Two Stage Brewing

[bobbytinner]

Due to time contraints it is difficult to fit in an AG brew, Kids, work n all that!!
Does anybody see any problems with splitting the brew?
IE. Mash N sparge one evening - cover and cool. Then the next moring restart the process with the boil, etc.

Cheers
BT

[Jim]

The only problem I can see is that the mash reactions might carry on overnight and alter the maltose/dextrin ratio of the brew.

However, some people mash overnight without a problem, so it may work for you.

[bobbytinner]

Thanks for that!

I guess there's one way to find out

BT

[Beer Terrorist]

I mash overnight for convinience and have had good results. The only problem I find is raising the temperature for sparging. I've found heating up part of the run off and sparge water helps solve the problem.

[Andy]

Some people get the water and grains all measured out on a Friday or Saturday evening and then make a super early start the next morning. If you can put the HLT on a timer* to have the water up to temp while you sleep then so much the better. You can finish by midday easily.


* Obviously need to be careful if you brew in the house and there are kids around, timer not such a good idea then if they can access all rooms when they want.

[ChrisG]

Some people get the water and grains all measured out on a Friday or Saturday evening and then make a super early start the next morning. If you can put the HLT on a timer* to have the water up to temp while you sleep then so much the better. You can finish by midday easily.

Thats exactly what I did. Early start at 5:55am and set the boiler on a timer in my garage. Finished at 11:30am.

[Andy]

See I don't make all this stuff up.

[delboy]

Our you can cut the mash time down to 45 mins and the boil to 1hr thats what i've been doing lately and its really shortened the brewday and is probably saving me a bit of cash on the leccy as well.

I know 45 mins seems like a short mash but i batch sparge so by the time i've volarufed ran off and repeated, its probably been mashing closer to the 1hr, 1 hr 15 mark anyway.

[Gurgeh]

or you could do a mash-out step - raise the temp of your runnings to 80C (actually less than that but 80 will do it) and you will denature the enzymes and your wort will be stable until the next day when you can complete the brew.


FWIW, i brew in the evenings, I start cooking family tea at 5pm, heat strike water, feed family at 5.30, wolf down my tea and go and mash in, everything being preweighed and all that. play with kids til 6.30, wife takes them up while i start sparge. kids asleep by 7.30 and i'm finishing the sparge getting boil started and am all done by 10-10.30pm latest. 60 min mash, 60 min boil as has been mentioned.

[ade1865]

I've been doing a 90 min mash so far. Am i to understand then that this is not necessary? Sory only done 2 brews so far. I batch sparge, so a 45/60 min mash with 10-15 for 1st sparge would be acceptable? Does this cut down the efficency by much, or at all? and should I do the old starch test?

[Matt]

Our you can cut the mash time down to 45 mins and the boil to 1hr thats what i've been doing lately and its really shortened the brewday and is probably saving me a bit of cash on the leccy as well.

I know 45 mins seems like a short mash but i batch sparge so by the time i've volarufed ran off and repeated, its probably been mashing closer to the 1hr, 1 hr 15 mark anyway.

Del, I've been wondering how a 60 min boil works - do you up your grain bill to compensate for the shorter time?

Matt

[Madbrewer]

The mash time depends on when the end point is reached. Finish too early and not all the starches have been converted. 90 minutes is the point when all conversaion should easily have been accomplished. 45 is 'probably' ok but rather than doing and endpoint test I just go for 90.

I have previously had the same connundrum and heated the water, started the mash, (before going to bed) & insulated the tun & got up 7 hours later and started the sparge on the saturday morning. Obviously a 'timer socket' would help here? The resulting beer seemed fine to me!

With an 8am rise (say) and the mash done, you could then be finished by 11.30am. That way you are not leaving the runnings from the mash 'too' long (i.e. days).

[ade1865]

The mash time depends on when the end point is reached. Finish too early and not all the starches have been converted. 90 minutes is the point when all conversaion should easily have been accomplished. 45 is 'probably' ok but rather than doing and endpoint test I just go for 90.

Is the endpoint test a starch test with iodine?

If endpoint is not reached, does this affect efficiency? or flavour? or both?

or something else i can't imagine?

[Madbrewer]

Ade, I am not expert. Yes the iodine test will let you know if there's any more starch lef to be converted. I never bother though. (Ok I did once) I would expect that it if you raise the temperature to 'stop' the conversion too early both flavour and efficiency would be affected. It would be worth doing a brewery tour and asking questions like how they arrived at their irrespective mash times? (If you get a knowledgable tour guide) Although us HB'ers do tend to do either 60 or 90. I suspect that both accountants (blah!!) and brewery recipe formulators have experimented over the years to come up with what works best for them. I guess if you pass the iodine test after 45 mins, and reduce your boil to 60 with no penalty in terms of quality then the 6 hour brew day becomes 5!

If you could get in from work by 6 and finish at 11pm, would this negate the need to do a two stage brew for some people maybe??

[SiHoltye]

I've done the mash and sparge one night, then the boil the next - like you suggested. Seemed to work fine.