Mashing overnight

[chadkarol]

Does anyone else mash overnight? I did it for the first time two weekends ago. Mashed in around 152 and next morning had dropped to 130 or so. Going to take a sample in a few days but I'm curious if this is a common practice. I'm a new dad so its hard to find four straight hours to brew. About a half an hour in the evening and a couple hours the next morning is so much more doable.

 

[outside92129]

Congrats and welcome to the club! I haven't done the overnight mash but i'm curious as how it turned out.

My time in food prep (how i paid for college) is someone piqued for the overnight low temperatures, it should be ok but some bug (and a zillion of his friends) may start to work on the wort.

 

[ShaineT]

I'd say go for it if this gives you the time to brew a batch, better than no brew It may be best to choose a style with a more complex flavor profile that is more forgiving.

More here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/overnight-mash-108485/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/overnight-mashing-184855/

 

[Matt3989]

Did you have any problems with the hulls losing integrity after soaking overnight? That would be my only concern, that and picking styles that don't need much body.

If you could measure the ph in the morning I'd be interested to see if it stayed around 5.4.

Congrats, I hope the beer comes out delicious. It would be a nice option for busy weekends

 

[chadkarol]

It's a French Saison style beer. I didn't measure the PH. We'll see in a week or two. I'll probably take a first sample tonight as a measure the gravity, and maybe transfer to a secondary, which will be a 5 gallon wine barrel that has been soaking up some white wine for a while.

 

[wickman6]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/overnight-mash-keeping-my-cool-295579/

Check out this thread as well, lots of good info here especially later in the thread.

Congrats on being a new dad! That's exactly why I started doing overnights, but my little guy is a good helper now so I haven't done this technique in a bit.

Good luck!

 

[daksin]

A saison will benefit from the longer mash more than most beers. An overnight mash will likely give you a SUPER fermentable wort (all things being equal, a longer mash will make a more fermentable wort) and I'd also be concerned about souring the mash. I wouldn't do, say, a full-bodied amber ale with an overnight mash, but a tripel or a saison could work (beers meant to finish super dry). I can't really say for sure though as it's not something I do.

 

[brewkinger]

I thought that you might find THIS interesting.

An example of what can happen with a delay between mash and boil.

I think he got lucky and the infection was just gearing up when he found it and boiled.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I thought that you might find THIS interesting.

An example of what can happen with a delay between mash and boil.

I think he got lucky and the infection was just gearing up when he found it and boiled.

The issue above is not an overnight mash. The brewer ran off his wort and let it sit in the kettle. I didn't see how long he let it sit.

That is a much different scenario to mashing in at night in a cooler, and running off the following morning.

Wort in a kettle will cool much faster than a mash in a cooler IME.