Overnight mashing

[perdido]

I did my second overnight mash this weekend. I left it ar 20ºC for 4 hours and then a fairly standard mash regime. I timed just right and woke up to the BM beeping after 10 min at 78ºC.
I'm a believer!!!

[DWP]

I completed my second Over Night Mash on my 20Lt brau and got great consistent results

Both were with 5.7kg of malt - mash in with 26Lt, sparged with 9lts, final volumes were both 20Lts into the FV's (I have alot of trub losses from 200g plus late kettle additions) Both hit 1.057 gravity.

This mash profile increased my brewhouse eff by 10%, which means higher gravity from less malt. I will try and increase to 6.2kg and see how the efficiency holds up and if its ok push for a 7kg malt bill which in the past has been at <50% Brewhouse Eff.

Previous to this I had the following Brewhouse Efficiencys (not Mash Eff, my mash eff for teh past 5 beers are >90%)

3-4.5kg grist = 68%
4.5-6kg grist = 63%
>6kg grist = <58%

Mash Profile (system can only do 180min rest max)

Mashin @ 25c ( tap water temp in summer )
1st rest @ 25c - 180m
2nd rest @ 25c - 180m
3rd rest @ 63c - 30m
4th rest @ 73c - 30m
5th rest @ 78c - 90m

Mash in at 930pm and at 7am its beeping to lift the malt pipe, I can sparge/lauter, boil, cool/transfer & cleanup in under 3.5hrs, that is FKN Unreal!!!

My look at moving the Beta Rest and Alpha rest back to a single step at 65c and mash out at 74c for 20mins, the reason for this is I found that the extended mash out rest of 90mins made the beer slightly darker.

[Krmak]

I found that the extended mash out rest of 90mins made the beer slightly darker.

Was the darker beer also more bitter/acrid? Would think that 90 min @ 78 would extract more tannins out of the grain?

[dinnerstick]

I have to bring up again that many commercial breweries take far longer than 90 minutes to fully complete mashout, vorlauf, lauter, sparge, vorlauf, lauter steps, at 78 degrees. Of course that doesn't rule out that slightly more tannins might be extracted than would be in a shorter duration, but it does say that there isn't a wholesale over the top tannin extraction with prolonged time at 78.

[BrauTim]

Tannin extraction normally happens above 80°C, I wouldn't worry too much at 78°C

[Nesto]

Tannin extraction normally happens above 80°C, I wouldn't worry too much at 78°C

+1. The main reason to have a rest at 77/78C is to denature the enzymes in the mash so that further activity (like extracting tannic acid) is inhibited.

[McMullan]

Tannins are water soluble molecules. They leach out to aqueous solutions, even at low temperatures, given enough time. 80 degrees is simply the optimum temperature. As far as I know no enzymes are directly involved. In fact, tannins are known to inhibit enzyme activity, which is one reason why mash pH is important. As pH increases, tannin leaching increases, even at low temperatures. I have read somewhere that a pH >5.8 might be of more concern for excess tannin leaching, especially at higher temperatures, than high temperatures alone. I'm planning to do an overnight mash, but I won't be incubating at mash out temperature for any longer than usual. I'm quite happy with the tannin levels in my beers, good hot and cold breaks and no chill haze yet I'm going to test with a crystal clear Kolsch recipe and process I know works.

[dinnerstick]

indeed. mash pH should be well below the 'magic' threshold of 5.8, the danger can come with excessive sparging, where the buffering capacity of the mash is lost and pH can rise sharply. we simply don't face those problems in extended mashout temps. here's a reference from my favorite german:
http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.ph ... of_Tannins

[McMullan]

[quote=http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_pH_affects_brewing#Extraction_of_Tannins[/quote]

...nice resource

[Nesto]

Tannins are water soluble molecules. They leach out to aqueous solutions, even at low temperatures, given enough time. 80 degrees is simply the optimum temperature. As far as I know no enzymes are directly involved. ...

Oops! I'm quite certain you're correct.

[DWP]

Just ran my 3rd overnight mash with great results. Like previous ones I have an extended mash in period as opposed to an extended mashout, in saying that my mashout is still 60m, this time reducing that temp to 76c based on what Dicko has done.

This mash was with lower grist also to the previous two that were 5.7kg @ 70% brew house eff and >92% mash eff. With this lower 4kg grist I got 78% brew house eff and 92% mash eff

Really glad I have started to do this method. 2 reasons are that it has increased eff by 10% = more for less and also the time.....brewday completed in less than 4 hrs.

[johnrm]

Rather than overnight mash, just last night I sparged, revived the pipe and left my 20l at 78C, ready to start the boil this morning.
Getting ready this morning, I hit the button and started prepping my hops.
Checking the temp, I noticed it was at 66C!
I think the temp may not be maintained at the stage before the ramp up to boil.

[Dalawhisky]

Hello.

First of all, sorry for my bad English.

I use my Braumeister to make beer and whiskey mash.

I have read about the night mashing and wanted to try it myself to whiskey mash.

So I started at 8 in the evening with heating the water to protein break.

There, I started with 1 hour at 50 degrees.
Then I meshed in 480 minutes at 60 degrees.
Finally mashing at 76 degrees for 15 minutes.

Then I lifted malt pipe and sparge with 5 liters of water.
I got an efficiency of 94%

Cheers Dalawhisky

[cpa4ny]

Finally tried an overnight mash after four years of using my BM.

Brewed a saison with ginger-infused palm sugar and rhubarb.

Fantastic - beer in the fermenter, all kitchen cleaned up by lunch time.

Only regret?

Not starting doing these overnight mashes earlier * smack *

[deepbrew]

Great Thread! Thinking of doing it myself. Just two question regarding mash shedules.

I use 50l BM and always to it max capacity (16,5-17kg of grain 55l water) and normally do alfa and beta rests also for much longer (40-60min depends on the beer i make). If i will extend beta and alfa rest, would it have any impact on my beer or not? Lets say 90 and 120min for ex.

The second question would be, what are the pros and cons to let my mash sit in 20C water or at 78C overnight? Can i combine them?

Sorry for my bad english

Regards,
DB