Power cut after sparging..

[Michael Lindemann]

So I've literally just finished sparging, about to go into boil mode and we have a power cut!
Rumour has it'll be around 2 hours before it comes on again.


Any suggestions as to what I can do, or will it be fine just to sit there until power is on again and I cam boil??


Thanks

 

[LittleRiver]

Seeing as how some people do overnight mashes, I think your wort will be fine with a 2 hour delay.

Or if you have access to a propane burner, you could use it for the boil.

 

[VikeMan]

Assuming you can boil within, say, the next 24 hours or so, I think you should be okay. If anything starts growing in your wort, boiling will kill it. It's just a question of whether it will impact flavor.

 

[duncan.brown]

On my very first batch on my 3-vessel HERMs system the neighborhood power went out while I was sparging. Gravity equalized the wort level in the mash tun and boil kettle. When the power came back after 2 or 3 hours, I finished the brew day and the beer (a hefeweizen) turned out great.

 

[Immocles]

Seeing as how some people do overnight mashes, I think your wort will be fine with a 2 hour delay.

Or if you have access to a propane burner, you could use it for the boil.

Overnight mashes was what I had immediately thought of as well.

 

[Michael Lindemann]

Ah, thanks for the replies.
I didn't actually realise people do such long mashes, makes my 60 minute or whatever look weak! .. is it just to try and extract more profile out of it ?

 

[Michael Lindemann]

Assuming you can boil within, say, the next 24 hours or so, I think you should be okay. If anything starts growing in your wort, boiling will kill it. It's just a question of whether it will impact flavor.

Just a thought, but what would happen if you were to have some beer fermenting, which ends up tasting a bit sour - probably due to bad sanitising at some point - and you were to just reboil it ?
I guess the flavour will already have part of the sourness in there, but then could you do some chemistry magic and add a bit of that and a bit of this to bring up a new flavour profile ??

 

[Ralphie0523]

Just a thought, but what would happen if you were to have some beer fermenting, which ends up tasting a bit sour - probably due to bad sanitising at some point - and you were to just reboil it ?
I guess the flavour will already have part of the sourness in there, but then could you do some chemistry magic and add a bit of that and a bit of this to bring up a new flavour profile ??

I can speak for what commercial breweries do and basically the sour flavor is there. Only way to get it out is to blend with known good beer to a level below detectable.

Pasteurizing the beer is a bit trickier on our scale. A reboil would probably alter the flavor through alcohol boil off and possibly any remaining hop acids. Any volatile hop oils would also be affected. Maybe consider using PMB or SMB for the pasteurization or some other wine or cider additive to stop the growth of the bugs? Would be interested if anyone has a better idea.

 

[VikeMan]

Just a thought, but what would happen if you were to have some beer fermenting, which ends up tasting a bit sour - probably due to bad sanitising at some point - and you were to just reboil it ?

Well, if anything, you'd probably want to pasteurize it rather than boil it. But that would be pretty hard to do without introducing O2 to your already fermented beer.

I guess the flavour will already have part of the sourness in there, but then could you do some chemistry magic and add a bit of that and a bit of this to bring up a new flavour profile ??

You could certainly increase the pH (effectively reducing the acidity) of the beer, which would reduce pH driven tartness. But I think that...

Clean Beer + Contamination Byproducts + Baking Soda ≠ Clean Beer