robertbartsch
Well-Known Member
OK, so after about a 10 year absence, I began to brew again. So far, I have 6 five gallon batches under my belt and I am now using soda kegs and a kegerator. This eliminates a lot of mess, time and bother that caused me to stop brewing in the past.
I do enjoy the brewing process and this weekend I brewed two PM batches but it took a long time (about 8 hours - store runs, steeping, boils, cooling).
Since I have a busted ankle and cannot play golf now, this is OK but I would like to take steps to reduce the brew day to a more resonable time period.
My two-batch brew day using a 3.0 gallon and 5.5 gallon SS pot started like this:
* Buy supplies at the local brew shop
* Sanitize equipment including plastic fermentors
* boil several gallons of water for top-off and toss them in the fermentors
* Steep specialty grains - two batches - for 45 minutes each
* Boil water, add wort, extracts, hops, etc.
* Cool wort in sink using ice baths.
* Transfer to fermentors and wait until fully cool
* Pitch yeast
So I have a few things that I can think of to reduce total time including:
* Buy more pots so I can do two or more specalty grain steeps at the same time
* Use two pots to make two boils (2 five gallon batches) at the same time
* Use multiple grain bags for multiple steep batching
* Use a wort chiller
Did I miss anything obvious? Is it practicle to brew four batches in a single day and avoid the two batch every other week? My kitchen is average sized with a 4 burner gas stove.
What other things should be considered?
Thx.
I do enjoy the brewing process and this weekend I brewed two PM batches but it took a long time (about 8 hours - store runs, steeping, boils, cooling).
Since I have a busted ankle and cannot play golf now, this is OK but I would like to take steps to reduce the brew day to a more resonable time period.
My two-batch brew day using a 3.0 gallon and 5.5 gallon SS pot started like this:
* Buy supplies at the local brew shop
* Sanitize equipment including plastic fermentors
* boil several gallons of water for top-off and toss them in the fermentors
* Steep specialty grains - two batches - for 45 minutes each
* Boil water, add wort, extracts, hops, etc.
* Cool wort in sink using ice baths.
* Transfer to fermentors and wait until fully cool
* Pitch yeast
So I have a few things that I can think of to reduce total time including:
* Buy more pots so I can do two or more specalty grain steeps at the same time
* Use two pots to make two boils (2 five gallon batches) at the same time
* Use multiple grain bags for multiple steep batching
* Use a wort chiller
Did I miss anything obvious? Is it practicle to brew four batches in a single day and avoid the two batch every other week? My kitchen is average sized with a 4 burner gas stove.
What other things should be considered?
Thx.