Mash AG today, and boil wort a few days later?

[Rodent]

I find myself in a work related dilemma - I'm working a sizable amount of OT that includes weekends, so I don't have a full day for an end-end brewing session. And so a thought crept into my head in the wee hours of the night ...

What if I mash my AG today, collecting all of the sweet wort I'll require for my next brew session, and drop a covered boil kettle (I could even purge the head space with CO2) into my keezer where I keep the temp at 35F like I had cold crashed. Then, in a few days, bring this out of the keezer and onto the burner for the boil half of brew day. This would allow me the 3-4 hours of time to set-up, mash, and clean up plus a second day of 3-5 hours of time to boil, whirlpool, cool, and pitch yeast. With it broken into two smaller sessions, I could easily fit this into my OT schedule.

Anybody else do something crazy like this? Any reason this is a bad thing to do, with significant consequences to the final beer quality?

I fear that without such a workable solution, it'll be late September before I have opportunity to set aside a full day to brew.

 

[Pappers_]

Your brew days are long. With dedication, I'm done in four hours and easily can do five hours. But you are probably more exact than I am.

I'd worry about wild innoculation taking off, but you're keeping it cold to fight that. Sanitizing wouldn't help - the wild yeast and bacteria are on the grain.

I really don't know if an early, slow wild innoculation would have any impact on final flavor. I would imagine yes, but its worth trying and seeing, perhaps.

 

[chickypad]

Your brew days are long. With dedication, I'm done in four hours and easily can do five hours.

That's what I was thinking, if your brewdays are taking 6-9 hrs seems like you should look at your process and see where you can streamline. Plus you'll be adding time bringing the wort from 35* to boiling vs. mash temp to boiling. Souring/infection of the wort would be the main concern as Pappers said, maybe keeping it cold will prevent that.

 

[day_trippr]

6 hours for a full ag brew seems pretty reasonable. 9 hours, not so much...

Cheers!

 

[Rodent]

I'm including all of the time to bring tables, gear, ingredients from the basement up to the kitchen, actual mashing/brewing activity times, and time to wash/dry and drag it all back into storage downstairs.

one condition I have is that the kitchen will be as clean (or cleaner) than before I took it over, and that everything goes back into the storeroom when I'm done. Given the narrow and steep stairway in this old farmhouse, there's over 10 trips to bring everything up and another 10 to bring it all back down. That adds well over a full hour to each end of the brew day

 

[universalfrost]

i would do a quick 10 to 15 minute boil to kill of some of the bad things that might go nuts while its sitting waiting to be brewed...

 

[corax]

Is any part of the old farm still attached to the old farmhouse? If so, why aren't you brewing outside? That would allow you to get everything set up one day, brew and clean the sticky and grainy parts a second day, and do the remaining clean-up and take-down on a third day.

If you are definitely stuck in the kitchen, I'd go with the suggestion of bringing the wort up to a short boil, and then keeping it tightly covered while it cools and sits until you can get to it again.

 

[day_trippr]

I agree, sans some kind of boil, this will not end well. Even then, sanitation has to be crazy good to hold wort that long without rogue wee beasties owning it...

Cheers!

 

[rmolledo]

Look up “no chill method”. You could probably bring the wort to a boil and pour it into an airtight vessel thus pasteurizing it. They do this in Australia for finished beer but you may be able to swing it with hot wort.