Longer Mash

[samcal]

Hi,

I can come home at lunch times from work so was thinking of starting to brew then which would give about a 4 hour mash time. I use an igloo that seems to retain heat very well, Can anyone see a downside to such a long mash.

The only reason for this is so that I can brew in the week without it finishing too late into the evening.

Cheers

Sam

[DrewBrews]

Tannins?

[Steve B]

A few people mash overnight. I've tried this myself with no ill effects! I doubt if a 4 hr mash will do anything except perhaps improve efficiency a bit.

[Capped]

Can't remember how long my longest mash was,but it was certainly well in excess of four hours - turned out fine.....

[Blackjack]

The mash will obviously have cooled so it might be a good idea to warm your sparge water to a higher temperature.
JP

[Tony01]

I did a partigyle yesterday - the big beer went in overnight at 68C. Got up at 5.30am (8 hours later) and I'd lost 1.1C only

No problems with a longer mash!

[Horatio]

No probs, go for it! If your mash tun is well insulated it will loose very little temp in four hours.

[Brotherton Lad]

Yes, overnight mashing in a low oven used to be a standard process for home-brewers in the 60s.

[raiderman]

If you go back before the Victorians applied science to brewing and understood the mash the traditional way of brewing was to fill a hopper with malt, flood it with hot water and leave overnight. They drained it off in the morning and brewed a strong ale, added more boiling water to the spent grains and ran that off and made a weaker ale. I reckon your mash will work, sparging might be more tricky depending on how much volume you have left

[Tony01]

Hey raiderman .. that's exactly what I did yesterday. A partigyle. I must post the recipe and pics!

[raiderman]

tony, please post the details i'd be interested to learn how it went

[boingy]

tony, please post the details i'd be interested to learn how it went

He already has:

www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=35224

[raiderman]

He already has:

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=35224

excellent very innerstin, respect to the man, its got me thinking that i'd like to give it a go for a winter ale

[Tony01]

Cheers!

Yes .. it was interesting. If I'd had more time, I think I could have attempted a third beer from the grain... just to see if it was possible!

[CJBrew]

Overnight mashes are fine so 4 hours will be OK. Choose your starting temperature; most of the mash is done within 30-45 minutes.

/edit if your tun is not well insulated and you lost lots of heat it may be worth doing a mash-out infusion to ~76'C...