How long does your brew day take?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

How long is your brew day?

  • Under 3 hours

  • 3-4 hours

  • 4-5 hours

  • 5+ hours


Results are only viewable after voting.

Professor Frink

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2006
Messages
3,100
Reaction score
31
Location
Beacon, NY
I'm just curious how long everyone's brew day takes. I've talked with different people and gotten so many different numbers. From heating the infusion water to pitching the yeast, what do you average?

I'm usually at 3.5 hours.
 
Mine are 4.5-5 hours, but I 60 minute mash, mash out, fly sparge and 90 miunte boil...

_________________________________________
Primary- Circle City Haus Ale
Secondary- Orange Cascade APA (dry hop)
Keg1- Centennial Blonde (On tap)
Keg2- Oktoberfest (On tap)
Keg3- Christmas Spice
Keg4- Fire In The Hole
Keg5- AIR
Keg6- AIR
Keg7- AIR
Keg8- AIR
 
I budget six hours. It's often a little less than that, but not by much. That's for a ten gallon AG batch.
 
For me it is about 6 hours for one batch and about 7 if I do two. Sometimes I'll clean up the next day. I am usually not too concerned how long it takes.
 
About 4-5 if i am making a traditional beer like a pale ale or something like that. When flaked adjuctns and pisner get thrown in there it takes a bit long or the mash and a 90 minute boil.
 
A follow-up question might be time spent brewing vs. beer produced. I end up often spending 7+ hrs start to finish, but my brew crew can make 40 gal at a time. :rockin:
 
Generally around 6 hours for a 10g batch, from set up through breakdown, cleaning and putting the gear away. Longer if I have to break to put my daughter to bed...
 
5+ for me. Takes me long time for extract batches much less the all-grain ones.

I include all the cleaning work I have to do before and after as well. Kitchen is usually a mess and I want a clean area to work so that usually involves me having to do dishes, clean the counters, and sweep/mop before I begin brewing. Then I usually let the brew pot plus some extra stuff that needs to cleaned soak in it overnight.
 
From hauling out the equipment to final clean-up, I'm usually between 4-5 hours. I've done it in less, but it always feels rushed. :D
 
A follow-up question might be time spent brewing vs. beer produced. I end up often spending 7+ hrs start to finish, but my brew crew can make 40 gal at a time. :rockin:

That's a good point. I've been thinking of bumping up to 10 gallons, I'm curious as to the increased time.
 
It generally takes me between 6 and 7 hours for a 5.5 gallon batch, but that includes everything from start to cleanup and a 90 minute boil. I'm still getting used to my equipment and if I had a second burner I bet I could trim a solid 1.5-2 hours off of that.
 
I like to plan 6 hours, although if I'm prepared and have my chiller rigged up and nothing gets in the way I can do a 5 gallon batch in 4-5 pretty easily. It goes much faster when everything is in one place instead of me having to walk to the house for this, out to the garage for that, etc.

Remembering to heat sparge water is one good tip!

Once my electric system is going I expect to be under 5 hours regularly.
 
Depends on the ambient temp and the temp of faucet water. In the winter months takes me about 4.5-5 hours, as the strike water outside takes longer to heat up but the IC cools faster. In the summer months it has taken me an hour to cool the wort to ale pitching temps with an IC since the faucet water temp is too warm.

Need to really build a whirpool IC, and shave all that cooling wort time down to 5-10 minutes.
 
I'm usually a hair over 4 hours, 10 gal AG (depending on boil length/beer). Just need to make use of your time, with the equipment you have available. With my three burner rig, I get it out, pots setup, water in MLT and HLT and heat going to both. Mill grain, plan out hop additions. By this time I'm usually up to strike temp, dough in, and set recirc pump. Get HLT up to sparge temp and cut heat (but monitor so it's ready to go when I need it). Fly sparge into BK, but give that heat once there is 3 gal in it. By the time I'm done sparging, I'm up to a boil. I also always add more water than I need to my HLT. Once the break occurs in the BK, I dump my MLT and rinse it out. Fill it with the leftover sparge water, add PBW and let it recirc on the first pump. Fill the HLT up with cold water. Once boil is over and beer is transferred, move PBW solution from MLT to BK and start recirculating on the second pump/BK/plate chiller. Transfer cold water to MLT and recirc through first pump. Let this sit for 20 min, dump BK and transfer rinse water to BK from MLT. Rinse for 15 min, and done. Really helps compact the brew day if you're doing something when you're waiting for something else to get done.
 
