Saving the boil for later

So my schedule is really busy these days, but I still need to brew. Getting up early to do a 6am brew today wasn't the best option considering I went to bed at 4, and I don't have a solid 5 hour block to set aside for a few days. But I do have a couple 2-3 hour chunks of time spread out. Could I mash and lauter, filling my kettle but not immediately go to the boil? That is, could I collect my wort, go to a few appointments and come back later (2-3 hours) and then boil? Would this harm the beer? I figure that the boil would sterilize it anyway, but is there something bad that may happen from letting the wort rest at room temp unboiled for a little bit?

ranch

Keep it covered, insulate it if possible & make beer.

Do a mash out at the end to stop things in the mash. You can do this, but it is my opinion you shoul bite the bullet and get it all done at once. Otherwise stick with extract. You don't want to compromise your beer do you?

I've read posts from others on here who have done this without any damage to their brews, but it's not something that I personally have done or will do.

I'd rather just wait until I have time to do it all.

I do it more often than not. Never a problem.

Mash and sparge on Friday night...get my keggle up to 13 gallons and clean up shop.

Cover and let sit over night and then Saturday, after the lawn is mowed and blah, blah, blah...time to spark the fire. You'll use more propane obviously.

I’ve never let it go more than 18 hours. As long as the wort is completely drained off and you’re not trying to over-soak the mash…you’ll be fine.

ranch you can brew AG in 3.5 hours. I've done it several times.

Holy $*&t! 3.5 hours. I must be related to the Slowski's. Usual brew time 5.5 hours.

When it comes to brewing I am not a rabbit.

Orfy.. What is your technique? You must have high grade technology no?

- WW

I just pitched yeast on a Wee Heavy not fifteen minutes ago doing this very thing. BYO's recipe called for starting with eleven gallons of wort, and boiling it down to five. There was no way I was going to be able to do all that in one day, so I mashed & sparged yesterday and boiled for some five hours today. It's the first time I've done it this way, but I may start splitting more of my brews this way. Worked fine (so far)

wilsonwj said:

Holy $*&t! 3.5 hours. I must be related to the Slowski's. Usual brew time 5.5 hours.

When it comes to brewing I am not a rabbit.

Orfy.. What is your technique? You must have high grade technology no?

- WW

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HAHA......hi-tec.....**** no. KISS:rockin:

Technique .

Plan, know your stuff, be cool, calm and efficient.


I put the mash water on.
Print my recipe (sometimes formulating it first)
Set the mash tun up.
Weigh the grain into the mash tun
Start the mash. Rehydrate my yeast
Heat the sparge water
Set up the the keggle.
Drain the first runnings into the keg and start heating.
Batch sparge and put each running in to the kettle.
Boiling starts soon after my last batch sparge finishes.
Empty the mash tun, clean and put away. Put the HLT away.
Sanitise my fermenter and equipment.
Finish the boil and chill with an IC.
I keep the hot water for cleaning.
Drain into the fermenter with my aerating tube.
Pitch the yeast.
Put my keggle away.

20 minutes HLT heat up
40 minutes mash
20 minutes batch sparge
10 minutes heat to biol
60 boil
30 minutes chill and drain
30 minutes misc or to extend mash etc,

total <3.5 hours.
Easy.

I normally take a little longer though because I have a nasty habit of doing 3 in a day and going to the pub in between and bbqing and other stuff.

Bernie Brewer said:

...starting with eleven gallons of wort, and boiling it down to five....

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H O L Y xxxxxx S H E E E A A A T T T T

I hope you got about three LP tanks on stand by...

If you use your time wisely, you should easily be able to be done in 3.5 hours. I, however, am lazy and waste about 5 hours on an AG brew day. Basically, a good hour or so is spent getting water up to strike temp and ready for the mash, and I mash the whole hour. I also wait until the very end and blow a good hour cleaning up aftewards.

To shorten it:

1. Shorter mashes. I've seen posts about it, and some people only mash about 30 minutes.

2. Batch sparging. Much faster than fly.

3. Prepping ingredients. Having everything ready to go while mashing/heating up to a boil makes things easier.

4. Always working. Cleaning your MLT while boiling. Having sanitizer made and ready to san your primary during the last 5-10 minutes of boil.

5. Collecting warm water from the cooling period and washing stuff while the wort is draining into the fermenter.

6. Pumping. Pumping is faster than gravity feeding.

Basically, if you're always working while things are mashing/boiling, you can be done 30 minutes or so after the boil. If you sit on the couch drinking homebrew while things are mashing and boiling, then you're adding time to your brewday.

Drink while you work!

jezter6 said:

I
5. Collecting warm water from the cooling period and washing stuff while the wort is draining into the fermenter.

Basically, if you're always working while things are mashing/boiling, you can be done 30 minutes or so after the boil. If you sit on the couch drinking homebrew while things are mashing and boiling, then you're adding time to your brewday.

Drink while you work!

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I can set everything up whilst waiting for the HLT to heat to mash temp.

When I've pitched the yeast Which I do whilst the wort is still filling so it mixes the yeast in, all I have left to do is dredge the hops from the keggle, remove the syphon tube, rinse and put away. it takes a few minutes.

I'm going to see if I can do a <3hr AG brew one day. I don't need to but I just want to try it.

orfy said:

I can set everything up whilst waiting for the HLT to heat to mash temp.

When I've pitched the yeast Which I do whilst the wort is still filling so it mixes the yeast in, all I have left to do is dredge the hops from the keggle, remove the syphon tube, rinse and put away. it takes a few minutes.

I'm going to see if I can do a <3hr AG brew one day. I don't need to but I just want to try it.

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Orfy - Do you have two burners? One to heat the keggle and the other to heat the sparge water, or am I missing something?

I really need to get down to 3.5 hours so I can brew on weeknights.

No, I use something that cost me <$30.

orfy said:

No, I use something that cost me <$30.

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Thats right, I forgot. But didn't you burn it up last month? :cross:

Do you mean did I blow it up and set it on fire.

Yes.

Easy to remake though.

I keep getting tempted to make one with a keg but the old one was so cheap and easy to use and store, I'm having difficulty in justifying and upgrade.