New brew schedule... or how to brew with toddlers! (input/advice sought!)

Okay. So, I have been having a real hard time brewing for a while. I did one extract batch recently as a "quick and easy" brew. Tweren't really all that much of a tme saver of AG. I figured I would stick with extract for a while to get back me sea legs, err, sorry pirate day yesterday and all.


But,

I have at least 40 lbs. of MO sitting there and I do not wnt it to go bad. So, I need a new schedule.

Weekends are pretty much out. That is my work time and I need to use it as such. I find it mostly impossible to brew weekdays with my son. He is 2.5 and VERY active. Actively getting into mischief if I do not pay a lot of attention. Evening is out too. I tried it once. Mashed in when my wife got home. Was up until 1. I cannot do that anymore.

So, here is my current plan. Anybody else with little ones care to chime in tips tricks or ideas please do.

I am thinking that if I can mash/sparge in the afternoon when my son is napping and prepare for the boil. Then let it sit a few hours (3-4) and do the boil in the evening. Hopefully I won't be up all night. I was thinking mash early AM and then let it sit 'til afternoon. Problem is once you've got the boil going you pretty much have to follow through to pitching and I cannot do that in an 1.5-2 hours (nap duration)

It is pretty tough to split things up, I cannot really think of a good way. I was thinking mash one day, boil the next. However I imagine tht could lead to contaminaton funkiness. Any help here folk? Any ideas, plans I am over looking? I would love to be able to get a good system down so I can brew a couple times a month (or more!!!)

Grrrrrr. It is frustrating to be thinking about brewing and not be able to do it.

My last brew, I collected the evening before and boiled in the morning - no problems. Keep it covered just to be safe, but really anything that's there is going to be eliminated by the boil.

Did you keep it in the fridge or anything? Also, I imagine you definately need to make sure you did a mash-out so the enzymes are stopped. I am not very good at controlling my mash temps yet.

Hire a babysitter.

rdwj said:

My last brew, I collected the evening before and boiled in the morning - no problems. Keep it covered just to be safe, but really anything that's there is going to be eliminated by the boil.

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I've done it too, but you still need to worry about anything that is produced while it is sitting. You wouldn't want to do this with a really light flavored beer. If you are going to let it sit over night I'd say cool it down as low as possible.

I have a 1 year old, I do night brews on the weekend (10pm to 7am) and then nap when I can the next day.

If you're doing extract you can really speed things up by doing late extract additions and late hopping. You can effectively limit your boil to 20 minutes. I just did a pale ale this way, see how it comes out.

No decoctions for you.

Where do you mash/boil? I am fortunate to be able to do mine in the kitchen.

The last brew day I went ahead and started heating strike water and sanitized everything while le child (also 2.5) was up and about (@1130am). I know putting 6 gallons on the stove is going to take a while to get up to temp, so I didn't have to watch over it like a hawk. Sanitizing just is in a bucket which I can either stick up on the counter out of reach, or outside.

Right as the temp came up on the water, I mashed in (~12:30)...that's what? 10 min max? I just made sure my daughter was next to me, playing with her dolls or the magnets on the fridge.

That leaves an hour to just hang with her while I mash. Once the mash was done and it required my attention, it was naptime (1:30).

During her 2 hour nap, I collected runnings (45 min), boiled (1 hr), and started the immersion chiller. As the wort was coming to a boil, I aliquoted my hops, etc.

when she got up, I got her a snack of crackers (no cooking required), which gets her to sit still. Chilling took about 30 min. Then just racked into carboy and pitched.

I'm lucky as she loves to clean, so she thought that was fun and jumped in and helped.

It can be done!

PseudoChef said:

...which gets her to sit still...

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Ah, there in lies a big difference. My son NEVER sits still. He is either asleep, or moving!

Yeah, I have tried it before but it is really frustrating and usually ends up with him breaking, spilling, or getting into something he should not or hurting himself!


I have been brewing outside with a propane burner. Definately not safe having him around that. My stove sucks. Can't handle a rolling boil.

knights of Gambrinus said:

Ah, there in lies a big difference. My son NEVER sits still. He is either asleep, or moving!

Yeah, I have tried it before but it is really frustrating and usually ends up with him breaking, spilling, or getting into something he should not or hurting himself!


I have been brewing outside with a propane burner. Definately not safe having him around that. My stove sucks. Can't handle a rolling boil.

