Raw Ale / No Boil

The only 'no boil' beers I've done are Berliner Weisse beers. You get that raw grain, creamed corn kind of flavor and smell from it. Almost barn-yardy (if that's even a word), but that could've possibly been from the sour worting that I did for the Berliner. A raw ale may have other flavor characteristics that a no-boil berliner doesn't have, but that's what I got from mine. This is new to me, and may have to give it a try on a style similar to yours down the road.

 

I've not gone all the way with zero boil before, however in the past I have employed a sour mash, where I let the mash sit for 3-4 days before boiling. I can guarantee you'll get some level of souring that will increase over time. Enjoy it young unless it turns out interesting -- never know exactly what you'll get if you don't boil, as you don't know what sorts of critters are living on your grains and hops, and in your fermenter.

One word of advice: If you use plastic to ferment in, you'll want to dedicate it forever, as you'll never get the contamination out. If you use glass or stainless, then you should be fine but keep in mind that any plastic or rubber fittings will need to be replaced. The wild critters are impossible to get out of soft materials no matter how good your sanitation practices are. This I do know from a lot of experience (lots of dumped batches after one sour batch)! You can't get that stuff out of there once it's there. You might think you've licked the wild beasts but they can come back to haunt you at the most unexpected and inappropriate of times. Dedicate, or use hard materials, then don't worry.

 

Any reason for the 20 minute mash? Why so short? Also, if you're mashing out for pasteurization purposes, you may want to consider going a smidge higher - perhaps 170ish.

 

I don't think there is much of a chance for a soured wort or beer if you're mashing for 20 minutes and mashing out at 170*, not more than usual any how.

 

Interesting that you are doing shorter mashes and boils.... I'm in the same boat. For many years I have been mashing for just 40-45 minutes. I also BIAB. The only reason I don't mash any shorter is for fermentability -- you can achieve very good conversion in just 20 minutes, but your attenuation might suffer, maybe 50% of the time, unless you mash a little longer, which I've found to be 40 minutes. 30-35 minutes was long enough most of the time but not always. 40 minutes, yep, you're good. The last several batches I have only boiled 45 minutes, with no apparent adverse effects. I think I might keep on doing that from here on out -- seems the right balance between IBUs diminishing returns versus not contributing so much flavor from all the hops. In a more hoppy beer I might try boiling just 20-30 minutes sometime to see how that works.

 

Mash the same grain bill at the same temp, but longer, and you'll see attenuability increase. Mash even longer, and it increases more. It's a pretty well known phenomenon, and Kai Troester and Greg Doss have both published experimental results. I only mention this because it sounded like the conversation was (perhaps unintentionally) implying that there's some time threshold below which attenuability suffers, but that there is maximum attenuability for any/all times above that threshold. The cool thing is that it's continuously variable, and so mash time can be used to tailor the wort.

ETA: There is a practical limit, but I'm talking about typical mash times above.

 

squaremile, our processes mine and yours are coincidentally very much alike. I too crush very hard, mash efficiency often in the 90s, always mash 148-152 F, stir like mad, etc. My experiments however were run many years ago before I crushed so hard. So, it might be time to revisit my mash time theory, as the crush might have had some impact indeed.

While I agree @VikeMan that there can be no specific threshold for good mash time vs. bad as it's a continuous process, I do find that 40 minutes mash time is sort of a magical point of diminishing returns on MY system, YMMV. Below that mash time, my data shows that I might be accepting some risk in poor attenuation. Above that time, I seem to always be "in the clear" and really don't get a heck of a lot more out of the extra time anymore, or not enough to where I really care anyway. Plus since I consistently mash fairly low at 148-152 F, this seems to curb any temperature related effects while ensuring "good" attenuation for most beers. If I really want a dry beer (like a saison), then I will go ahead and mash for a full hour or more to help dry it out. But for 90+% of beer styles, while yes I could waste another 20-50 minutes mashing for that extra 2% fermentability or whatever... I find it's really not worth my while. I just prefer my brew days to be over as quickly as possible. It takes long enough as it is. These days, it takes maybe only 3.5 hours on average, instead of 5 hours or whatever else is more standard. Git 'er done.

 

I was wondering about the uniformity of the temp in the mash. In my cooler mash tun, I honk there would be pockets of lower temps where bugs might survive. Perhaps this would bet in a directly heated tun.

 

Lies, there are a finite number of fermentable molecules!

 

That's a very good point. OP, you would want to give it a some good stirs after mashing out. Also sanitize any tubing/vorlauf/sparge equipment you use after mashout. The easiest route may just be to collect your wort in your kettle, and direct heat the batch to 190* to be on the safe side.

 

By honk, I mean think.

 

*giggling* I find something childishly humorous in this. I honk, therefore I am. I mean, just honk about it. The possibilities are endless. *giggles*

 

I thought about typing this one in about 10 seconds after I made my follow-up post. Except I was going to include some faux stupid iPhone autocorrect error, like "I honk, therefore jam" or something like that.

 

Keep it cool, low 60s Fahrenheit for the first 24 hours that you see krausen, then bring up to ~70 F (room temp) for another couple days. How do you plan on packaging this beer? It will likely continue to ferment for months. Bottles might explode unless you leave it in the fermenter for a good 6 weeks or so until activity is absolutely gone. Otherwise, if you want to drink it young, plastic soda jugs might be best for this. Or keg it.