How long are your brew sessions?

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ChrisS

I like cold beverages
Joined
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I am talking from sanitizing through brewing to clean up. I seems to take a lot of time to brew my extract batches and I am sure that if I used an IC I could cut some time off but I started to clean everything at like 4:30 - 5 and was washing up everything at close to 11 tonight. One corner that I was able to cut was I put a 1.25 G of water in one pot to steep my crystal malt and in my brewpot I had another 2 gal covered on high racing to boiling so that when I was done steeping I could dump in the tea and not have to wait all that long for the pot to come to a boil.

Is there such a thing as boiling too vigirously? I lost about a gal tonight over the 60 min boil. It was a very nice rolling boil but I am wondering if I should back off the heat a bit.
 
I've never really timed it but this past weekend I brewed a stout. Started at roughly 10:30ish, parked the carboy in the basement at 1:50 (I remember looking at my watch right then) and I was finished with clean up by probably 2:30-3. The previous weekend I brewed a hefe and got started early, about 8:00AM, and I know it was done around noon. Given those two sessions I guess I average around 4-5 hours for a brew session.
 
Don't you guys do any prep work?

Premeasure malt? Grind grain? Make a yeast starter a day or 2 before brew day? Soak items in sanitizing solution? Sanitize bottles DURING the boil? Wash/rinse used items in the sink once done with them...clean as you go method)?

My brew sessions are usually only 3 hours tops. :D ;)
 
homebrewer_99 said:
Don't you guys do any prep work?

Premeasure malt? Grind grain? Make a yeast starter a day or 2 before brew day? Soak items in sanitizing solution? Sanitize bottles DURING the boil? Wash/rinse used items in the sink once done with them...clean as you go method)?

My brew sessions are usually only 3 hours tops. :D ;)


Agreed. 3 hours tops with clean up. Sanitize during the boil. Really, the brewing session is the fastest for me. I usually get to sit around and drink a brew of chew the fat with a friend that always sees me sitting in the garage. :) Moochin beer.
 
multitasking is key
Extract boils are USUALLY well-behaved after the hot break so that time can be used more efficiently. No need to sanitize anything that touches the wort before the boil is over so sanitize while boiling. Use of a no-rinse sanitizer will save time and water. If you use dry yeast you can proof it while steeping the specialty grains.
Just a couple of tips
 
I've brewed twice so far, and both times have been 3 and a half hour sessions. That is from the start of washing and sanitizing everything, to washing my brewpot after the fermenter is safely stowed away.
 
I'm also at around 3 hours.
I bag specialty grains while I'm bringing water up to steeping temps, measure hops while the grains steep, and sanitize during the boil.
 
During the actual brew I have a lot of downtime but I usually spend that time reading my latest BYO or checking the internet. I steep my grains for 45 minutes and boil for 60 and given the time it takes to get 2.5 gallons to steeping temp and then to a boil on a stove top I have 2.5-3 hours right there. HB99, do you use a turkey fryer by chance? What are your times for steeping and boil? There's no way I could get it all done in 3 hours

I measure the malt right before it hits the water usually just because I use DME and it really likes to suck up the moisture in the air which there's a lot of on brew day. I buy my grains from my LHBS and they're already ground, just have to dump them into a grain bag and then into the water. I do make a starter 2-3 days in advance. I didn't include that because that's not something I do the day of brewing.

The times I listed include hauling all my brewing gear from the basement to the kitchen the day of brewing, filling a bucket with sanitizer and putting everything in for a soak. The only bottle I have to santize is my carboy and I do that during the steep/boil. I usually do clean up the smaller items as I go but most of the clean up has to wait till the end, the brew pot, strainer, funnel, hydrometer, big wort spoon, etc.

EDIT: Wow...a lot of posts appeared between when started this post and when I actually posted it. Guess it doesn't pay to try and post at work, LOL.
 
Depends on the size of the mashes, how much sparging, whether I'm doing one or two batches, etc.

Usually, I'll do an AG and a PM side-by-side. If the AG is so big that it needs extended boil-down time, then that adds time, but typically I'll wake up at 5:30, mash-in by 6, and be cleaned up and aerating wort by noon.
 
Extract seems to take me between 3 and 4 hours depending on how well I multitask. I typically get a lot of other beer related stuff done while the boil is going on.

Now ask me how long it takes to bottle...
 
I am probably down to the 4-5 hour range and I do partial-mash style. I remember the first brew session was like over 7 hours. I thought what a daunting hobby if its going to be like going to work! But...work I ENJOY! Anyway, after multiple batches I learned where to save time. Multi-tasking is key and clean as you go helps. I get all equipment and ingredients ready to go for the next day.

I would save even more time if I got a wort chiller. Oh well, bday is coming and maybe wifey will get me one!
 
Extract brew from sanitizing to clean up it takes me about 2.5-3 hrs. I typically start right after work on Wednesdays. Cleaning everything and getting it set out. Getting by grain bags and hops ready to go during the steep. Boils on the stove are pretty much controlled so it allows me to sit back and have a home brew and shot the breeze with the neighbors through the back door. Once it is done and stored clean up is a ease. Just make sure you don't store anything in your sealed containers while it is wet. I did it once on accident and ended up with mold and had to trash the whole kit ( funnel, tubes, screens, caps, that is all that was in the locker).
 
let's see, probably 30 minutes prep time, just figuring out ingredients and laying them out and making a checklist and all that junk. then there's 30 minutes for steeping grains, X amount of time for bringing to boil, adding extracts and water, bringing to boil again. 60 minute boil, 30 minutes to cool, at least 20 min aerate, and 30 minutes to clean up. i do my sanitation during my boil.

30 - prep
30 - grains
60 - boil
30 - clean up
30 - aerate
30 - misc

so, yeah, 3.5 hours...up to four or more if i waste time to prep or am lazy cleaning up. and no, HB99, this does not include the time it takes to make a starter two days beforehand :p
 
When extract brewing 3-4 hours from start to finish depending if I am drinking. 7-8 hours when brewing AG and wait to start drinking till half way through my boil to avoid being completely hammered come time for clean up :drunk:
 
About 3.5 hrs for an extract. I haven't made it to AG yet, but I don't figure it will be much more time as long as I multitask. If I minded the time I wouldn't do it.
 
My AG session is done in four hours never more (Except once stucksparge). You dont really need a IC for extract. I did one last weekend and the water in the sink w/o ice took about 15 -20 mins, same as cooling five gallons of boiling wort with an IC.
 
I think my cooling in the sink took longer than 20 min and I have pretty cold tap water. I probably need to move the wort around a bit.

I will tell you one thing I am now a believer in starters. pitched at 9 last night and checked it at 7:30 this morning and it was bubbling pretty good. much better than my first batch which took over a day to start.
 
HemiPowered said:
When extract brewing 3-4 hours from start to finish depending if I am drinking. 7-8 hours when brewing AG and wait to start drinking till half way through my boil to avoid being completely hammered come time for clean up :drunk:

Seriously? That's insane!

I know this is in the extract forum, but I saw this and had to comment. We had a similar thread in the AG forum recently.

Anyway, a 5 gal AG batch takes me 3.5-4 hrs. I brewed 2 AG batches back-to-back yesterday morning and it only took 5 hrs 20 mins. I posted a detailed schedule of activities. back-to-back brewing

Take a look and see where you can shave some time. 7-8 hrs for AG might put an end to this hobby for me.
 
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