Least distruptive brewing

[sunners1]

My Mrs complained about the smell, told her where to go but then re-evaluated. Hot weather last week I brewed in the garden with a 'Out of Bounds Area' for the little one, he played,I brewed! All happy! Clean up after bedtime.

 

[-Bezza-]

Worth mentioning again what has been said previously in the thread. Mash at a higher temp. for an overnighter. My early attempts were too dry. I use a 2 or 3 degree C higher strike temp than I would for a 60 minute mash.

I mashed at 65 with the pump off. Turned the pump on again in the morning and temp dropped by 2 degrees. Also, grain kit was a Christmas present so not the freshest. Still, 2% down...

 

[peebee]

... Time waited is time wasted, time to lean means time to clean etc.

You are one of those cigar smoking "grey men" (from the kids film/tv-series "Momo"), aren't you? You are certainly repeating their script.

 

[Ajhutch]

My Mrs complained about the smell, told her where to go but then re-evaluated. Hot weather last week I brewed in the garden with a 'Out of Bounds Area' for the little one, he played,I brewed! All happy! Clean up after bedtime.

I have a similar issue in that my wife hates the smell. I tend to only brew when she’s out now. I did try one outside on Easter weekend while the kids were playing in the garden and it was a nightmare, too many distractions. My wife was away for a week and I brewed three times. All that meant is when she got back I had to answer why there is a fermenting bucket in pretty much every nook and cranny of the house!

 

[The Baron]

Well there you go, it's one of those things that you might get away with, but there is definitely a potential for spoiling your brew.

As Steve says nothing wrong with overnight mashing but be careful of leaving it too long as the temp drop will go below mash temps and I am not 100% sure of the actual temp but I think it is about 45C when the mash will start to get a cheesy smell and ruin the beer. I know as I had this happen to me once as I meant to carry on with the brew in the morning after the overnight mash and got called into work. I got home about 2pm and proceeded to do the rest of the brew hoping the cheesy smell would be driven off but no so do be warned as there is a max time and temp drop that should be taken into consideration. I did read up about it but can not fully remember the exact temp and what it does to the grain. The beer had a cheesy smell when you put it to your nose but did not have a cheesy taste it was more like a sour beer so I am guessing it is something to do with the Lactobacillus in the grain maybe I am sure somebody will add the science bit to this post

 

[strange-steve]

Yep that's a tell tale sign of bacterial contamination (probably strep or clostridium) in the mash producing isovaleric and/or butyric acid which can both have a cheesy aroma. When the temp gets to low 40s or high 30s it's right in the goldilocks zone for these bugs.

 

[The Baron]

Thanks Steve for the science bit I had read up on it when it happened to me but could not remember the exact reason just that it was a temp drop below 45c. So be warned if you do overnight mashes make sure the temp does not drop too much

 

[strange-steve]

Only thing is, my efficiency was terrible and no real ideas why. Still, it was a strong beer so should come out around 7.3% target than 9.1%

Any ideas yet what happened? What was your actual efficiency?

 

[-Bezza-]

Any ideas yet what happened? What was your actual efficiency?

Not sure really. I'll post up further details in my brew thread. Other than grain age and mash temp, wondered if pH went too low. I'm not going to sweat it in this beer but don't want to make a habit of it!!

 

[GerritT]

You are one of those cigar smoking "grey men" (from the kids film/tv-series "Momo"), aren't you? You are certainly repeating their script.

Doesn't mean I'm incorrect tho

 

[Martin O]

There are a few guides and recipes for no boil brewing David Heath has made they look like a time saver if your pushed and fancy trying something different.

 

[Ashman]

I tried the 5.30am brewday but wasn’t done until 10.30am. The wife was not best pleased as she wanted to go out and leave the little one with me at 9am (I got my time calc a little off). Maybe an overnight mash and a 5am start would have been better.

 

[Arcs]

I'll probably get spanked for saying this as you AG, but do the odd extract/Coopers brew? Done in 22 mins ;O

 

[stz]

What saves time for me ...

- heat just the mash liquor using the usual burner filling with an electric kettle filled and blended from the hot tap. Because the volume is lower and the starting point is higher it comes to temperature much faster than trying to heat ALL my liquor. I can be mashing in within 20 minutes of deciding to brew.
- Once I've mashed in use the same method to heat the rest of the water. Because the mash can take 60 minutes I've quite a lot of time to do this and again, the volumes are lower so it heats up quicker. Use the rest of the time to setup the copper, chiller and pump.
- Vorlauf and collect first runnings fast, almost like you would when batch sparging. The aim is to get a few inches in the copper immediately so you can get the burner on and the wort warming before reverting to a more sedentary sparge.
- Sparge at 80C. Keep your sparge liquor low in residual alkalinity and don't sparge to death and don't fear the tannins. Bringing everything to the boil from a slightly higher start point.
- Perform a hybrid sparge. Perform two batch sparges and then fly sparge the bit that is left. A very steady fly sparge can take me up to 2 hours, batch sparge can be less than 20 minutes.
- While waiting for the boil clean up, sanitise the pump/chiller. Sanitise fermenter/s.
- Shorten the mash, shorten the boil. Many grists are 'done' in 40-45 minutes. Many beers can be made 'raw' or with very short boils depending on goals. Adjust recipes to bitter with a 40 minute boil rather than 60, the amount of hops is minor.
- If you've a freezer or fridge for fermentation collect a little faster and warmer and rely on the chilling to bring it down. Pitch it later on after cleaning up and/or when you've the time that evening.

I'm brewing two quick sours today. Because my starting gravity is 39 I have space to use extra grain and efficiency be damned. Using all the above, with only 5 minute boil and the fact I only need to chill it to 40C I'll have produced two batches of beer in a little less than two and a half hours.

 

[GerritT]

I'll probably get spanked for saying this as you AG, but do the odd extract/Coopers brew? Done in 22 mins ;O

I AG too, but have got a can of LME IPA in the pantry, just for that specific day when the planets line up to GIVE ME A **** DAY and I need to do something to make me feel better.

 

[MickDundee]

If SWMBO wasn’t hungover I reckon I would have been done by 10AM this morning. Planned on getting the mash on at 6 but ended up being 6:45. Finished up at 10ish then cleaned up after lunch.

 

[GerritT]

That's quite an early start, not afraid you'll wake up the rest of the house?

 

[MickDundee]

That's quite an early start, not afraid you'll wake up the rest of the house?

My kids are wide awake at 6:15 7 days a week regardless of when they go to bed so it’s not a major issue (although nobody surfaced until after 7 this morning) but our house is very soundproof (contrary to what many will have you believe about new builds).

I grind my grain and bring my gear into the house the night before so really the only noise is from the tap filling the boiler.

 

[Zee]

Have a look at the short and shoddy series on The Brulosophy website.
20mins mash, 20mins boil and looks like it gives good results. You will just have to calculate for the efficiency hit.

I plan to give them a go when the odd keg gets emptied.