Overnight mashing

Simonh82 said:

Belgian beer would probably work well as they tend to be drier. Avoid beers that are meant to finish with a high final gravity and with lots of body.

Also be aware that you can get much better efficiency with overnight mashes.

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Simonh82 said:

Belgian beer would probably work well as they tend to be drier. Avoid beers that are meant to finish with a high final gravity and with lots of body.

Also be aware that you can get much better efficiency with overnight mashes.

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BeerisGOD said:

much better. 25 units more, unless im getting calculations wrong. exp 1.049 to 1.074. certainly not gonna cry about it

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BeerisGOD said:

...............

Especially when your on the last hole of your belt.

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BeerisGOD said:

I wouldnt say poor but no way in this area.
I might check my hydro tonight make sure its not buggered.
Its nice to have the one or two strong brews as apposed to 5 **** ones though.
Especially when your on the last hole of your belt.

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Duxuk said:

I almost always mash overnight. I reckon you will improve your efficiency by a very approximate 10%. That's likely to be the high end of improvement so you might like to adjust malt by 7.5% or similar. The dryness issue troubled me for a while when I first started but you can do a lot by upping your mash temp. I do a 22 or 23 litre water volume so the grain drops this temperature by only about 2 degrees. I usually start my ales at 70C and add the grain to get about 68C initially. I wrap it up snuggly and hope that 10 hour later it's at mid 50s. You need to stir your water to keep the temperature consistent in your mashing vessel and give the grain a good stir when you add it.
I only add my main malt at this stage. I add crystal in the morning and let it steep as I heat the mash back to 76C. I know it's pointless to do a mashout after such a long mash but the heat I add will not go to waste. I give it a good stir to try to get the sugars out of the grain.
I think that if you mash the crystal overnight it maybe breaks down the long chain unfermentable sugars into fermentables which is why my early attempts were too dry.
I drain then add 6l of warm water to the grain as a mini sparge whilst I heat the bulk to boiling. After draining the sparge I chuck this into the boil. 4kg of Maris Otter using this method tends to give me 23l @ OG 1.050 which is a decent efficiency. 250g of crystal adds a bit of sweetness and colour.
I did a couple of Saisons last year, mashing a little lower and got 6.7% ABV from 5kg of lager malt. It was dry as a bone but I suppose that was the intention.
Give it a go. You'll find your brew day is quite a bit shorter which means the dog gets walked sooner.

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Dutto said:

I've never done an overnight mash but having read the Posts I'm beginning to wonder why!

I like "dry" brews anyway so that aspect doesn't worry me and as I have a 32 litre insulated Mash Tun I could probably mash a 4.5kg grain bill and minimise the amount of sparge needed to top-up the Boiler to the 30 litre mark before starting the boil.

Hmmm! Got me thinking here!

At the moment, on Day One I do a standard one hour mash and then run the wort into the Boiler where it loses a lot of heat overnight.

By leaving it overnight in the Mash Tun (with extra Strike Water) it will lose a lot less heat and I could start heating the wort as soon as there is more than 1cm in the Boiler.

Yep! It looks like a Plan for the next brew; which is due in about a week.

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BeerisGOD said:

Yes

Im just hoping this dry business isnt the same type when youve added too much dextrose?.. As this batch was dumped (even after a year of bottle conditionong)

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• 55 to 66 degrees for fermentable sugars (High Alcohol - dry) or
• 68 to 72 degrees for non-fermentable sugars (Low Alcohol – sweet)

Dutto said:

I've always consider that the term "dry", when applied to drink, is a measure of the lack of sweetness. In a beer this usually occurs when all of the sweetness in the wort is provided by fermentable sugars which then get fermented to alcohol. e.g. dextrose!

From a total lack of "overnight mashing" experience, but after reading the Posts about it, I propose to heat the 30 litres of Strike Water to 78*C to try and hit a starting Mash Temperature of 68*C to 72*C after doughing in 4.5kg of grain. This is in line with what I read and noted somewhere a few years back as follows:

"Mash at:

• 55 to 66 degrees for fermentable sugars (High Alcohol - dry) or
• 68 to 72 degrees for non-fermentable sugars (Low Alcohol – sweet)

Never exceed 75*C as it will stop the formation of sugars."

I'm fairly confident that, if the Mash is started at 72 degrees, the temperature won't fall much below 66*C within the next 10 hours. I think I'll kick the system off with a SMASH using 4.5kg of MO and Perle Hops.

Then it's back to "Here's hoping!" time again!

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Dutto said:

I've always consider that the term "dry", when applied to drink, is a measure of the lack of sweetness. In a beer this usually occurs when all of the sweetness in the wort is provided by fermentable sugars which then get fermented to alcohol. e.g. dextrose!

From a total lack of "overnight mashing" experience, but after reading the Posts about it, I propose to heat the 30 litres of Strike Water to 78*C to try and hit a starting Mash Temperature of 68*C to 72*C after doughing in 4.5kg of grain. This is in line with what I read and noted somewhere a few years back as follows:

"Mash at:

• 55 to 66 degrees for fermentable sugars (High Alcohol - dry) or
• 68 to 72 degrees for non-fermentable sugars (Low Alcohol – sweet)

Never exceed 75*C as it will stop the formation of sugars."

I'm fairly confident that, if the Mash is started at 72 degrees, the temperature won't fall much below 66*C within the next 10 hours. I think I'll kick the system off with a SMASH using 4.5kg of MO and Perle Hops.

Then it's back to "Here's hoping!" time again!

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Duxuk said:

I'd be very careful about starting with such a high water temperature as 78C. 30 litres of water will barely cool with the addition of 4.5kg of grain. From my experience of adding 4 kg of grain to 22l of water at 70C my mash only falls to 68C (ish) to begin with. I'd take lots of readings on your first try to make sure you get exactly what you want subsequently.

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BeerisGOD said:

I remember my second from last batch being 43c in the morning. But this was only seven hours. But it meant i could get a head start with the boil.

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Dutto said:

Going which way? In my case it's "The hole just before you run out of belt!":headbang:Right! I'm decided! The diet starts today!:thumb:

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Dutto said:

Tip noted. I will start with a more usual "3 litres per kg" and then run in enough water to take the full 30 litres up to 72*C. (I started out with Plan A on the basis that my garage is so cold that, with Strike Water at 85*C, the 5kg of grain I mashed the other day cooled it to 72*C by the time I had doughed in.)



I'm hoping that a Thermos brand Cold Box (with an old sleeping bag wrapped around it will) retain more of the heat. Back to "Here's hoping." eh?

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