Length of your AG brew session?

I'm just wondering how long (or short) other people's all grain brew days are.

I've personally gotten mine down to 4.5 hours in my kitchen. Luckily, I can get 5 gallons of water/wort to a raging boil in ~20 minutes! Woot!

So... how long is your brew day?

Amanda

I was floating between 4 and 4.5 hours for a long time, but over the course of this year, I've gotten it down to about 3.5 hours (including all clean-up).

1 10 gallon batch = 3.75 hours.

3 5 gallon batches (2 AG, 1 extract) hopefully will = about 7.5 hours tomorrow

Walker said:

I was floating between 4 and 4.5 hours for a long time, but over the course of this year, I've gotten it down to about 3.5 hours (including all clean-up).

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Wowza. Maybe if I stopped playing Call of Duty during the brew session, I could get it down to that! Ha!

Amanda

1 5 gal extract including clean up ~2 hours.

Mine would be 4 hours, but there always seems to be some minor issue that ends up slowing me down.

Braufguss said:

Wowza. Maybe if I stopped playing Call of Duty during the brew session, I could get it down to that! Ha!

Amanda

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It's a damn good thing I can get it done that fast, because I usually can't get started until sometime between 8pm and 9pm (three small kids). If it took me 5 hours, I don't think I'd be brewing too often.

cruckin78 said:

1 5 gal extract including clean up ~2 hours.

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Wow! water heating + grain steeping + boiling + chillling + clean up in 2 hours? You da man.

I'm around 5.5 hours.

From turning on the burner to pitching the yeast I am at around 3 hours 45 mins for a regular AG mash. Then about another 30 mins for clean up.

Since I have got my Blichmann burners I have knocked about 20 mins off my brew day due to the speed I can now heat the water up.

The longest I had was around 12 hours, making a Samichlaus clone. When I make 2 normal strength 5 gallon ag batches, I'm around 5 hours, mashing overnight.

Captain_Bigelow said:

From turning on the burner to pitching the yeast I am at around 3 hours 45 mins for a regular AG mash. Then about another 30 mins for clean up.

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I have a hand mill that I'm crushing my grains in. So I added that into my time. Speaking of which, I need to motorize that thing!

Amanda

~ 6 hours for me for an 11 gal batch AG, with the cleaning and watching the kids at the same time. I just helped to brew an extract batch for a buddy of mine, man I tell yah - 2 hours and done, and I could have filled up a couple of corneys at the same time if I wanted to. I may go back to extract brewing for a while, this was sooo freakin' easy!

I average 4 hours with active cleanup on a midweek brew-night, on a weekend I roll it out to 5.5-6 hours, with no rushing. I also throw in some smoker activity on the weekends to stretch out the relaxing. nothing like a 10 gallon batch and a few slabs of pork ribs or 25lbs of fresh Andouille sausage on the smoker! now If I could just get a rock solid repeatable Étouffée recipe I would be a happy, well-fed man.

Start to end with all cleaned within 5h.

5-6 hours from start to finish.

My last one was more than 6 hours. I wanna cut that time down considerably now that it gets dark sooner. Might just do a partial mash. We'll see.

My brewing session takes between 4.5 and 5.5 hours. That includes hand milling grains. I could probably cut that down by heating my strike water while I'm milling the grain.

Eric

4hours start to clean up. But there always seems to be a time when I am waiting for something that I could have done earlier. I think I can get it down to a focused 3.5 hours with a little prep.

I think my first AG took about 7 hours and still had stuff to put away the next day.

11g AG 5.5 hr

It takes me four hours or so, not including water heating time. I start up the water when I wake up, and just head in there when I want to brew. (It's all electric, so the hot water just sits in the HLT until I start).

I often crush the grain the night before, but not always. A 10 gallon batch takes just slightly longer for chilling, so it's about the same whether I do a 10 gallon batch or 5 gallon.

Hey Gang....

From a first AG perspective, my brother and i landed in the 10 hour neighborhood yesterday... heh... Granted there were things we could have done while other things were going on which would have helped, but for the first AG batch that was kind of the plan.... A few things that probably slowed us down the most were .....

1. Missing the mash temp by 10* and not having the boiling water on standby to bring it up right away.
2. Minor stuck sparge causing an unexpected additional stir and a re-vorlauf
3. The big one being the boil. It took a month of sundays to bring to a boil on the stove. We think we end up with a lot more in the kettle this time than we usually had with extract. It was something crazy like 2 hours just to bring to a boil i think. We concluded we need to have a way to measure the amount in the kettle just to be safe and not just trust our estimate..
4. And i suppose just general taking of our time on the first AG batch perhaps..

Those are just a few guesses off hand....It was a good day though, that's for sure... Though, i have to admit, a 4 hour brew days sounds pretty sweet!..

Cheers...
Kyle...

6 hours because I have CONSTANT interruptions.

4 to 5 hours from heating mash water to cleanup.

My 1st AG's were about 12 hours using 2 buckets( one w/drilled holes) to mash in, a 4 gal pot on my stove to heat my water, an 8 gal enamel canning pot for my boil, a turkey fryer propane burner, an immersion chiller, and an ice bath in my bath tub.

My brew session times have improved due to upgrading all of my equipment to a 10 gal pot, two 10 gal coolers, pump, heat exchanger, and a 60,000 BTU burner that will bring 5 gallons to a boil in 20 minutes. The heat exchanger cools my wort to less than 70 degrees in 5 minutes.

