We tried overnight mashing...

[@Stevejohnson-od3mk]

I've done 3 batches since first hearing about overnight mashing on your show. Heat (electric) and pumps turned off, insulated and I've not had any issue with lactobacillus. My OG is consistently 10 points higher. Combining overnight mashing with pressure fermentation are my preferred brewing methods . Glad y'all didn't give up on the batch.

[@Leadership_matters]

Yah. Insulation is huge if you turn off the heat. I love overnight mashing.

[@vernontafte1718]

I do overnight mashing I leave the kettle turned on but not recirculating turns out good every time

[@jkmarut]

Hi Gracie!

[@apack76]

Happy to see James content with the results!

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

He was so thankful that the batch wasn't ruined! I got to try it before heading back home and it is very very good.

[@gearhead1969]

Thanks for watching and replying!🍻

[@chrisfanning-muirhead8329]

Thanks for the insight!

[@brewingbadTN]

Thanks for the content and sharing your experience. James is a natural and would love to see more of these type videos with him. Cheers 🍻

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

I completely agree - he's a natural. You'll be seeing more in the future as we've got some new videos on our calendar already!

[@gearhead1969]

Not sure about that Guys but thanks for the kind words. We are working on more videos down the road.

[@jgar538]

Hey James. I'm curious, what was the mash temperature when you came back in the morning? Great short video with lots of good content. Cheerz.

[@gearhead1969]

When I got in the next morning the mash was at 105 degrees.

[@twburnskc]

Great job on this guys. I was able to try the beer and it is very good despite the issue with things growing on the top!

[@itszachdude909]

I was under the impression the heat was on the entire time for overnight mash? Was there a ph measurement of the mash after that lacto was growing? I’d be curious on that

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

We might've misunderstood the 'challenge' but we were told shutting off the heat source (and recirc) was part of "overnight mashing", so that's what we did. I'll ask James if he took a pH on the mash but I don't think we did. If we try this again in the future, we'll first try it in our Cooler Brew mash tun, and then maybe again on the HERMS but leave heat & recirculation overnight too.

[@vruychev]

I just brewed overnight... a pilsner! I've never had problems with the overnight mashing. Always turn off heating and pumps, just let it rest. This gives me higher efficiencies and also to split my brew-day in half, which allows me to brew virtually any day of the week.

[@gearhead1969]

Cool! I noticed efficiency was a lot higher and it has a dryer profile.

[@vruychev]

@@gearhead1969 Absolutely, because as the wort cools down you hit all mash rests on the way. I really love overnight mashing. The only "disadvantage" is that it ferments drier like you said. This is why when I make European lagers/pilsners I do one decoction for residual sweetness.

[@gearhead1969]

@@vruychev That's a great idea. I do like drier beers though.

[@deckerhand12]

To do an all night mash you would need systems like the mash and boil and anvil foundry that has times

[@Leadership_matters]

I'm not sure why you turned everything off. When I overnight mash I connect my PID to my herms or leave my mash and boil on recirculating and it stays at the perfect temp all night long. I used to do it in a cooler and that would work great

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

So, the way it was explained to us was that we should shut off our heat source and recirculation. Afterwards, our friends said doing it the way we did it is much better when done in a cooler - so maybe we'll try that?

[@Leadership_matters]

@@HomebrewHappyHour when I recirculate without a heat source, my temp drops fast. If I was going to leave it overnight without heat, I would do it in a cooler without recirculating. I prefer to recirculate with heat. I get a consistent temp throughout the mash and an excellent conversion. I have been overnight mashing for 15 years btw. I have tried it all.

[@rlgriffis]

I’ve been overnight mashing for a couple years. I have small children and a full brew day is impossible. I mash in a Gatorade tun. I have never had an infection (knock on wood). Works awesome for me. I get great results. I batch sparge after running off. I generally aim for a mashout temp.

[@gearhead1969]

I think overnight mashing in a cooler is a lot better than a SS kettle. They hold temps better and this is probably why there is no lacto.

[@rlgriffis]

@@gearhead1969 maybe. I think just covering it probably is the difference.

[@gearhead1969]

@@rlgriffis I had the lid on the mash tun. I even insulated the top.