All grain? 4-4.5 hours of actual brewing from milling to pitching.

Of course I don't count cleaning, clean up, and yeast starter prep.

I could probably shave some time on lautering but i'm not interested in doing that at the cost of wort clarity and what-not.
 
I'm generally right around 6 hours from starting to haul everything out straight through cleanup and putting everything away... Sometimes a little quicker, sometimes slower. This weekend, for instance, I had a guy who said he was gonna come over to hang out for the brew day and see how the whole process works. So I dragged my feet through set up - what should have taken 20 or 30 minutes took closer to an hour, since he wasn't showing up and I was trying to give him time to show up. When it was evident that he wasn't showing, then I picked up the pace, and in the end I clocked in close to 7 hours.

I figure once I can put together an actual brew rig, that'll speed up set up and knockdown quite a bit.
 
Extract 5gal with steeping grains. Setup,boil,pitch and clean up im a shade under 3 hours. When i first started it was alot longer than that. Ive since stream lined my brew day. It's nice to be able to not tie up a full day.
 
For a 10 gallon net AG batch, I budget 6 hours like Homercidal. It typically takes me 45 minutes to get set-up and 20 gallons of water up to strike temps with the e-Kettle. I'm milling grain while waiting for water to heat up. Also, I'll run some star san through the CFC while mashing if I have time, otherwise boiling wort will take care of my CFC sanitation.

Batch sparge to boiling water usually takes 20-30 minutes. One hour boil, 20 minutes to whirlpool and chill, and an hour to clean up.

I have noticed that I'm a much better brewer when I'm by myself. If someone else is there, I spend more time gabbing and drinking and less time paying attention to detail.
 
I have noticed that I'm a much better brewer when I'm by myself. If someone else is there, I spend more time gabbing and drinking and less time paying attention to detail.

I'm totally with you on this count... This past weekend I brewed, and was a little disappointed that the guy who was supposed to sit in with me was a no-show, but since I was alone I was able to focus - I was really on my A game. But when it came time to hook up my counter flow chiller and recirculate to sanitize it, my plumber showed up to fix something in the house, and came out to check out what I had going on in the garage... I got to talking to him, and to be honest, I'm still not 100% certain that I ever actually kicked on my pump and recirculated for that whole time. Crossing my fingers I didn't go an infect anything...
 
From dough-in to pitching yeast takes me about 4.5 hours for a 5 gallon batch. But if you include weighing/milling grains, heating strike water, and cleanup afterwards, I budget 6 hours for a brew day.
 
Usually I'm in the 5-6 hour range but last night was a new record for me. 4.5 hours from pre heating mash tun to pitching.
 
When I did extract I was done in about 3 hours. I now do BIAB and it usually runs 4.5 to 5 hours. In the winter I brew inside so it takes a bit longer for my gas range to bring my kettle up to boil than my propane burner in the warmer months...
 
5 -6 hrs but can be longer if I'm doing a 90 minute mash and 90 minute boil. I usually get up early on brew days, get the water heated up for the mash, and have some coffee. My goal is to mash in before my wife gets up in the morning.
 
Partial mash here, our brew days last about 4 hours on the nose. Last one took a bit longer because my brothers stove was dying. Next back we're hoping will be better on their new stove which has a 15,000 BTU power burner which is much better than the at best 5K we were probably pulling from the other. Can't wait to go to AG and a Blichmann burner.
 
I don't time myself, nor do I care how long it takes. I prefer to brew by myself and I have a physical disability that slows me down quit a bit, so it can make for a long day. I don't care because I make pretty good beer and it is better than sitting in a chair all day feeling sorry for myself. I honestly don't think I would enjoy brewing so much if I had to concentrate on how much time it took. Of course, I have the luxury of spare time that many of you do not.
 
From hauling everything out to finished cleanup i'm usually at 4 hours, 60 min mash 60 min boil for 5 gallons - including cleaning two kegs, racking carboys to kegs, cleaning lines, etc. The whole shebang. However I found I can do 2 5gallon brews back to back in under 6, so typically i've been doing double batch brew days.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top