wort storage

[Eric208]

Does anyone think it is possible to mash and sparge on one day, store the wort, and proceed with the brewing on another day? I am having a difficult time setting aside the better part of the day to go from a bag of grains to the brew in the fermenter. I would think that the problem would be the danger of contamination of the wort. I was thinking of doing the mashing and sparging, then bringing it up to a boil to sterilize it, letting it cool down to below 80 deg, and then transferring it into sterilized gallon jugs for the refrigerator. Does anyone see some pitfalls with this? Thanks.

 

[krispy d]

never tried but I don't see why it wouldn't work... Keep us posted.

 

[magno]

It should work, but you will probably not save too much time the first day, and will likely spend more time overall. You would really only be cutting out 1 hour or so of boil time, and you would have to bring it to a boil twice, cool it twice, and clean up twice.

Let us know what you end up doing.

- magno

 

[Bobby_M]

The best time saver is to setup the night before, mill your grains, sanitize the carboy, even get your measured water in the kettle. First thing the next morning, fire up the kettle. Another time saver is to clean anything you can during the boil.

 

[Beerthoven]

You could let the mash sit overnight, as long as you keep it above 150dF. Then sparge and boil in the morning. Here is a link to a Mr. Wizard article on the topic.

http://***********/mrwizard/1059.html

I've never done this myself, but I thought I would throw it out there.

 

[FlyingHorse]

Does anyone think it is possible to mash and sparge on one day, store the wort, and proceed with the brewing on another day? I am having a difficult time setting aside the better part of the day to go from a bag of grains to the brew in the fermenter. I would think that the problem would be the danger of contamination of the wort. I was thinking of doing the mashing and sparging, then bringing it up to a boil to sterilize it, letting it cool down to below 80 deg, and then transferring it into sterilized gallon jugs for the refrigerator. Does anyone see some pitfalls with this? Thanks.

I do this pretty often. Overal, it probably adds 30-60 minutes to the process, but you can break a 4-5 hour session into two 2-3 hour sessions. You lose some time because it takes longer to bring the wort to a boil, and you lose some multi-tasking time. But it gives you flexibility

No need to boil the wort, or cool it. I just mash and sparge, collect the runnings in a sanitized bucket with a sealing lid, and let it sit until the next day. I've gone as long as 24 hours with no problems. The chance of an infection taking hold and causing any real damage in <24 hours are pretty small, and you're going to boil it anyway.

 

[Beerthoven]

No need to boil the wort, or cool it. I just mash and sparge, collect the runnings in a sanitized bucket with a sealing lid, and let it sit until the next day. I've gone as long as 24 hours with no problems. The chance of an infection taking hold and causing any real damage in <24 hours are pretty small, and you're going to boil it anyway.

I have done a variation of this as well. I will mash and sparge, collect the runnings in the boil pot and put the lid on. Several hours later (after dinner and the kids are bathed and in bed) I will start the boil. I haven't had any problems that I would attribute to this method yet.

 

[Bobby_M]

One possible issue is reactivating alpha enzymes while it's natually cooling. Perhaps it will cause your beer to dry out more than you'd like. Maybe it's a non issue. I just don't know enough about it.

 

[Beerthoven]

One possible issue is reactivating alpha enzymes while it's natually cooling. Perhaps it will cause your beer to dry out more than you'd like. Maybe it's a non issue. I just don't know enough about it.

Maybe, I don't know enough about it either. I try not to do it this way, but its an option. Maybe I should raise the temp to 180dF to denature all the enzymes, then cut the heat and go have dinner.

Anyway, don't want to hijack the thread. Oh wait, maybe you weren't talking to me...

 

[malkore]

I was gonna say, considering all the cleanup of the AG equipment once the boil starts, I don't see a huge time-savings by putting the boil off until the the next day, and if anything you're adding to the boil time since the freshly mashed wort is around 150F, not room temp like the 'next day' wort is.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

The best time saving trick I've come up with is to stop sleeping. Gets me an extra 4-8 hours a day...

 

[Jaybird]

The best time saving trick I've come up with is to stop sleeping. Gets me an extra 4-8 hours a day...

You and me both!!! I say sleep while you do other things then you can be called a TRUE multi tasker
JJ

 

[Jaybird]

Does anyone think it is possible to mash and sparge on one day, store the wort, and proceed with the brewing on another day? I am having a difficult time setting aside the better part of the day to go from a bag of grains to the brew in the fermenter. I would think that the problem would be the danger of contamination of the wort. I was thinking of doing the mashing and sparging, then bringing it up to a boil to sterilize it, letting it cool down to below 80 deg, and then transferring it into sterilized gallon jugs for the refrigerator. Does anyone see some pitfalls with this? Thanks.

Im all honesty there are companies the are like brew on premessis where you can go brew your own beer and they do just that mash several BBLs then you get the wort and boil and hop to your taste. I am sure they keep there unhoped wort for several days.
JJ