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Bring him over. Our sons can be idiots together and we'll brew.

That's why I still use extract with steeping grains. I start at 10 p.m. Saturday night and finish at 1 a.m. My little man is up with the sun.

Trade your son for a conical and a kegerator

Kidding of course! I have a 3 year old son and a 1 year old daughter and I stick to drinking beer when they're around. Brewing is out of the question. Even if I could do it, I wouldn't enjoy it. They are just too demanding. Luckily, neither my wife or I work weekends so I can reserve saturday mornings for brewing in exchange for Sunday morning of shopping for SWMBO.

I find that brewing outside and inviting friends with kids over helps a lot! A buddy of mine, also a homebrewer has a son one year older then mine and they keep each other occupied while we brew and keep an eye on them.

Cheese maybe the next time i am up that way maybe our boys can be idiots together then we can film it and put it on youtube.

Cheers

knights of Gambrinus said:

......I was thinking mash one day, boil the next. However I imagine tht could lead to contaminaton funkiness...(

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I mash/PM and boil/AM all the time.

Nothing to it. No refrigeration. No special anything except a lid for your boil pot.

Works out real good when I've got "some" spare time in the evening and "some" flex time the next day. My last three brews have been like that.

One hint though, clean thoses grains out that night or be prepared for some SWMBO shellacking.

My 3 yr old daughter is pretty good about staying out of trouble and thinks daddy's brewing is neat. She likes tasting the caramel and chocolate malts and helping run the crusher. So she helps me mash in in the evening then I put here to bed and start my first sparge about 8:30. I'm usually cleaned up by 12 but it has stretched to 1 am. By doing it at that time my wife has no complaints about stuff I should be doing instead. That time will probably have to change for winter as day time temps are cold enough but night time will be very uncomfortable.
The mash at nap and boil after bed may be your best solution.
Craig

Same issue here, with a ~2 year old girl and a 3 month old baby girl (the latter of which takes my wife's time). We found a "mother's helper", someone about 8 years old that plays with my oldest ($3 per hour and she loves it). This weekend we're going to leave our oldest with my wife's sister for the weekend so I'm free to brew!

But I agree, tough to find the time.

Ok, I have been experimenting with what I call 'time challenged brewing'. As has been suggested earlier, split the brew day in half but I'll up the ante.

Night one, ~2.5 hrs....:

1) Mash, vorlauf, lauter and sparge.
2) Put the brew kettle on the stove and raise the wort temperature to 170 °F for about 10 to 15 minutes. This does two things. Assures that you have mashout and will kill off any lactobacter, which is your prime enemy here. I have done experimentation and I can get sour mash (really sour mash) in 24 hours if I want to. You must perform this step.
3)Put the cover on the pot and leave it wherever, and I do mean this as long as it is in a safe place away from kids, pets.... It will probably still be warm when you come home the next day from work, etc.
4)Clean up.

Night two ~2.5 hrs....:

5) Uncover your kettle and bring the wort to a boil (this may take longer than usual because your wort temp will be much lower than usual)
6) Hops
7) Chill
8) Place wort into fermentor
9) Pitch
10) Clean up.

I have done this twice with complete 100% success and not even a hint of souring with the mash.

I've got a daughter about your son's age, but I guess I'm not of any help because my wife always helps out on Daddy's brew days.

How tight are your weekends? I've been thinking about mashing in REAL early next time, like 5:00 AM or so, so that I can be cleaned up and done before noon. Not so much for childcare purposes, but so that the whole day isn't wasted and I can keep working on the house. Can you get started way early in the morning and get your wife to watch him? Even if you started mashing at 6:00, you'd be done by noon. Just depends on how tight a schdeule your "work" on the weekends is.

With a 3 yr old boy running around, I feel your pain. I brew in the garage though, so we have outside play time. When I need to be really watching the boil, or transfering fluids, I just hand him a bottle of bubbles and Viola...He is busy for atleast 15 min. Since wifey brews too, most of the time we just swap off who is watching him. Really though, for an AG batch, I am only in the garage for mabey 30 min. The rest of the time is spent in the house watching movies or playing with my son. It will make beer wether you are standing next to it or not.

Here's another thought, too.

I'll usually mash in in my kitchen, because I don't need my stove to bring the water to a full boil. I don't see why you couldn't heat the strike water, use a digital probe thermometer to be able to keep an eye on the temp, and still watch your son. When the temp hits, mash in, which doesn't take more than a minute or two unless you miss your temps. Then, get your sparge water going while the mash sits there for an hour. Again, that's an activity that doesn't require much oversight other than occassionally popping your head into the kitchen and checking temps.

