Time gap between sparging and boiling

Hello HBT, I'm proud to be making my first post on this excellent site.

Im a newby, about to start my 4 th all grain batch tomorrow, a nut brown ale. The question I have is that I will have to split the time due to a family commitment. I am wondering if there is any negative to doing the mash, sparging ect and then just letting the wort sit for an hour of so before boiling it? My logic says no, but my logic is uniformed and inexperienced lol. And advise, should I do it,or wait till another day when I can do it all together?

Thanks all, I've been reading a bunch here and happy to start contributing.

Cheers

I have never done it myself but have herd of people mashing and doing the boil a day later. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/letting-wort-sit-overnight-127806/

I've mashed all day while at work and came home sparged and then boiled with no ill effects.

Okay sounds good. Unless anyone else chimes in saying bad idea, I'll go ahead. Thanks for the advise guys

Good luck, and welcome to HBT

I know of a couple people that mash at night and brew in the morning after their kids leave for school. Or whenever. You're going to boil away any nasties that try and get in.

Another note...people that have a stuck mash for whatever reason, can be draining their mush tuns for well over an hour from what I have herd/seen.

One thing to note is that enzymatic action continues to occur, which will make your mash more fermentable the longer it sits. If you're brewing a stout, you may not want that.

I guess you need to define what you would consider a negative impact. A longer mash will ensure maximum conversion. You will also go through a range of decreasing temps and that will increase fermentability. For some styles, that might be a big plus. If you are brewing a Mild, that might not be what you are looking for.

Thanks all for the replies,

Maybe I didn't explain correctly, what I was planning on doing is mashing, then sparging, draining everything into the boil kettle and then leave it in there for an hour or two before boiling.

I assume there will be no problem with that based on what has been said in the comments?

Are you going to mash out? If you get your sparge water hot enough to raise the grain temp to 170+, that should halt any enzymatic activity and then your only concern is sanitation. If your sparge water isn't hot enough, the wort will continue to get more fermentable.

danielbt said:

Are you going to mash out? If you get your sparge water hot enough to raise the grain temp to 170+, that should halt any enzymatic activity and then your only concern is sanitation. If your sparge water isn't hot enough, the wort will continue to get more fermentable.

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Not necessarily, if he's batch sparging and not using a mash out he would have to raise the temp of all the wort collected or conversion would continue in the boil pot. Raising the temp over 170 for the sparge would halt conversion for in the mash tun but that might not raise the total wort collected high enough.

Okay this is more along the lines of what I was wondering, as I never thought of the conversion continuing in the kettle and putting a halt to any enzymatic activity, glad to have learned that.

I was going to do a double batch sparge, should I do a mash out first, then batch sparge, then just cover it with the lid and some plastic wrap? Then again this is pre boil so I should have to be concerned with infection or anything right?

Great advise, I'm glad I asked.

Tombstone0 said:

Not necessarily, if he's batch sparging and not using a mash out he would have to raise the temp of all the wort collected or conversion would continue in the boil pot. Raising the temp over 170 for the sparge would halt conversion for in the mash tun but that might not raise the total wort collected high enough.

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Right, mashing out was the context the rest of my post was referring to. I should have been more clear though, thanks.

BlackPriest said:

I was going to do a double batch sparge, should I do a mash out first, then batch sparge, then just cover it with the lid and some plastic wrap? Then again this is pre boil so I should have to be concerned with infection or anything right?

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Yup, mash out, then sparge. The only infection you might worry about is lacto, as that could sour the wort. Pretty unlikely though, as the mash-out temps should kill most bugs.

Done deal, many thanks. Out of curiousity what happens if the conversion is allowed to continue unchecked? I tried a google search but the second result is this thread ha ha, woo hoo, my first time on google lol

Oh, and what if time permitting I am able to mash, sparge, get everything into the kettle and turn on the heat to get it to 170 for a while, would that accomplish the same thing? I'm just not going to have enought time to do the mash, sparge, and boil/cool without an hour or two break at some point.

nah, You'll be fine. I do that all the time.

Tombstone0 said:

Not necessarily, if he's batch sparging and not using a mash out he would have to raise the temp of all the wort collected or conversion would continue in the boil pot. Raising the temp over 170 for the sparge would halt conversion for in the mash tun but that might not raise the total wort collected high enough.

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Are you saying that conversion will continue even after the wort is off the grain?
Does this mean that if I drain my first runnings and then hold the temp at say 152 for an additional half hour or so before ramping up to boil I could potentially increase my efficiency? That just doesn't seem right to me.

brewmadness said:

Are you saying that conversion will continue even after the wort is off the grain?

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Yes, conversion will continue if the wort temperatures are within range. For this reason, I would suggest heating the runnings immediately upon reaching the kettle, irregardless of when you plan to boil.

Once off the grain, fermentability will change, not efficiency. Efficiency is total sugars extracted, not types of sugars broken by the enzymes.

I would heat the first wort into the kettle as you are doing the sparge, to try and get the total temp up as high as you can before turning it off. I did this once, had something come up. I had heated the wort over 180 before I shut it off. I was gone for maybe 3 hours, came back and boiled. The cooling had produced some weird break material that was not normal looking, really large flakes of crap. I was a bit concerned. But the beer came out fine and was long ago consumed in its entirety.

I have done this and in fact let the wort sit overnight before boiling, but that's not recommended because you could start to get some spoilage letting it sit that long. I don't think an hour or two would run that kind of risk. Effectively, you are doing a 120 minute rest which may just help your conversion.

Lots of good info here guys,

After considering all the advise I think I will drain everything into the kettle and heat it up, then boil it after I get back. A little bit of extra goop never hurt anyone and that seems the safest bet.

I'll report back if anything interesting happens.