Mash time

[mccaff]

I've been AG brewing for several years now and have been producing fairly good beer. Enjoy listening to the brew network and have learned plenty from John Palmer. Currently a typical brewday consumes between 6-8 hours. I want to divide my current brewday into two sessions of 3-4 hours each. If I begin the mash stage on day 1 can it be left overnite and resume the brew process the following morning, day 2 ? Being quite handy with temp controllers, it would be quit easy to maintain temp in my mashtun for a programed time then ramp up the temp to mash-out temp and hold over nite or until sparging. Would this extended time of holding the mash at say 168 F cause tannins or other unwanted off flavors to appear in the wort. Maybe batch sparge vs fly sparge, as I currently do, that takes 40-60 min ? Any thoughts ? Appreciate

[NYCbrewing]

If I am not mistaken, allowing your mash to sit for an extended period as your thinking, would sour your mash. Keeping the grains in the mash for that long would allow for growth of lactobacillus - think traditional Berliner Weisse brewing.

But then again, I could be wrong.

If you were really interested in separating your brew day into two days, why not mash and lauder day one and then store the wort to boil? I am sure there are reasons not to do this too, but I can not think of them right now.

[TheDarkSide]

Welcome to the forum.

I wouldn't suggest leaving the mash overnight for the souring reasons and it seems like a lot of wasted energy to keep it at 168 for several hours.

If you want to cut your day down, there's a few things you can do. Prep all you stuff the night before (water, crush your grains, etc ). As you mentioned, batch sparge vs. fly sparge will save you a ton of time without any significant loss in efficiency (some even say they get better).

Since you are handy, you could get a bucket heater and put it on a timer to start warming your water up before you get up or while you're waking up. I know several here use that method.

Other ideas are to start heating the 1st runnings while doing your sparge, taking advantage of the fact they are already at 150F or so. Clean as you go, i.e. clean you mash tun while waiting for your boil to start, etc.

I have my brew day down to 5 hours or so, and I do a lot of 90 minute boils.

[Ozwald]

+1. You could either call my brew day 4-5 hours or 2 days depending on how you look at it. I prep everything on the first day: water, salt additions, milling the grain, weighing the hops & getting them into the correct order, setting out all my equipment (test jars, beakers, refract, hydro, multiple towels/rags) & placing them in a precise pattern according to how/when I use them, placing 1 copy of the recipe on a clipboard for note taking with 2 pens & another copy next to the computer where ProMash will be open, placing buckets (empty ones & ones filled with cleaning chemicals) exactly where they need to be, etc.

The next morning a temp controller is set so my liquor tank & strike water get to temp within 10-15 minutes from when I first walk up to the brew stand so I can stir in the grains, record my numbers & pour another cup of coffee in the first 5 minutes. I turn the flame on the boil kettle while sparging & have to keep it down so I don't come to a boil too early before the sparge is done. By the time I get my hot break & add the bittering hops I have the mash tun half cleaned out. After that it takes me 10 minutes to have the grains to the trash/compost & the mashtun cleaned & polished. Then it's just sitting around waiting for timers to go off & cleaning as I go.

Take a good look at your process & you'll see plenty of spaces where you could be doing something productive. I think the biggest problem with new-ish brewers is they're so focused on that pot of boiling liquid that every time they use something it just gets placed in the sink. By the time you're in the fermenter & pitched there's a pile of stuff to clean up which takes a while. Just by cleaning everything & putting it away as you finish using it can save you boatloads of time.

1, prep is everything. 2, cleaning wastes a lot of time, but so does staring at a mashtun & boil kettle.

[dmtaylor]

I can tell you what I do different from most people that ends up taking a lot less time:

1) Smaller batches. Try 2.5 or 3 gallons. Then you can easily...
2) Brew in a bag (BIAB). Sparging is optional, and if you do sparge, you can do it fast and half-assed and still get awesome efficiency.
3) Mash for just 40 minutes. It's good enough.
4) Chill in a cold water bath in a tub sink, and pitch the yeast 45-60 minutes later when it's cool, or, wait till the next morning, doesn't really matter. No chilling equipment required.

In this manner I can knock out a batch in about 3.5-4 hours flat from milling the grains to the last piece of equipment washed and put away. Chilling and pitching the yeast takes like 5 minutes total so I don't count that.

[Ozwald]

I can tell you what I do different from most people that ends up taking a lot less time:

1) Smaller batches. Try 2.5 or 3 gallons. Then you can easily...
2) Brew in a bag (BIAB). Sparging is optional, and if you do sparge, you can do it fast and half-assed and still get awesome efficiency.
3) Mash for just 40 minutes. It's good enough.
4) Chill in a cold water bath in a tub sink, and pitch the yeast 45-60 minutes later when it's cool, or, wait till the next morning, doesn't really matter. No chilling equipment required.

In this manner I can knock out a batch in about 3.5-4 hours flat from milling the grains to the last piece of equipment washed and put away. Chilling and pitching the yeast takes like 5 minutes total so I don't count that.

The extra 20+ gallons per batch is worth the extra hour for me

Regardless of batch size, I always set everything up the day before. It only took a couple of batches to realize that the 'oh shit, I forgot to do...' & scrambling around to finish something before the next hop addition wasn't a whole lot of fun. Now brew days are extremely relaxed, repeatable & the beer turns out better.

[snowcapt]

Just do a partial mash.
IOW steep.
BCS never lies

[imahokie]

I BIAB and typically will mash the night before - pull the bag, squeeze the bag, put the lid on the pot and then dispose of the spent grain and go to bed (I do this at night). The next morning I just start the burner and boil away.

I typically do 90 min mashes and 90 min boils - so I just split my day in two. I typically spend 2.5 hours the night before and 2.5 hours the next day (roughly)