Time it so you'll be sparging when your wife gets home, and beg and cajole her to take care of baby-duties while you sparge and boil. If you're batch sparging, it shouldn't be more than 2.5 hours between starting the sparge and chiling the wort. Pitch the yeast. At my house, wife is home at 5:00, Cassie's goes up for her bath at 7:30, so 2.5 hours would be perfect. If the timing is right, put your son to bed, come back and clean up.

Basically, half the process should be do-able even with an insane toddler; do that before wife gets home, then do the rest afterwards. But, it depends on how that would fit into your particular schedule.

This is all something I am trying to figure out as well. Ive got a 17 month old son and currently do extract / partial mash .... which I can do after work (stove rocks and gets to a full boil quickly). But I am looking into AG and a little concerned about timing ...

Sharing brewing and childcare duties with a supportive SWMBO is key.

I have two boys, 4.5 and 1.5 years. The last two brews, the kids watched a DVD while SWMBO made dinner and I prepped the brewing equipment and ingredients. Then at 6:00 I mashed in just as we sat down for dinner. At 7:00 SWMBO gave the kids their bath while I drained the MLT and sparged. At 7:30 SWMBO put the little one to bed while the older one 'helped' me watch the kettle as it came to a boil. Then SWMBO put the older one to bed while I did hop additions and prepped for cooling and pitching. All the equipment was cleaned and put away by 10:45 pm.

Next time, SWMBO will get to do the hop additions while I put the older one to bed and clean the kitchen. Fair's fair, plus I want SWMBO to be more involved in brewing and not feel like she does all the work with the kids while I get to drink beer and watch the pot boil.

I've thought about getting up extra early and brewing on a weekend morning, but the evening schedule seems to work ok for now. I could even do it on a weeknight and not be up any later than normal.

These are all great suggestions (except krispy_d's, who is sick and wrong and frickin hilarious!). I no longer have small children, they're 12 and 10, but I still do some tricks to shorten my brew day.

You didn't mention if you do any sort of prep work the day before, or earlier in the week, so here's some suggestions. I measure out my hop schedule into plastic bags, and write what they are and what addition (cascade, 5 min). My mill is... well... it's not so great so it takes me about 30 minutes to get it all ground up, so when I know I'm brewing soon I crush my grain up and store it in a plastic trashbag in the freezer or refrigerator. I basically make my own kit, and all I gotta do after that is just mash and boil.

My children are 11 years old and 16 months old. I can usually break away from the homework and havoc for enough time to weigh out my grains and get my brew sculpture set up. When the little one goes to bet at 8:00, I go out and get started. I can usually get a 10 gallon batch done by 1:00 am. I have pulled this off on week nights a couple of times, but working on 5 hours of sleep is no fun. My 5 gallon batches are about 45 minutes shorter because of sparge, boil, and cooling times, so this is more doable during the week. I can't imagine attempting a brew while the little monster is awake.

I got Cassie to help me bottle the other day (had the day off on Daddy-duty when her daycare provider got sick). So, she helped with the Belgian, filling the boxes with bottles after I had capped them.

As I was racking into the bottling bucket, though, I took a sniff as usual (I'm real happy with this one). Cassie, of course, got up on her little stepstool and did the same. Turned to me and exclaimed "YUMMY, YUMMY! Cassie LIKE beer!"

I can't wait until she's 16, at her first high school party, and some senior tries to give her a Bud Light (or Cheesefood's son slips her a Vanilla beer):

"Uh, do you have a saison, or a nice Belgian dark strong, or something good like that"

update.

Thanks for all the tips. Yeah a babysitter is probably the best/easiest way. Problem is getting one. All of ours are students (high school and college) so they are not available in the day mostly.

Last Friday I had a babysitter though. Unfortunately, I was doing the boil after she left and while he napped. The unfortunate part is I funked up. He is "potty training" and I forgot to put a diaper back on him for nap! DOH! He woke up in a half hour screaming and standing in a puddle.

I know this is ludicrous but I still hope, I reasoned with him (those of you with a toddler or baby know how well that works ) that he needed to help me. It actually worked for once. I let him add the hops. By the end he was getting bored of being held and decided to go play in his sand box while I chilled the wort.

