Extended Brewday

[grim reality]

Due to my current situation dedicated brewdays where I can do the job in one session from crush to pitch are few and far between. So to continue brewing as often as I want (which is never enough in fairness!) I'm having to think outside the box and split my brewday up into segments.
Evening 1 - recipe write up, water calculations, crush grains
Evening 2 - prepare water and adjust to requirements
Evening 3 - mash and boil
Evening 4 - pitch and wash up

Anyone else ever work like this and how do you find the results? Obviously this involves the 'no chill' method which I have read both good and bad things about. Cheers!

[Simon_]

I know it's hard but I think 3 & 4 are best done together. It's just harder to clean it when it's left longer. Try look for other efficiencies like cleaning up everything once you're finished with it during the mash and boil.

I've found it hard to work late hop additions with no chill. 

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

With no chill, your beer may not be down to pitch temp in the 18-20 hours between end of boil and pitching.

[Bubbles]

Hi grim,

The tasks you've outlined on Evenings 1 & 2 take a negligible amount of time. It's mashing and boiling (and to a lesser extent, cleanup) that are the time consuming parts.

Most of my brews are done over two days:

Evening: Prep water, crush grain, mash, lauter, sparge, clean-up
Morning: Boil, cool, pitch, cleanup

I wouldn't advise leaving your equipment overnight caked in wort. Harder to clean the next day. If you're using kettle elements, you might run into trouble leaving them until next day to clean.

Slightly off-topic, but I would caution use of the no-chill method of cooling wort. I know a lot of people have no problems doing it, but the jury is still out on the safety of this method. Have a listen to the last Basic Brewing Radio episode which dealt with the subject. Personally, I don't believe it's worth the risk.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

The botulism risk that scares people only manifests with extended time in the cube, and no brewer has ever been sick from it.

There are other risks though, like grassiness from extended cube hopping, and making a mess of your place when pouring cubes.

If you are only warehousing some wort for 72 hours it's a different story

[molc]

Most of my brews are done over two days:

Evening: Prep water, crush grain, mash, lauter, sparge, clean-up
Morning: Boil, cool, pitch, cleanup

This is a cunning approach! Questions!
1. So, do you put the sparged liqour into the boil kettle and just leave it covered overnight before starting the boil the next morning?
2. How much does it cool by before you start the boil the next morning?
3.  Is there not going to be a degradation of the liquor as it is now a sugar water exposed over a 12 hour period?
4. Since it's boiled, I wouldn't worry about bacteria as it will all be killed, though is there potential for a slight souring over the rest time?

[Pheeel]

I get two beers done in one day. I try and do a BIAB partial and a full all grain at the same time. I have an induction heater for the BIAB and full gas for the all grain. I also use bottled water cos I'm lazy. End to end I can normally get it done in 4 hours

Weeks before
   I don't count recipe write up or water calc as time spent on brew day. I often do this weeks before

Night before
   Collect all the equipment together. Crush grain

Day of
   Clean BIAB kettle if needed (normally not)
   Put on water for BIAB
   Clean other equipment
   Mash BIAB
   Push on water for all grain
   Sparge and kick off BIAB boil
   Mash all grain
   BIAB boil starts
   Sparge all grain
   Boil all grain
   Cool BIAB
   Start cleaning equipment
   Pitch BIAB
   Cool all grain
   Pitch all grain
   Finish cleaning equipment
   
   

[Bubbles]

This is a cunning approach! Questions!
1. So, do you put the sparged liqour into the boil kettle and just leave it covered overnight before starting the boil the next morning?
2. How much does it cool by before you start the boil the next morning?
3.  Is there not going to be a degradation of the liquor as it is now a sugar water exposed over a 12 hour period?
4. Since it's boiled, I wouldn't worry about bacteria as it will all be killed, though is there potential for a slight souring over the rest time?

1. Yes.
2. Barely warm after 10-12 hours stand time, so it does take a little extra time (and a few cents of electricity) to get back it up to the boil.
3. Degradation in what way? Not long enough to expose the wort to souring organisms. All the enzymes are created at the start of the mash, so I don't think it affects attenuation etc.
4. As above. But I will say that I've been doing it this way for 3 years and never had a problem, if that's worth anything.



It's a good method. Especially when you have kids..

[molc]

Cool. I assume you do a mash out to hold enzyme activity as well. Dec going to give that a go, maybe when I try a particularly complicated mash program and done want to spend the whole day brewing