How long can you leave wort before boiling?

[Fuggled Mind]

Last night, I decided to try an overnight mash. I've never really liked the idea because some people say it extracts the bitter tanins from the husks of the grain. However, my partner hates that brewing ties me up for the best part of a day so it seemed a good compromise.

However, for reasons unknown, I decided to sparge the grains and finished around 2am. I put them in the burco, turned the dial to heat level 2 and went to bed. Back up at 6, I turned the heat up and got on with the brewing.

Anyway, was a good brew day and I was finished in no time at all. Took a gravity reading and naturally drank what was in the trial jar. Tasted absolutely fine.

My question is, is it ok to leave the spargings in the boiler overnight if kept at a low temperature? It's too late to go back now but do you think it will be ok?

Cheers

Jason

[mozza]

I would have thought so as the boil will kill any nasties that might have got in there

[Rick_UK]

Should be fine for quite a while pre-boil.

Get a socket timer and set it to come on a couple of hours before you get up. Then it's pretty much done by the time you get up.

Rick

[alix101]

Don't do it personally ...but the boil will take care of any potential nasties....you'll be fine ...well unless you find a mouse doing back stroke

[jonnyt]

The boil won't kill any spores so there will be more risk with this approach

[Fuggled Mind]

Cheers for the info guys. Will see how this one goes and then decide if I'll do it again. Having heard from a good few people on here saying they have good results with overnight mashing, it won't hurt to give it a try.

Jason

[Dunk]

I've never overnight mashed but usually leave the full pre-boil volume overnight before boiling the next day. This means the wort is sitting for about 20hrs. I do bring the whole lot up to 80degrees before putting the lid on to kill any bacteria though.

Don't sweat it, your beer will be fine.

[Lars]

My last 7 or 8 brews have been overnight mashes and there's definitely nonissue with tannin extraction. However, I am finding that its giving me much better efficiency and lower FGs which is ok on some styles but undesirable on others as it results in thinner beers. My latest ipa attenuated down to 1.008 and is beautiful but I recently did a dunkel hefe where FG was 1.010 and its tastes beautiful but is a little thin

[daddies-beer-factory]

according to Graham Wheelers home brewing - after mashing and running off the heater should be set to 77 C to reduce the possibility of saccharification continuing , and not be allowed to cool to favour the extraction of tannins and proteins .

however I am still no expert & would like to question this as mr Wheeler I think is making a lot of work for us non professional brewers.

he overdid the finishing process in his book I think which added more work for me (extra barreling time before bottling)

is this phase (77c) after running off the mash necessary ?

Daddies Beer Factory

[Belter]

See There was a post about this a while back. i think on the other forum, and the general consensus was that the bacteria present could affect the flavour even though it was boiled afterwards. I've never done it myself and can't see it being a problem but a lot of people were saying that it was enough time for bacteria currently present in grains and throughout the brewery to have a detrimental affect on the finished product.

I suppose if people are doing it successfully then it's fine.

[orlando]

he overdid the finishing process in his book I think which added more work for me (extra barreling time before bottling)

More work maybe, better beer definitely. A common fault with homebrewers is impatience ( ). I understand that having been there too many times but as you brew more and have enough stock you can allow things to progress a little more slowly and reap the benefits of it. GW's advice here is good advice, too many brewers separate the yeast from the beer too soon, before it has had a chance to clear up some of the by products of fermentation that are not desirable in the finished beer. By racking off to a conditioning barrell you benefit from bulk aging so when you do bottle or keg you are that much closer to having a decent beer earlier.

[Rookie]

you'll be fine ...well unless you find a mouse doing back stroke

You'll still be fine as long as you serve it through the "Guests Only" tap...and don't tell anyone.

[Blackjack]

Put the HLT on a timer overnight
Go to bed early
get up and mash at 5:30,
mash at a good 67C for one hour.
Race through the sparging,
Boil for one hour.
Job done

[darkonnis]

Indeed, you could always boil it and the nleave it t ocool.

If your beer taste fine, then theres no issue. Just be aware that the longer you leave it, the more stuff will interfere with it. Personally I prefer to just get up early and be done by mid day, prep is the longest part. I'm undecided about a timer switch but I can see myself sorting one out.

[jmc]

Indeed, you could always boil it and the nleave it t ocool.

If your beer taste fine, then theres no issue. Just be aware that the longer you leave it, the more stuff will interfere with it. Personally I prefer to just get up early and be done by mid day, prep is the longest part. I'm undecided about a timer switch but I can see myself sorting one out.

I've done a few overnight mashes and I got higher efficiencies, and dryer beers too.

If you want to brew something with more residual sweetness/body and yet still split the brew day you could mash, sparge to boiler and just heat to 80C+ for 10mins to destroy enzymes. (Then cover/insulate as much as pos, to save heat loss.)
Boil for 60 mins in the morning after stirring up well as trub tends to settle on element overnight.

I've done this a couple of times due to time pressure and it worked OK.
It means you don't have 1 long brew day, but overall time and energy use are increased.