One time I left the gate valve open on my mash tun overnight after brewing. Wort dripped overnight. There was about 2 cups the next morning. The wort drippings collected had a higher gravity than I would expect. Is this normal or did I just miss out that much sugar?
mash tun wort drippings
- Thread starter andycook
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Well it was also evaporating during that time raising the gravity and lowering the volume. But depending on your sparge you could have also left sugars. If you end up with too much wort the gravity will be lower so getting those 2 cups might have lowered your OG, though 2 cups would not have much effect.
If you really want you can take 2 days to complete a brew.
If you really want you can take 2 days to complete a brew.
No wort wasted? OK, you asked for it and here it is...
The trub left over in your boil kettle can be filtered through a fine mesh hop bag (having openings ~200 micron) placed in a funnel over a large but fairly narrow container. Think of one or more quart-size plastic take-out soup containers. A little turn and squeeze of the bag helps extract more precious wort quickly, but sanitation will likely be compromised. With your extra runnings from the mash tun (either previously boiled down or not) you can reheat that wort to pasteurize (180°F for a minute). Chill and add to your main fermentor or a small one on the side to which you pitch some yeast.
I usually save 3-4 quarts of wort this way from a 5.5 gallon batch. It can be used for starters too, as long as you boil/pasteurize it.
After you've drained your first runnings and sparged from your MLT into your BK you've hopefully reached your desired pre-boil volume. There will always be some liquid left in your tunthat you "can" recover but I'd advise against it. The residual liquid has most likely extracted unwanted tannins from the hulls of your grain & will definitely give you off flavors.
Because tired or lazy I'm sure. I've left mine for a full month before. It gets ripe but I've done sour mashes on purpose in the past before and got used to the smell.
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