Mashing overnight

[Chris Craig]

http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=30815

Anybody ever try this?  I think I read a post from jamie_savoie about this at some point.

[DandyMason]

Pretty Cool

I know its not really the same thing but I was just watching a Don osborn video, for those of you who are familiar with him, and he sometimes will mash and sparge one day and cover it and then boil the next day... The wort is still ~130 degrees by the time he gets to it the next day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDzKfaCnghQ

I like both of these ideas for saving time and splitting up brew day.

[matt_wolf]

I've been meaning to try this method for quite a while. I'm wondering if more of the water is absorbed by the mash over time, resulting in a thicker mash, and requiring more water for sparging in the morning. Hope to find out this weekend.

[Richard]

I'd be interested to try this side-by-side with normal duration mashing. I don't buy the efficiency claim in the first link (although he does say "some people claim"), and I suspect the sugar profile would in fact be directed towards the simpler side by the alpha-amylase over that time-scale... although how much versus a 2-hour mash would be real interesting to see. Plus you've got to factor in the temperature drop in your strike water (I suspect you'd need boiling, or close to, in some cases to preserve the same volumes).

However if you've only got limited time each day... *shrug*.

If anyone does a side-by-side, I'd love to know how it turns out.

[Chris Craig]

If you read the whole article, he states that you need a really well insulated mash tun.  He's seen about an 8F drop over 6 hours or something like that.  In any case, I think you'd want the strike temperature to be the same as if it were a 60 minute mash.  My understanding is that all the magic happens in the first hour or two.

Colin and I are starting a mash tomorrow at lunch for him to finish after work.  We'll see if it turns out well.  It's the same winter warmer recipe he used on a batch a few weeks ago using a standard 60 minute mash.

[Richard]

Aye, I saw that - he's using some extra insulation to achieve that (space blanket or whatever). That was more based on the observation that he dropped down to 130 (Don Osborne thing above). Whilst the "magic" does only really happen in the first two hours (alpha should denature after then), I'm not sure if that's 100% or if you'd get some residual activity. Certainly an extra hour of alpha activity beyond a sixty minute mash would have some effect on the profile.