[@cogeek797]

I'm sure it was mentioned and I am just going to assume it was a Kolsch but what recipe did James and Josh do for this?

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

lol no it was a pils! When James is in charge, you can bet $5 he's brewing a pils.

[@gearhead1969]

I brewed my simple Pilsener recipe. Just pilsen malt and a little carapils. Single hop with Spalter Select.

[@michaeljames3509]

Lacto is wiped out at temperatures above 105F, something else went haywire. You should have checked pH. Make sure you stir enough air into the water with the soup spoon and canoe paddle while killing evil dough balls. Is hot side oxidation a myth? Add the crushed malt into the tun and use water that was boiled, cooled and racked off at least two times and brought in from the bottom of the tun instead of slopping malt into brewing water that nothing was done with to reduce oxygen. A vortex air eliminator is installed in the brewing water supply line in breweries. Where did you come up with the idea to rest mash at 150F overnight? At 150F Alpha releases the highest volume of simple sugar, glucose within one hour, then the enzyme denatures. The higher the temperature the quicker Alpha denatures and you started out at 156F and let the mash cool down. Enzymes don't work backwards. There is absolutely no reason for overnight mashing at 150F. Moonshiners use 149, 150F because of the high amount of glucose that forms in an hour when Alpha liquefies amylose. The more glucose the more alcohol. Overnight mashing temperature is at 50 to 55F and the step is only used when steely malt is used. A low temperature is used so that enzymes do not fully activate. If you are buying steely malt then overnight mash, otherwise, with the cheap, high modified, malt that you use a rest for three hours at a low temperature will soften up the starch because Alpha is active at 55F but working slowly. You purchase high modified, to over modified, malt, the malt is less rich in enzyme content than higher quality, more expensive, low modified, malt and because high modified, malt contains less enzymes you have to preserve the enzymes by using a low temperature. Modification and protein content are important numbers on a malt spec sheet. Do you know that every bag of malt comes with a malt spec sheet? They are online and they are used for determining the quality of malt before malt is purchased. A recipe that recommends 2 row pils malt without listing the malthouse that made the malt is useless because a malt spec sheet cannot be obtained. It is the same as buying a 2 door car sight unseen and without knowing who built the car. Do you buy things that you put in your belly without knowing who made the stuff? Pils is produced from dextrinous extract not from extract that contains only high fermenting, simple sugar, glucose and sweet tasting, nonfermenting types of simple sugar which are released during a single step at one temperature. You skipped conversion, dextrinization and gelatinization. That is why it only takes you four or five hours to make beer. Single temperature infusion method taught to home brewers is the brewing method moonshiners use and conversion is skipped in moonshining because there is no reason for a moonshiner to waste time on a step that converts simple sugar, glucose, into fermentable, complex types of sugar and have to wait for secondary fermentation to occur when an enzyme in yeast converts complex sugar back into the glucose that was already in the extract, upstream. Also, certain types of home brew yeast cannot convert fermentable, complex sugar and that is another reason why conversion is skipped in home brew land. A spec sheet comes with yeast at least it is supposed to. The chemist indicates on the spec sheet when yeast can or cannot convert certain types of complex sugar and advises the brewer to avoid the step that forms the sugar when yeast cannot convert complex sugar back into glucose. Maltotriose can make up 15% of the sugar in extract and when yeast cannot convert the sugar beer tends to be overly sweet. Maltotriose forms during conversion and it is responsible for natural carbonation but in the beer that you make only fermentable glucose forms and when yeast rips through the glucose there aren't any fermentable sugars left in the extract for natural carbonation and that is why you have to artificially carbonate the beer with sugar, CO2 injection or pressure fermenting during primary fermentation. Take a look at a recipe for malt liquor in home brew land books. You will notice that the step mash method is used in home brew land to make malt liquor which is lower quality beer than ale and lager. To make low quality malt liquor a more time consuming and a more complex brewing method is used than the single temperature infusion method that you used for making Pils. That is hilarious! Single temperature infusion is used by moonshiners because it is the simplest and quickest brewing method out there. Since the brewing method is used in home brew land there are thousands of recipes to make simple and quick IPA, Porter, Stout, etc., with a brewing method that does only one thing, liquefies simple starch. The brewing method is so simple that a master moonshiner lets Lud and Wingnut make the beer while he stays out of the limelight so they get caught and not him. They dump in Kwak yeast and yeast nutrient and fermentation ends within three days. Do you know what occurs when hot extract recirculates through a grain bed for a long period of time, like an hour? Over sparge occurs which extracts tannin. Let's say the pump recirculates 1 gallon per minute of hot extract through a grain bed for 60 minutes, that is 60 gallons of hot extract flowing through a grain bed sized for a 5 to 10 gallon batch of beer, that is over sparge. Tannin extraction is a time, temperature, pH thing. That is why vorlauf is limited to 10 minutes using a small volume of extract.

