Early or overnight Mash question.

[jaycee]

Hello All,
I'm trying to get a brew in at some point this week. I'm thinking of doing the mash before i go to work (Around 6ish) and then rest when i get home about 5pm.
Does anyone have any experience in early or overnight mashes they could share with me please?- Do and don'ts.

Thanks in advance jaycee.

[Alton_Bee]

Instead of doing an overnight mash - why not change the time so you set the mash starting before you go to work. Then continue when you get home as normal.

I assume you had planned to mash and sparge before work.

My concern would be "Sods Law" - ie you end up having to rush the sparge as things never go to plan...

[babalu87]

I've done overnight mashes and long mashes with good results.

Once I mashed in at midnight and ran it off in the morning (6 AM) , made a nice batch of ESB

Another time mashed in early in the afternoon and didnt get back to it until I put the kiddies to bed around 8PM
I have Bronze medal from a local competition for that Baltic Porter

[jaycee]

Thanks for the replies.

Yep the plan was to mash just before i go to work, then run off about 5 o'clock.

I figure that i could knock a bit of time off a brew and be able to do a fairly early evening brew. it would be great as i have very little free time at the weekends.

I've got a 38ltr Thermobox mashtun so hopefully that would hold the temp quite well.

Boiler on timer for the morning and then at 4pm for the sparge i reckon.

[babalu87]

My 48 qt cooler holds temps nicely but for long/overnight mashes I cover it up with a thick blanket.

I'll look at my notes but the overnight ESB mash only lost about 6 degrees F

[fivetide]

I'm an evening brewer. I mash-in around 6pm and have everything settled in the FV and cleaned up by midnight. You will need someone (or a timer switch) to stick on your boiler for you at around 5pm though so it exceeds mash temperature when you are ready for the off.