Help, leaving Malt in wort till cold??

[ozinkent]

Morning all

Im fairly new to all grain brewing, a good few BIABs under my belt.
but last night, I had to leave the house as my malt was in the mash tun.
It would have been at the right temp for long enough, but its been left in till the wort is now cold?!
the lid was on!

ahh.. is this wort ruined, or can I still boil it up?

any dangers of the malt just stewing in mash for a few hours?

Many thanks XD

Ozzy

 

[Bellybuster]

What kind of brew was it? I'd boil it up and hope for the best. Might have soured a bit but that can be good in the right beer. Do at the minimum a 60 minute boil and hop very heavy. Hops can hide slight imperfections. Biggest issue will be getting to mash out temps. If you recirculate it shouldn't be a problem.
Expect a highly ferment able wort.
If it smelled good, it probably is fine. Beer has a way of telling you when it's off.

 

[wilserbrewer]

My guess is that you are fine, your mash has only been at low temps for a short period of time....rdwhahb and finish the batch asap

 

[ozinkent]

It was going to be an IPA, finishing with east kent golding : 15min + 0min.

I may boil it up and give it ago...
I guess no 1 has done this before.. or atleast left the mash mashing for an extended period of time.

Chin chin

 

[alphaomega]

It was going to be an IPA, finishing with east kent golding : 15min + 0min.

I may boil it up and give it ago...
I guess no 1 has done this before.. or atleast left the mash mashing for an extended period of time.

Chin chin

I'd say a lot of people have done that. Look up 'overnight mashing' or 'extended mashing'. Though the key is to keep temperature up, to avoid souring/infection.

 

[Hoppity]

Plenty of brewers mash overnight, but typically in coolers where they don't lose as much heat. Might be ok in your case.

 

[ozinkent]

amazing! thank you.
didn't know that was a thing... but has reassured me non the less.

Ill get a good boil going (60 min) and how it turns out.

Merci

 

[ozinkent]

fyi,
gravity was 1.048 after sparging, and 1.044 when I pitched the yeast. (topped up with water after boil)

TBH, I didn't see any benefit, infact the gravity is alittle lower then I normally get.
either way, aiming for a nice 4.6% IPA.

Many thanks all

 

[alphaomega]

@ozinkent: You are correct in that what you did, does not have any benefit
Leaving the mash until cold(ish) is an unnecessary risk and might affect the final product.
You will not impact efficiency (i.e. you won't have a higher OG). The earlier comment on fermentability, is also not a given. I've not done any empirical tests on this myself, but from what I've read on overnight mashing, fermentability of the wort is more a function of the initial temperature than the final. Once the enzymes are spent, there is no more conversion and at the end of a 'normal' 60 min mash, there is probably not a whole lot of enzymatic activity left (though don't quote me on this).
The benefit of 'overnight/extended mashing' is primarily that of breaking up the brew day, so that you mash in before going to bed, sparge/lauter while having coffee in the morning and just need to finish the boil (and possibly chill) before you have the rest of the day free.
As I said before though, the key is to be able to keep the temperature up (I think you need it to be above around 60C), to insure any 'bugs' from having a field day.
Cheers!