Mash Time - Is It OK To Leave Longer...?

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Doglaner

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Hello,

I want to brew tomorrow, but am tight for time.

I can fit it round my eldest's assembly (he's 5 1/2 and pig no. one, so I don't think it will end well for him).

To do this I will dough in at 8.45am, but won't be back to run off until 10.

I don't think it will be an issue, but any thoughts welcome.

My tun holds temp to 1c per hour.

Regards,

Dog.
 
No problem at all for base malts. I did a 75 min mash of all Vienna malt the other day deliberately. You might want to think twice if you were planning on using dark grains though
 
Either Azacca or NZ Galaxy. Going to decide in the morning.

Probably Galaxy.

Or Azacca.

Ha! In the morning it is, then!
 
For my last brew,and for the first time ever,I tried an overnight mash. Ended up being 12 hours before resuming proceedings!! Anyways I ended up with a much higher than normal OG, to the order of a full 10 gravity points. Wasn't expecting that. And the final gravity when I bottled today was 1005, it's usually 1010 - 1012. Gonna be a dry one then as well as a strong one but the sample taste was otherwise fine and very agreeable. We shall see...
 
Yeah I put mine on once, walked the dog went did a shop and got back 3 hours later its fine as long as the temp doesn't obviously drop severly.
 
For my last brew,and for the first time ever,I tried an overnight mash. Ended up being 12 hours before resuming proceedings!! Anyways I ended up with a much higher than normal OG, to the order of a full 10 gravity points. Wasn't expecting that. And the final gravity when I bottled today was 1005, it's usually 1010 - 1012. Gonna be a dry one then as well as a strong one but the sample taste was otherwise fine and very agreeable. We shall see...

That is very interesting indeed, Completely in keeping with what little I understand of the bio-chemistry involved. Could you let us know how it turns out? With ABV and beer, more is not invariably better. :lol:

That is what SWMBO thinks, as well :nono:.
 
That is very interesting indeed, Completely in keeping with what little I understand of the bio-chemistry involved. Could you let us know how it turns out? With ABV and beer, more is not invariably better. :lol:

That is what SWMBO thinks, as well :nono:.

Will do. I fully agree that more ABV does not necessarily mean better! I've never been interested in, or tried to work out mash effiiciencies but this was so obviously through the roof I couldn't help but notice. I started the mash at 69C and 12hrs later it was 53. Um... Meanwhile I've just got the next brew on and it's getting the usual 45mins!
 
For my last brew,and for the first time ever,I tried an overnight mash. Ended up being 12 hours before resuming proceedings!! Anyways I ended up with a much higher than normal OG, to the order of a full 10 gravity points. Wasn't expecting that. And the final gravity when I bottled today was 1005, it's usually 1010 - 1012. Gonna be a dry one then as well as a strong one but the sample taste was otherwise fine and very agreeable. We shall see...

I've done several overnight mashes and like you I started the mash at 69C. Some had a really good efficiency and others didnt. It may be to do with mash thickness as I always used the same amount of water but not always the same amount of grain. My FG's were always normal and around about what I expected them to be
 
That is very interesting indeed, Completely in keeping with what little I understand of the bio-chemistry involved. Could you let us know how it turns out? With ABV and beer, more is not invariably better. :lol:

That is what SWMBO thinks, as well :nono:.

Well I said I'd let you know how my 12hr mash turned out so here goes. It's been in the bottle for no time but it cleared with amazing rapidity so thought I'd try one last night. I'm very pleased to report that it is fine, and somehow seems 'smoother' than usual and despite the very low final gravity I don't perceive the dryness I was expecting. Weird,but I can confirm that very protracted mash times are fine and I wouldn't think twice about doing more if needs must!
 
.. on the subject of time, as I cocked up with a too higher mash temp 75 c (got it down with 1.5l of bottled water within five mins), should I mash for 90 mins instead of an 60?
I'm also hoping I haven't introduced tannins with the high temp, can someone hopefully reassure me I haven't hurt the grains?

Cheers
 
.. on the subject of time, as I cocked up with a too higher mash temp 75 c (got it down with 1.5l of bottled water within five mins), should I mash for 90 mins instead of an 60?
I'm also hoping I haven't introduced tannins with the high temp, can someone hopefully reassure me I haven't hurt the grains?

Cheers

You haven't hurt the grains. Hot sparge might be a problem because the pH is higher, and even then 75C is fine (ideal, in fact). I would do a longer mash though, just to make it more fermentable.
 
cheers ian, I gave it an extra 30 mins, im now doing a dunk sparge with a 10l pot (only managing 2 litres of sparge water), which isn't ideal for the 2.5kg worth of grain, so im having to do another dunk sparge in another 10 mins
does it do any harm to do a SG at this moment in time with the wort to know if I need to add some sugar if the ABV's ****? does the hydrometer cope with hot temps?
 
Mash time can be stretched out a lot. I first did an overnight mash three years ago as an experiment, and found that it works really well and doesn't impact on beer quality. It's now a regular part of my process. All I needed was a little lagging!

There's the write-up of it here.
 
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