Mash tonight, Boil tomorrow?

Can it be done?

It's getting late in the day and I don't think I can make it through the entire brew. The thought crossed my mind to just do the mash tonight and save the boil for the next day. I figure with respect to sanitation, it should be okay since I'd boil everything the next day anyways.
Are there any dangers with this?
Any thoughts would be great.

I decided to fail conservative and just brew the whole thing tomorrow.

I have seen this question a few times. I think I would like to conduct myself an experiment and try to brew two batches exactly the same except mash one and save the wort and brew it the next day. Its probably been done, who knows it may be better. I may try it one day

I'm still trying to understand the chemistry of it, but I think if you delay your boil you really have to make sure you do a mash out to stop the conversion process in the wort. Otherwise you'll end up with way dry brew.

Bobby_M said:

I'm still trying to understand the chemistry of it, but I think if you delay your boil you really have to make sure you do a mash out to stop the conversion process in the wort. Otherwise you'll end up with way dry brew.

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That would be my biggest concern too. I think Bobby sums it up pretty well here.

I've heard, although I have (thankfully) no experience with this, that if the mash goes sour overnight, the damage is done; boil it in the morning or not, you're going to have a soured beer.

Mashing overnight used to be the preferred method of doing it as per HB guru Dave Line in the 80s. Malt was less modified then, and the longer mash time helped with that. However, even back then, it was an 8 hour mash and not a 24 hour. Do it first thing in the morning and you'll be fine. Of course based on the timeline of this thread, this is all moot now. But you'll know for next time.

As long as the temperature stays above 120F, it shouldn't sour. Hit it with the mash-out water and you'll de-nature the enzymes, plus give the mash more of a margin.

Interesting...

http://www.hbd.org/brewery/cm3/recs/04_21.html

The tricky thing with mash souring is based on a few factors. One is the amount of lactobacillus already present on the malt. Usually it is sufficent to start the souring process but depending on how much a leg up they have determines how long things need to go. It is certainly not an exacting process and needs to be gauged each time you do it. Another factor is temperature. Lactobacillus can survive up to 150° F from what I have read, I try to shoot to kick start the process at around 135° F and let the covered vessel stay in an insulated area. It drops down over the course of time so who is to say when the peak activity is. Your mash will sour, this is pretty much garaunteed but I think in general you can help delay the process by draining off your wort and dropping the temps....ie put it in the fridge to cool. It will really keep them from doing their thing. The other thing you can do is drive up your temp up to beyond their tolerant range (60° F - 150° F) to help kill them off and then bring them down to where they don't prosper.

Although way beyond the scope of my abilities since I'm not going for any style that calls for sour, this has been helpful.
It sounds like I would be ok to drain off and refrigerate until the morning. So - I have a new trick to put in my bag in case the situation ever comes up again.
Cheers

enginerd said:

Although way beyond the scope of my abilities since I'm not going for any style that calls for sour, this has been helpful.
It sounds like I would be ok to drain off and refrigerate until the morning. So - I have a new trick to put in my bag in case the situation ever comes up again.
Cheers

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Well it's just a matter of course that I thought to bring up souring as this is probably the biggest danger you face with the mash if you don't want it to happen. Fwiw, I have a sour portion of mash going right now. I started it last night and by the morning it wasn't anywhere near noticeably sour. And that is with trying to do so. I have a strain that I am keeping going as an inoculant to speed up the process, which I add a portion of to the amount that I want to sour. I know that if I hadn't kept it warm it would have come to a halt pretty much. I have found it takes a full day to produce a slight souring holding around 115 °F or so. This would actually be very pleasant and not particulary noticeable in many Ales. Anything over a day at temperatures which are good for the souring bacteria and you are asking for trouble if you don't want it.

If I read correctly he is talking about leaving the runnings in the kettle overnight, then boiling.

I have done this. Make sure you mash out at 170. You'll be fine.

I have done this a number of times when my brewday has become to long.
Usually the runnings are still warm enough that souring has not had time to occur.

Just an update. I checked at 24 hrs and it was markedly sour. Two things though, I inoculated and held the temperature above 100 °F. Denny confirms what I thought. He is mashing out at 170 °F and this is reasonably above the temperature that the Lacto thrive in. I am guessing you'd either want to keep it hot or cold but not warm. Since my goal is the opposite I am trying to optimize the process.

When I bottled my pumpkin ale, I had a bottle go sour on me and it was delicious. I really enjoyed the tang.

Cheesefood said:

When I bottled my pumpkin ale, I had a bottle go sour on me and it was delicious. I really enjoyed the tang.

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Yeah, I love the sour aspect. I really like that dimension. It is really refreshing, and things like Geuze remind me of shrubs. Great for a hot day.

Cheesefood said:

When I bottled my pumpkin ale, I had a bottle go sour on me and it was delicious. I really enjoyed the tang.

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Have you discovered a lambic style the Belgians have not thought of??