Brewing Time?

How long does your brew day take and could you reduce it? Would you want to reduce it?

I don't think I can realy get mine down any more.

30min Heating water (Can sometimes be a little less)
90min Mash ( Could maybe drop this a little)
20min Batch sparge (Min)
30min heat to boil (max)
60min boil
30min cool (max)

5 hours.

I can cut corners an work smart but I can't really crop more than 30 minutes off that. I need some of the times to prep and clean kit.

I break up my brew day. Usually the night before brew day, I weigh and crush my grain and weigh and lay out my different hop additions. I also dechlorinate my brewing liquor and have my recipie laid out for salts additions if needed.

On brew day, I pre heat my mash tun and start heating my brewing liquor. When I empty my mash tun of pre heating water, I put that into my kettle along with my IC. This preheats my kettle a bit and helps clean/refresh the outside of my IC.


I dough in and mash for usually 1 hour and sparge for 30 to 40 minutes. Boil for 60 minutes and chill for 30 minutes. I then let settle any break material and if doing a lager I will chill to 10c if my tap water temp isn't up to getting my wort down to lager pitching temps, by putting it in my lager fridge. Aerating my wort takes me 30 minutes and I hope on getting this time down when I get an o2 system.

In between all this I'm cleaning my equipment as it is finished for brewing.

So all-in-all I take about 5 to 6 hours on brew day to do a relaxing brewing session. After all, if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't do it.

I know you have problems getting propane burners at a reasonable cost, the only thing that jumps out at me is the time it takes you to reach a boil. I'd also do an iodine test after mashing for sixty minutes, you may well be completely converted. Beyond that, most of the time element is out of your control.

I was at just about 5 1/2 hours last time, including all prep and cleanup, and I could live with that. Didn't have to rush, but I also wasn't beermaking all day, I had time to get some other stuff done as well.

Ive recently started heating my sparge water on my propane burner using my ceramic canning pot which is real thin. I can boil 5 gallons in about 20 minutes now. This has brought my brewday down to 4 hours now.

But.....switching over to 10 gallons really soon, and Im going to be fly sparging so that will add about another hour to it.

Do you really think a 90 minute mash is neccesary orfy?

Conversion with todays modern malts usually takes about 20 minutes or so. The other time spent mashing only develops your wort profile ie; dextrins for body etc.
Mashing at 90 minutes will usually give a very fermentable wort.

Chimone said:

Ive recently started heating my sparge water on my propane burner using my ceramic canning pot which is real thin. I can boil 5 gallons in about 20 minutes now. This has brought my brewday down to 4 hours now.

But.....switching over to 10 gallons really soon, and Im going to be fly sparging so that will add about another hour to it.

Do you really think a 90 minute mash is neccesary orfy?

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I'm not sure. I cut my last one down to 75mins and the effieciency didn't suffer. I'll slowly cut it down.

My last brew was 4hr 15 which I reckon is as good as it gets.

I cut my time down considerably by getting 55,000 btu propane turkey fryers. Not sure if that's an option across the pond, but, that's the number one thing.

boo boo said:

Mashing at 90 minutes will usually give a very fermentable wort.

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so that give you a much dryer beer?

It is what it is: a session takes about 4 to 4.5 hours minimum.

Some time effeiciency things that I do:

1. Instead of pre-heating the mash tun, I bring the strike water to about 15 degrees F higher than I need, pour it in the cooler, and and ad the grain when it has settled to the exact temp I need (usually a few minutes). I got this tip from Rich Brewer.

2. Start heating sparge water early enough. You can always take it past your target temp and then let it sit in the pot until you're ready to start the sparge. This way you're never waiting for the sparge water.

3. The other thing I do is only get out the gear I need for each step. Then, while I'm waiting for the mash, I get out the gear needed for sparging/boiling. During the boil, I get out the chiller, fermenter, etc. I use the chiller run-off water to mix up sanitizer in the fermenter. This keeps the brewing area uncluttered and minimizes time used hauling gear out. (I brew outside but my gear lives in a few different place inside + sopme on the garage.)

About 5 to 5 1/2 hours. I don't time it and never get in a rush. I got all day if I need it and so time isn't that important to me. Sometimes I get things ready the day before and sometimes I don't. I don't stress over it either way.

Prowler 13 said:

About 5 to 5 1/2 hours. I don't time it and never get in a rush. I got all day if I need it and so time isn't that important to me. Sometimes I get things ready the day before and sometimes I don't. I don't stress over it either way.

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Wow, I wish I had that luxury. I have a lot of trouble finding enough time for a brew session at all--my stock is really low right now because I went almost all Fall without brewing.

The main problem for me is having to run kids on errands or soccer games or whatever. My wife sometimes has to work on Saturdays so it' just really hard to carve out 5 hours where I can be home. I suppose I could do it in the evening, but I get up at 5:30, so the idea of being up half the night isn't all that appealing.

Ahhh, the advantages of being an old fart that has only a wife and cat to contend with.

Sounds like you are doing pretty good Orfy. As said by others, the only thing you might be able to do is reduce your mash down to 60 minutes.

I have to haul all my equipment from the basement. I also start the night before bringing the equipment up, grinding the grain, measuring hops, and filtering the water.
I try to clean and prep as I go. I heat the sparge water about 30 minutes into the mash. While the sparge is progressing I clean the tun and put it away. During the boil, after I'm sure the pot isn't going to boil over, I sanitize the carboy and any other equipment that will touch the cooled wort. I also clean up and prep my immersion chiller.
My day slows down when the beer is in the fermenter. By then I don't feel like cleaning so it probably takes me longer than it should.
Average day for me is about 5 1/2 to 6 hours.

Last Wednesday was my last brew 'night'. I was tied up on the weekend, and wanted to rack into the secondary before I leave for Christmas. I started at 8:15 and hit the sack at 12:50. That 5:00 am baby feeding and 6:00 am alarm sure came early!

I picked up a second turkey fryer on clearance at Target. It was 30% off the $24.99 clearance price for a 30 qt. I figure I can use it to boil my pre-heat water while I am heating my mash water, and collect my sparge wart while heating up the first runnings. It should cut 15-30 minutes off of my time.

I do about 5.5 hours but I can cut that down a bit by bringing the wort to the boil before the sparge finishes. I sometimes extend this to 6 or even 7 hours to give a longer mash and boil but then I'm not in a hurry.

/Phil.

I start when I start and finish when I finish. Not looking to start timing it and not looking to cut off any time.

Brew day;
1) Turn off cell phone (only one I have)
2) Turn on some tunes
3) Brew pot of coffee
4) Start brew
5) Finish brew
6) Start clean up, have brew
7) Have another brew, finish clean up
8) Day finished

All I time is what I have to time. My brew day is mine, I give enough of me the rest of the week I deserve 1 day to do exactly what I want, and it will be that way until the day I die.

Not tried it myself but some chaps around here mash overnight to break the process up, what do you think?