[@gearhead1969]

Thanks for the feedback Michael. Lots to unpack on this one. Thanks for watching and more importantly, leaving a fantastic, very informative comment!

[@marklpaulick]

Why not keep the element and pump on to maintain the temp all night? That’s what I do.

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

The way "overnight mashing" was originally explained to us is how we did it but I agree that, if we're going to use the HERMS again, we'll definitely keep the element and recirculation going the entire time!

[@DaveTremel]

I'm not exactly sure what you did wrong. I've been using overnight mashing in a 10 gallon Home Depot beverage cooler for years. Never had a problem. Cuts a lot of time out of my actual brew day. My efficiency has gone up. Very rarely do I have mash efficiency below 80%. Most of the time it's 85% or higher. Not everything works for everyone though. Thanks for the video.

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

We're not entirely sure either! Our friends who have done overnight mashing also suggested that, unless you're going to keep your heat source turned on (electric brewing) and/or also have recirculation the entire overnight, then doing this in an Igloo styled cooler - like what you're using - yields the BEST results. Maybe we'll bust out our Cooler Brew system and try it on that?

[@DaveTremel]

@@HomebrewHappyHour the cooler does keep the temp higher overnight. I agree with your thought that the temp may have dropped too low.

[@jkmarut]

@@DaveTremel Yes I think this is the key. Cooler versus stainless mash tun. That grain on top got pretty cool overnight no doubt.

[@gearhead1969]

I agree with the cooler vs kettle theory. Although I had insulated the mash the temp fell to almost 100 degrees the next morning. Looking at the amount of lacto in the mash, it appeared to be cooler for quite some time. Skimmed and sparged. No issue. Tasty beer in the end. Fun experiment! Thanks for the comments!

[@robertfrye4300]

What was your PH at mash in vs your 1st runnings PH? I ask because I don’t think it was lacto. If it was lacto, but your PH didn’t change, you shouldn’t care...you’re going to boil. If you overnight mash and think it’s lacto, take a PH reading...

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

That's a great question and I'll ask James to see if he took a ph reading. In your opinion, what do you think it was? I can say that this batch turned out pretty solid after a few weeks of conditioning in a keg so, whatever it was, thankfully didn't affect adversely affect it!

[@brewjamm]

I leave the heat on overnight. Never had the lactobacillus.

[@jkmarut]

I leave the heat on and the recirculation going.

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

So, replying to you and @jkmarut - I'm not one to argue semantics (unless it's a part of a $5 bet with Todd, of course) but the way "overnight mashing" was pitched to us was truly cutting off any heat sources after mashing in and then coming back to the mash the next morning. What y'all are describing was called "continuous mashing" or something like that to me by a longtime brewer friend. Thoughts? I agree with both of y'all though in that if we had kept the heat source on AND recirculation going, we wouldn't have come back to such an ugly sight. However, I'm thankful that the batch turned out pretty stinkin' good!

[@gearhead1969]

Makes sense that it would. The danger zone is below 145 degrees. Might try that later in the Beta range to see how dry we can get it without any amylase.

[@jkmarut]

@@gearhead1969 When I do low carb beers I do overnight at 140, ramping to 150 over 12 hrs. Add a little enzyme in the fermenter ~100% attenuation.

[@cannabiscombatclub1074]

🔥

[@gearhead1969]

🍻

[@clayturney]

you guys are always finding new and exciting ways to ruin a brew

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

We're very good at this niche.

[@Ахриманстоппер]

i am waiting till march sunny days. with such prices for electricity i brew only with sun pannels :))

[@HomebrewHappyHour]

We should do a video for a brew day using only solar power lol