Mashing overnight

[thisispants]

Hi,

I'm trying to streamline my brew day where I can...I'm toying with the idea of mashing overnight.

I brew with a brewzilla, but I do have a couple of questions if anyone out there has done this previously.....

Will an extended mash hurt the beer?

I'm not comfortable leaving the brewzilla pump on overnight, so I'm thinking of mashing for an hour tonight, turning the pump off and maintaining the mash temp without pump overnight, then sparging and boiling in the morning.

Any other thoughts about doing this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Hi,

I'm trying to streamline my brew day where I can...I'm toying with the idea of mashing overnight.

I brew with a brewzilla, but I do have a couple of questions if anyone out there has done this previously.....

Will an extended mash hurt the beer?

I'm not comfortable leaving the brewzilla pump on overnight, so I'm thinking of mashing for an hour tonight, turning the pump off and maintaining the mash temp without pump overnight, then sparging and boiling in the morning.

Any other thoughts about doing this?

Thanks in advance.

Gordon Strong mentions he has does it. If I were to do it I would be inclined to leave it at mashout temperature for the night.

 

[cedric]

i have left a mash overnight and woke up to a large infection.
i didn't leave the elements on, and although it was grain, it wasn't for beer.
I'm thinking that leaving the the temp control on, without the recirculating arm pumping, would result in the liquid below the false bottom keeping warm, but the rest of mash cooling.
so infection would be my greatest concern.
i like to mash/sparge/boil in one session.

 

[Coalface]

I've done it a few times where I just didn't have a whole day available and had to do it piecemeal, i'd be wary if you're using a false bottom, as all the proteins will settle to the bottom of the vessel and can get scorched by the element, you need to give a good stir before boiling.

 

[pimpsqueak]

Just kegged a stout that mashed for 12hrs or so. using a Braumeister, so had it at mashout for all the extra hours.
in retrospect, I would prefer to have an extended protein rest and then a normal mash/mash out time. As an extra precaution, you can set the boil temp to 78deg so you don’t accidentally cook the mash…

 

[yankinoz]

Along with others in various forums I've done a complete mash, mashed out and then boiled the next day. No problem. If you kept the mash at room temps long enough, you'd get undesirable souring. I've had no problems, but I kept the.container covered, set it outside on a cool (<10) night and started the boil the next morning.

 

[mynameisrodney]

I've done it many times, overnight, and over the work day (mash in, then go to work, finish in the evening). I just wrap it up with half a dozen towels and let it go. Doing it this way I usually get higher efficiency and a more fermentable wort, so I dont use this approach when making a beer where I want a higher FG. For drier styles it works really well. Never had an issue with infection from it.