Was not ideal but it was reletively successful. I'll definately consider the other strategies listed here. 'Cept maybe Krispy_d's :cross:


Though I did try the playpen when he was under a year. Did not work. This guy is too much of a mover.

I basically took a couple of years off when we had our second child. Too much to do and the SWMBO really needed the help with the kids. Now that they are a little older (7 and 4) I can take the time to brew more. Not that that helps the OP. But to shorten the time, I've gone to premeasuring my grain and water the day before I brew. I'll do a night time brew where I'll mash in around 6 or 7, have dinner, put the kidos to bed, then come back out to do the sparge at 8pm or so. Boil and put everything away by midnight if I'm lucky. It makes for a rough day the next day, but I try and do it on Thursdays so I'm only worn out on Friday (which is usually a slow day workwise).

On Saturday I will present a demonstration on brewing with toddlers.

Glibbidy said:

On Saturday I will present a demonstration on brewing with toddlers.

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Wifey wanted to come along with the toddler in tow, but I figured it was going to be a REALLY long day and not terribly exciting if one was not a brewer... at some point, I'd love for Cassie to meet your girls, I think they'd have a blast playing together.

Oh so true they would. Truth be told my grisl will be milling about in the morning then engaged for late morning, and then into my hands at the end of the day.

ah, it's so nice to hear that i'm not the only one whos brew life is complicated by the little ones! my girls are 3 & 5 - just the right age that I can usually engage them in helping me.

I know they won't be interested in helping me the whole time, so I over-play it... have them do everything, even the stuff that they aren't excited about - until they get bored of brewing (and me) and go off to play by themselves. I act all dissapointed and sad that they're leaving me, and ask how I'm going to do it all without them, and my 5 year old reassures me that I can do it. It seems to work perfectly to solidify it in their heads that I'm gonna be busy.

I mash & sparge in the kitchen, and boil in the garage. The attention span of 3 & 5 year olds usually ensures they're done with me long before the boil. I check on them often, and sometimes flip on a movie for them, but this way they understand that a)I'm busy and b)it's not something they want any part of.

Admittedly, it helps that I got 2 of 'em - I figure one kid gets bored and seeks out daddy a lot faster, while a pair of them will occupy each other.

I'm gonna be in trouble soon, though, when they get smarter than me and this reverse psychology stuff won't work anymore...

Very relevant topic as I just did my first AG on Saturday with a 3 year old girl and 2 year old son... and wife in Vegas for the weekend.

I cleaned and sanitized everything the night before. Sat them down for lunch while I set up all my gear and heated the water. By about 1:30 the water was at temp and the kids were ready for bed. Put the kids upstairs for their nap, ran downstairs, started the mash, wrapped some towels to retain heat and ran back upstairs to yell at the kids.

One hour later, kids asleep, and ready for sparging. Now, I rushed my collection and sparging at this stage because I knew the kids would be awake within 30-45 minutes. In the future I will be more patient as this affected my efficiency. Collected my amounts and started the boil. Boiling this large amount took longer than I thought and by the time it had started a rolling boil the kids were awake.

The kids were actually super enthusiastic because I allowed them to dump in the hop additions at the 20-15-10-5-0 marks. They loved it! At that point I had to cool down in a ice water bath but they loved that too because they could dip their hands in the cold water to swirl it around the tub.

The 2 1/2 year old son is a handful and I got lucky that he was fairly calm during this time. Next time, I will start the mash well before lunch so that I can collect and sparge right after they go down for their nap. It's all about timing.

I'm in exactly the same boat: 2 sons, 2.5 yrs and 10 mos, and afternoon naps are about 1.5 - 2 hrs in length; fairly dependable, though not always. And the last time I tried doing it at night, I was up 'til midnight; with #2 son up at 5:30am without fail, this is just not possible. (I cannot wait 'til they're in university; I'm going to spend a year in a medically-induced coma just to catch up on sleep.

Zymurgrafi said:

I am thinking that if I can mash/sparge in the afternoon when my son is napping and prepare for the boil. Then let it sit a few hours (3-4) and do the boil in the evening. Hopefully I won't be up all night. I was thinking mash early AM and then let it sit 'til afternoon. Problem is once you've got the boil going you pretty much have to follow through to pitching and I cannot do that in an 1.5-2 hours (nap duration)

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That is exactly what I did last Saturday, and it worked like a charm for me -- as far as timing goes, anyhow...this turned out to be my first all-grain batch, so I'm on unfamiliar ground here. However: I took a pint last night for *cough* gravity reading, and it tastes pretty good! So I think this schedule will work out.

