Brewing back-to-back this morning

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Lil' Sparky

Cowboys EAC
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I'll be brewing back-to-back batches this morning - first time. Anyway, there's been some discussion lately about how long it takes to brew AG and a thread a while back about back-to-back batches, so I thought I'd keep track of how long everything takes. I'll update this post as the morning goes along. I'm shooting for < 6 hrs start to finish for both batches. ;)

The first batch will be an English Pale/Bitter (not sure exactly, I just threw it together w/ some maris otter, crystal, and some english hops). The second batch will be a Belgian Wit.

6:45 - start dragging things out
7:00 - start heating strike water
7:15 - dough in
7:50 - mash out
7:55 - begin sparge (initial + 2 batches)
8:15 - sparge finished
8:20 - boil started
8:25 - MLT cleaned out, heating 2nd strike
8:40 - dough in 2nd batch (protein rest) and start heating 2nd infusion
9:05 - 1st batch, 2nd hop addition / 2nd batch, water infusion addition, started heating sparge water
9:15 - 1st batch, 3rd hop addition
9:20 - start cooling 1st batch
9:40 - 1st batch chilled, yeast pitched, cleaned kettle
9:45 - mash out 2nd batch
9:55 - begin sparge
10:20 - sparge finished
10:25 - boil started
10:35 - RDWHAHBing :mug:
11:25 - start chilling 2nd batch
11:40 - 2nd batch cooled, pitched onto prev yeast cake
12:05 - all equipment cleaned and put away

Total time: 5 hrs 20 mins, not bad!

Some things I'm doing to shave time:
- use a kick-@$$ homemade 3-tier brew stand :D
- heating sparge water, so it's ready at end of mash
- heating kettle during sparge (5 mins from end of sparge to boil)
- sanitizing equip during boil
- cleanup as you go when possible
 
I know for a fact that you can do 9 AG batches in less than 24 Hours. good luck with your brewing and try not to get distracted that will really eat up the time.

Cheers
 
Thanks. Does posting all this count as a distraction? Holy crap, I'm about to miss my hops addition!

Oh, and is 9 am too early for a beer?
 
1st batch efficiency only 70% - I really need to get my own grain mill!

Edit - 2nd batch 73%, still need a grain mill. ;)
 
My gf and I did a back-to-back AG brew about a month ago. We were beat by the time it was over. We didn't start until ~10am and finished ~8pm.

After we were done and had everything cleaned up, she told me, "That was interesting to have done, but never again - it was just too much. Let's order pizza, eat and go to bed!":D
 
BierMuncher said:
This is almost as good as streaming video at work.

Brew on bro....:ban:
Now if someone would have a way to stream live video of their brew mornings, that would be the shiznit!!!

Calling Bobby_M...
 
Rhoobarb said:
My gf and I did a back-to-back AG brew about a month ago. We were beat by the time it was over. We didn't start until ~10am and finished ~8pm.

After we were done and had everything cleaned up, she told me, "That was interesting to have done, but never again - it was just too much. Let's order pizza, eat and go to bed!":D

I could see that. My SWMBO would be toast after about 30 mins. She never brews with me. :(

Now, I think the way to do this would be to do back-to-back batches w/ a brew buddy. Do 10 gal batches, each of you get 5 gals of the 2 different beers and have a great time together. THAT's the way to do this.
 
OK, all done, everything's cleaned and put away - except the HB I'm finishing off.

A few thoughts...

Overall it wasn't bad. It only took a relatively small amount of extra time than a single batch (~ 1.5 hrs for me).

For most of the time, I was about as busy as when I only do a single batch. When it got busy was when I started the boil on the 1st batch and began the mash on the 2nd. Usually I'm chilling out for most of the boil, but there was a lot to do during that time. By the time the 2nd boil started I was able to chill out.

If you're thinking about doing this, definately have your volumes, temperatures, schedules laid out ahead of time. Don't try to ad-hoc this. And try to think ahead at what you'll need to be doing next, especially when you've got one boil and one mash going.

This is definately something more suited to doing with a brew buddy. I may try it again, but I doubt it'll be very often.

I hope this helps some of you out there thinking about this or about how to shorten your brew day. If it takes you 6 hrs to brew a single batch, take a look at my notes and see where you're wasting time.

Cheers! :mug:
 
Congratulations on a successful brew day. I did a similar double brew day a few weeks ago. You beat me by a good 2 hours. Ofcourse I was heating strike and sparge water on the stove, mashing in a 5gal cooler and boiling in a turkey fryer outside. I found the safest way was to keep moving the cooler. Inside to add sparge water and outside to drain into the kettle. There were a few hectic moments but for the most part everything went smooth.
I'll probably do it again when I need to. Just need to make sure the wife and kid are away to eliminate the distractions.
Craig
 
brewitall said:
If you're that organized, I question if you're drinking enough to placate the brew gods.

Hell, I started at 6:45 am. Am I supposed to be :drunk: by 8 am? Those days are loooooooong gone.
 
BierMuncher said:
How bout it Tx.

The HBT web cam...

Well you COULD Have a membership at youtube then for every video there is an embed source for html pages. can you do something like that? for example let's see if this works

Just one of my favorite videos

I love Chargers :)

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9gaaO93xt9M"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9gaaO93xt9M" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

and the link

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gaaO93xt9M

not hijacking just giving a suggestion
 
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