5 hour mash

[Rocker1986]

Yes that's right. I mashed grains for a batch today for about 5 hours. Not intentional but I got interrupted by something just after I'd put the grains in the bag and started the timer. Anyway, is this a real issue at all? The only thing I noticed during the boil was that there was more shit floating around in it than normal.

 

[Helles]

You should end up with a very fermentable wort
Ive done it up to 3 hrs only thing i noticed that was different

 

[Florian]

Mash temp and temp drop?

 

[Thefatdoghead]

I mash overnight all the time. usually sit on mashout for a couple of hours. All beers turned out great.

 

[Rocker1986]

It started at 66C, by the time I got back to it 5 hours later it had dropped to about 50C. At that point I started heating it up for the mash out. Got a gravity of 1038 pre boil, haven't measured the post boil yet as I'm still waiting for it to cool down.

 

[Florian]

Same as Gav, 12 hour mash happening often, although most of that time it's sitting on 20/38/77, only a couple of hours between 61 and 72, depending on desired outcome.

Depending on what style of beer you're brewing and mash temp it'll turn out somewhere between outstanding and very good (BJCP, that's only the mash part though, assuming all else running perfect, not including other cockups that might or might not have happened).

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Its your initial 30-40mins that are critical.....after that not much changes

 

[Bizier]

As others have said, it might have a lower FG than you expected. Should be little other differences.

 

[benno1973]

I think one of the issues stressed with overnight mashes is that large temp drops can allow lacto to work their magic. Can't remember, but I think it's meant to stay above 60C.

 

[Florian]

You're right Kaiser, but it most probably wouldn't have been long enough at suboptimal temps to do any harm, and considering he (hopefully) would have had his mash tun closed the chance of lacto entering (in form of dust from the grain mill for example) would have been minimal.

 

[Rocker1986]

Yes it was closed. I use a crown urn and do BIAB, so I had the lid on it. I generally don't lose much temperature over a normal 60-90 minute mash, but yeah, an unavoidable interruption today. I think it must have coated the element cover in more crap than usual too because the urn kept switching itself on and off even though it hadn't got to the boil until I scraped the element with the mash paddle and it then operated as normal. <_<

 

[benno1973]

You're right Kaiser, but it most probably wouldn't have been long enough at suboptimal temps to do any harm, and considering he (hopefully) would have had his mash tun closed the chance of lacto entering (in form of dust from the grain mill for example) would have been minimal.

I think the issue is more the native lacto on the grain husks. >60C temps aren't enough to kill the lacto, but do inhibit growth, while sub-60C temps allow for growth and possible souring (albeit probably quite slowly). You're probably right though, 5 hours wouldn't be long enough, given that only probably around 3 of those hours were less than 60C.

Survival temps of lactobacillus

 

[Rocker1986]

Am I right in guessing that the boiling process kills the lacto? Or if it did manage to get in and sour it, would it still be soured after a boil?

 

[breakbeer]

I did this once, but not by choice. Power went out 30mins into the mash & stayed out for 4 hours

My pot is really well insulated, so it only lost a few degrees over the 4 hours

It was a Fat Yak clone that I've brewed before & the noticeable difference was the 'Power Outage Pale Ale' had a much better malt taste

 

[Phillo]

She'll be right Kelsey. If what the other lads are saying is true you might just end up with a lager with attitude. Sounds like your afternoon was enjoyable enough without the brewing anyway.

Let us know how it ends up mate.

 

[Rocker1986]

:lol: True that Phillo. But yeah apart from the longer than planned mash, everything else ran as normal. Good to get confirmation though. I will do, it probably won't be ready to drink for a few months as I've got V3 just in the FV as of yesterday so it won't be bottled for a couple of months and then I'll chuck this one in.

 

[benno1973]

Am I right in guessing that the boiling process kills the lacto? Or if it did manage to get in and sour it, would it still be soured after a boil?

The boil will kill the lacto, so given that you've only got a few hours of active lacto time, you should be ok.

 

[Rocker1986]

Cool. Thanks Kaiser. I sort of had that thought myself but always good to ask and get advice from more experienced people.