I've never really timed it, but I'd guess maybe 6 hours for a 10 gallon batch. I'm sure I could shave off an hour or two if I better utilized the time I spend drinking beer and relaxing in my lawn chair, but why in the hell would I want to do something stupid like that?

Man, that's pretty impressive guys, and gals. My AG sessions run pretty consistent at 6-6.5 hours from the time I heat my water to preheat my mash tun to the time I close the garage doors. I'm not really sure where I an shave 1-2 hours off of that to get where you guys are. I have the SP-10 burner (180K BTU's) that gets 7 gals of wort to boiling in about 20 mins. I could probably shave some time off if I used a regular thin walled boiling pot but I use a Sanke keg as my boil pot so I think that is not as efficient as a traditional brew pot. I don't know, any other suggestions?

4 hours for an all grain, with multi-tasking.

I average 4 hours for a 2.5gal, and 4.5-5 hours for a 5gal, milling to cleanup. I've been steadily streamlining my system, adding a pump and counterflow chiller in the last month.

4 to 5 hours, though I could probably cut it down if I ever remember to start heating my sparge water before I actually need it.

Normally 4.5-5 hours. I don't do any prep work the night before other than stick the starter in the fridge - I hit the ground running that morning and keep going until everything is finished. I do mill my grains while the water is heating but that does not take long other than weighing things out. Have been able to have a bit shorter times and certainly longer ones when it hits the fan but with a 3 hour minimum with mashing and boiling (getting the wort to the boiling stage on the stove takes about 20+ min and then I usually boil for 90 min). The other 1.5 + hours are spent lugging the various pieces of equipment equipment up from the basement, and then back down after the session is over and then cleaning everything out thoroughly and sanitizing everything for the next session. Montanaandy

Beavdowg said:

Man, that's pretty impressive guys, and gals. My AG sessions run pretty consistent at 6-6.5 hours from the time I heat my water to preheat my mash tun to the time I close the garage doors. I'm not really sure where I an shave 1-2 hours off of that to get where you guys are. I have the SP-10 burner (180K BTU's) that gets 7 gals of wort to boiling in about 20 mins. I could probably shave some time off if I used a regular thin walled boiling pot but I use a Sanke keg as my boil pot so I think that is not as efficient as a traditional brew pot. I don't know, any other suggestions?

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for me, it's all just about being ready for the next step and never standing there doing nothing at all during the day.

roughly: 20 minutes to heat up water, 60 minutes to mash, 10 minutes to sparge, 15 minutes to get boiling, one hour of boil, 20 minutes to chill.

That's 3 hours and 5 minutes. half an hour for cleanup at the end, and I'm at roughly 3:30.

I even manage to keg the month old batch while I'm mashing and rack the two week old batch while I'm boiling. I weigh and mill my grain while water is heating at the start. I don't do anything in advance.

Granted, brewing like this isn't super leisurely. I'm a whirlwind of activity for those 3 to 4 hours, but I still enjoy it. If I have friends over while I brew, it ends up taking me a hell of a lot longer because I am standing around bullsh!tting and not cranking through things.

I brewed yesterday and it was 4.5 hours. Probably would have been 4, but my buddy stopped by to help out and I had to explain the process to him. All in all, its a quick 4 hours. I'm constantly moving, but somehow it's relaxing. I don't think I will try to get it much under 4 hours. I'm happy with 4. Any shorter and I think it starts to be a chore not a hobby.

4-5hrs, depending on how on top of things I am.

4 hours on average from heating the water for tun preheat. Usually just throw 190f strike water in and leave it until it settles to strike temp. To wiping down the counters and pouring victory homebrew.

Although my last brew day took about 7 hours. Leaking MLT ball valve, temp problems, stuck sparge, interuptions, pizza eating, spilt wort clean up and one too many beers. Hence "All Day IPA".

wow, my AG batches are like 7 plus hours. i mash for 1 hour, sparge fro 30 to 40 minutes, then 20 minutes getting to boil and 1 hour to boil. That doesnt include set-up, milling, clean-up etc.

You folks like brewing alone or like brewing with buddies? I find it takes me way too long when freinds are over, i feel bad for not bull****ting while doing all my brew stuff. I always have a ton of explaining to do. I'd rather just brew myself.

all ****ing day i tell you, but ****, a nice day.

Wow, you guys are slow! It takes me around 35 minutes start to finish. and that includes clean-up....


Ok, I lied..........5-6 hours-ish. A lot of my stuff is in my basement, and I brew in my garage (detached) so i do a lot of running back and forth. Plus I always leave my wort sit for a half hour after chilling to let a lot of the schmag settle out so it is not in my carboy....

Fly sparging, 5 gal takes about 4.5 hrs, if everythings clicking, and 10 gal takes about 1.5 hrs longer if all goes well. I've never brewed with friends over but I can only imagine those numbers could easily double, and I'd make twice as many mistakes, and have twice as much fun, due to consumption...

4.5 hours nowadays doing 5gal AG in my kitchen. I can usually get 2 games of starcraft 2 in during mash and boil which is great

5.5 - 7 hours. I do a lot of multiple rest mashes though, which tends to stretch my mashing out to 1.5-2 hours. 7 hours would include something like a 2+ hour boil which I do sometimes. I don't really care because I get a lot of other stuff done during brew day. Brewing back to back adds about 2 hours per batch.

3.5-4 hours for a 5 gallon batch. A higher BTU burner would probably cut that down some, but I've got nothing but time.