How to split my brew day.

I got a long one coming up with an extended mash and vorlauf and potentially a long boil.

I want to mash and batch sparge on day 1. Boil, chill and pitch day 2.

The question is how to treat the wort for it's overnighter.

So far my thinking is;

boil for 10mins to sanitize wort, pump and Plate chiller
Chill with plate chiller and pump on recirc down to room temp.
Sanitize the pump return, cover with sanitized food wrap held in place with elastic band
Cover the kettle in sanitized food wrap, replace the sanitized kettle lid (belt and braces)
store at room temp overnight.

First I was thinking a simple 10 min boil would suffice but I have since read DMS produced by slow cooling can't be reboiled off unlike DMS produced by the mash or during the boil

I don't want to go to the hassle of transferring the wort to a sanitized fermenter and fridging it (especially since it will extend day 2) but if it really necessary that is an option.

What say you fellow homebrewers?

If you cant handle a 4 hour of brew day just go extract.

id be curious to see the recipe that can't be brewed in one day. Intrigued I am

just to have some useful input. I'd hot pack the wort. fill airtight food grade containers with hot wort and seal. You can keep it like that for months

The batch is likely going to require an extended vorlauf and an additional sparge. Consequently I may have to do a three. Hour boil to hit target gravity.

What about DMS with hotpacking

I'm a little curious as to why the extended vorlauf and sparge is necessary - what benefits do you get from that? It sounds like you only have to do the 3 hour boil because you are adding too much water with the extended sparge...but doesn't that bring up the issue of tannin extraction from the grains?

At any rate, depending on how long your extended mash was going to be, I would just mash overnight and then the next morning pick up where you left off rather than trying to cool everything down and reheat it the next day...I just know for me whenever I try to add in extra steps, I triple my chance of something going wrong.

poptarts said:

If you cant handle a 4 hour of brew day just go extract.

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Well that sure isn't constructive. Just because he doesn't have large chunks of free time doesn't mean there aren't ways to make all grain work. It might not be ideal or what you'd like to do, but there are people who do something similar with good results.

I have time for a normal all grain batch, normally after cleaning up it takes around 4-5 hours. However this is a 1.116 SG beer and from what I have read the only way to reach the target gravity is boiling down a large volume of lower gravity wort, this will extend my boil time by several hours. Likewise I will need to increase vorlauf to get decent extraction from my grain bed.

poptarts said:

If you cant handle a 4 hour of brew day just go extract.

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That isn't helping...

Queequeg said:

I have time for a normal all grain batch, normally after cleaning up it takes around 4-5 hours. However this is a 1.116 SG beer and from what I have read the only way to reach the target gravity is boiling down a large volume of lower gravity wort, this will extend my boil time by several hours. Likewise I will need to increase vorlauf to get decent extraction from my grain bed.

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If your mash tun is full then yes, that's probably the way to go but if you have additional room just use more grain or possibly brew a smaller batch size. In January I brewed an RIS that started at 1.101 and used a LOT of grain for a 5 gallon batch but I have 20 gallon kettles so no big deal.

When brewing beers this large remember to lower your efficiency to hit your numbers as well. I calculated my grain bill using 60% and hit the OG right on.

Yeah, a long boil might be necessary. Conversely, there's no shame in some DME to bump it up a tad to hit the 1.16.

I'm not sure how I'd break it up. You could mash overnight, but it's the sparge and boiling that's really taking up all the time here.

It all sounds excessively complex.......I've done several overnight mashes with good results....... sounds like you want to complete the mash the night before......... Just put the wort in the boil kettle and heat it to mash out temp, then float saran wrap right on the wort..... Keep it simple! Nothing dire is going to happen... No need to get extreme with sanitizing........ the mash out temp will kill everything that could create a problem. You're boiling in the morning anyway.


H.W.

Roadie said:

If your mash tun is full then yes, that's probably the way to go but if you have additional room just use more grain or possibly brew a smaller batch size. In January I brewed an RIS that started at 1.101 and used a LOT of grain for a 5 gallon batch but I have 20 gallon kettles so no big deal.

When brewing beers this large remember to lower your efficiency to hit your numbers as well. I calculated my grain bill using 60% and hit the OG right on.

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The batch size is 3 Gallon as opposed to 5. I have lowered my mash efficiency by 10% to around the 60% mark.

I think I'll probably look up overnight mashing and go that route. Its just gonna be a long ass day.

Worked out OK in the end. I mashed overnight and using a combination of my Max cold cooler and a selection of bubble wrap, blankets and quilts managed to lose less than a degree over night. Mash tasted fine in the morning.

Queequeg said:

I got a long one coming up with an extended mash and vorlauf and potentially a long boil.

I want to mash and batch sparge on day 1. Boil, chill and pitch day 2.

The question is how to treat the wort for it's overnighter.

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Use No Chill brewing.

Mash & boil but don't chill. Instead transfer the boiling wort to one of these:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=75032&gclid=CLKstv203cYCFQeBaQodIE4Epw


Squeeze out as much air as possible from the head space. Use your knees with a towel over them.

Next day it will be cool and you can pitch.

1 hour for the mash
30 mins for the sparge?
1 hour for the boil
plus time to raise water temperature.

A little over 3 hours.
You can clean your mash tun while the wort is boiling.

I've been doing overnight mashes for the last 4 brews, this was the only way I could keep up my brew schedule with the arrival of kid #2. I've had awesome results and the time saved when the kiddos are awake is great, keeps the wife happy and the full pipeline keeps us both happy.

HausBrauerei_Harvey said:

I've been doing overnight mashes for the last 4 brews, this was the only way I could keep up my brew schedule with the arrival of kid #2. I've had awesome results and the time saved when the kiddos are awake is great, keeps the wife happy and the full pipeline keeps us both happy.

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So no souring at all huh? Are you chilling? This could be a good deal for me too (same situation).

I just kept the mash above 147°F.

In the end I just mashed overnight. My mash tun is well insulated so I have only lost a couple of degrees. I can not taste any souring or off flavours in the final beer.

I separated a batch across two days one time, I simply mashed and transferred to my BB and sealed with an airlock and bung just like for fermentation the next day after work I transferred to BK and sanitized BB while boiling. Had no ill effects

normonster said:

So no souring at all huh? Are you chilling? This could be a good deal for me too (same situation).

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Sorry just saw your question here now: No i have not had any souring at all, just try keep the mash above like 140 i believe is what I read. but i'm only seeing a drop of 6-8 degrees total in 10-12 hours with my cooler really full, sealed well on the top and with a sleeping bag around the cooler.

I am still doing a standard chill with my homemade CFC, but i want to try no-chill someday soon here. I think going to no-chill would shave another hour off my brewday, which would be awesome.

I can recommend a plate chiller. 10 mins to cool a 6.5 Gallon batch. Cleaning takes about 10mins if you have a pump