers where I want less attenuation

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Perhaps im not insulating enough but I can't see my mas tun holding for 8 hours.

FuelshopMcgee said:

Perhaps im not insulating enough but I can't see my mas tun holding for 8 hours.

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In most of the threads discussing this where folks have done it and measured the temp loss it's been only a few degrees.

But that's why wrapping them, putting it near a heat source or even setting them on an electric heating pad or blanket would greatly help even the cheapest cooler.

I'm thinking its been damn near 100 in my garage during the day so I'll let it sit wrapped in a blanket or sleeping back til tonight. Hmmm its the round cooler type and usually maintains temps really well. I think Ill give it a shot and see how it goes. Thanks for the info Revvy.

Mash sitting at 153 degrees and wrapped in a sleeping bag. Now time for work and then we'll see how well the temp holds during the day!

Mr_Pear said:

Mash sitting at 153 degrees and wrapped in a sleeping bag. Now time for work and then we'll see how well the temp holds during the day!

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I overnight mash all the time. You are in for an increase in efficiency and a very dry cascadian dark ale.

I have overnight mashed many of my pilsners, for an ale that you want body to such as this, I would mash in about 158 then have a fair amount of crystal in it to keep the dextrin levels fairly high.
I see you mashed in already, so I am sure its all good.

Well dry is good, hopefully its not too dry though. I only have 1/2 lbs of crystal but I also have like 3 lbs of munich so I'm hoping there is some good malt sweetness in there.

Weee just got home and checked the temp. Down from 153 to 140, pretty good for sitting for 10 1/2 hours! Now time to finish!!!

So??? How'd it go?

I think I may try this method soon. Sounds intriging. I'd rather spend an hour in the morning setting up and starting the mash and then finishing it after work than the whole shebang after work.

I have followed a lot of brewers threads on doing this exact process and they seem to have results no different than standard 1 hour mashing.

Keep us updated, one more positive post on this subject might put me over the edge and try it.

Nice!! I had no idea you could mash for that long....great to know if I'm ever in a pinch!

It went really well. Super good conversion, as expected, sparge and everything went well. I started my boil and I dunno if it had anything to do with the mashing or maybe just the environmental conditions but I didn't have to battle a possible boil over with a spray bottle as long as I usually have to baby sit it. Let's see I used fresh hops so getting my wort into the fermenter caused some issues but again not anything to do with the mash. I pitched a healthy dose of Pacman yeast last night (well technically this morning) at 2am. When I woke up and checked on it at 7am it was already bubbling away. Decided before I left for work I decided to trade out my air lock for a blow off tube. I plugged my numbers in and had a slight increase in overall efficiency, up from my normal 75%ish to 78%. I think had I boiled off more and not added a lil water pre boil it would of been even higher. Now just have to wait a few weeks to see how it tastes!!

Here is the base recipe that I used for my attempt at a Cascadian Dark Ale.

OG is going to be 1.068 and est FG 1.014 for ~7%
SRM 31.8

4 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 29.6 %
4 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 29.6 %
3 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 22.2 %
8.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.7 %
1 lbs Chocolate Wheat Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 5 7.4 %
1 lbs Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4 7.4 %

Hops-Originally I planned on using some Nugget hops that a coworker had grown and harvested but when I pulled them out to use they smelled a lil off and I wasn't sure if they were completely dried when he gave them to me so I tossed them and used some Amarillo I had.

Ended up going with

.75oz FWH Amarillo
.50oz 60 min Amarillo
5oz 20min fresh Cascade hops
5oz 5min fresh Cascade hops
7oz 0min fresh Cascade hops
.75oz 0min Amarillo hops

Wow so 13 deg temp drop in 10 1/2 hours. That is pretty awesome. I could see this working well where I can stay up late on a friday mash over night and wake up early and start the mashout/sparge and boil first thing Saturday.

Yeah, I had all my water pre-measured so when I got home just started the burner and got to it. So hopefullly it tastes good and it might be something I use in the future!