(One little variation for me was that I got my older son to dump in the hops when he woke up. For a stout, first-wort hopping may be a bit ridiculous, but he really liked helping Daddy make beer.)

I plan on continuing this schedule, since I'm really looking forward to experimenting with all-grain (perhaps with smaller batches, since I'm still working with an electric stove). The prospect of continuing to brew beer and getting to bed at a reasonable time is just too appealing to pass up.

my youngest just started pre-K this year :rockin:

and my mom takes my girls to Sunday school and keeps them for most the day. moms rock!

man it is hard to do anything when they are that young, just finding the time to take a shower can be hard to do.

We have a 2.5 year old and one on the way (any minute now, actually). I have found that brewing in off hours has been my only real solution.

When I was doing extract batches, it generally wasn't bad. Now that I'm doing AG batches in the kitchen, I have found that it helps me to get up early and do it then. I usually get up at 5am and go for a run on the treadmill. So what I started doing was, got everything up and going and while my 60 minute mash was going, I got a 30 minute run in. This gives me a head start before my daughter (or wife) get up and they're both not in my way.

janzik said:

We have a 2.5 year old and one on the way (any minute now, actually). I have found that brewing in off hours has been my only real solution.

When I was doing extract batches, it generally wasn't bad. Now that I'm doing AG batches in the kitchen, I have found that it helps me to get up early and do it then. I usually get up at 5am and go for a run on the treadmill. So what I started doing was, got everything up and going and while my 60 minute mash was going, I got a 30 minute run in. This gives me a head start before my daughter (or wife) get up and they're both not in my way.

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Now that's time efficiency... running while mashing!

My wife takes care of my little beast while I brew. This limit in time is what pushed me to do 15 gallons. I only get to brew once a month. Love the larger batches, same time.......more beer.

I have a 2 year old. I generally set everything up before dinner and get everything pre-heated. Since my system maintains temps automatically, I just let it sit for 2 hours. Right before sitting down to dinner I mash in so I know I have 60 minutes to eat and help clean up.

My wife and son come to the garage for an hour during the sparge and then my wife gets him in bed while I tend to the boil.

I then clean up and get in to hang with the wife. If it is past 10 when I finish, I leave everything to be cleaned up the next day.

Linc

I used to brew in the evenings, outdoors on 2 propane burners I had it down from heating strike water at 8pm to pitching at 1am. Not too shabby.

i decided to switch it up a bit the late nights were getting rough. This past weekend My wife went shopping and I was at home with my 2 boys (3-1/2yo and 15mo.) on what I planned to be my brewday.

The key is prepping everything the night before.
The night before I milled the grains and put the enitre bill in a plastic bucket with a lid. I prepare the water and let it sit with campden a campden tablet. I measured the hops pellets and put them in snack size zip baggies labeled with the addition time. I have everything setup outside and in the fridge.
The day of I barricaded the bew area of the pation with my saw horses and lit the burners. then played tball and soccer with my sons in the yard. Mashed in and b pu the little one to sleep and watched the beginning of a moviewith my older son. Midway through I closed the baby gate and collected my runnings. the younger was up from nap by now so Lunch was outside on the patio while I boiled. Dropped the IC in and put them both down for their afternoon nap. By then it was chilled so I sanatized my racking equip and fermenter and did the transfer and pitched. I left all the stuff out to clean later that night.

Now that it is getting nicer out, I see that as my brewday routine for the foreseeable future...

I have a 19 month old, who is probably as active as your little dervish. However, I'm lucky in the setup of my house. I brew on my deck, and can close the screen door while I'm attending to the high detail parts, like sparging. When I'm busy, he stays inside the kitchen/living room either play with his toys or watching me. Sometimes shrieking to be outside with me, but that's just the breaks for him.

When I'm waiting during the mash, or during the calmer portions of the boil, I go inside with him, or sometimes when the weather's nice, I bring him out in his high chair to sit with me outside to make him feel involved. Also, I tend only to brew when the wife is home to fill in... but I very often find that she takes advantage of the moment to get errands done. All said, there's maybe forty total minutes of time that I'm fully engaged in activity, and the rest of the four hours is either watching, waiting, or cleaning up.