Planning beer-day schedule

I've just started homebrewing, and I'm gearing up to a batch a week schedule to build up a stockpile. This coming Sunday will be the first day with multiple things to do, so I'm seeking input for what order to do them in.

The to do list is:
Bottle the Rubber Pail Ale (currently in glass carboy)
Rack the Hefeweizen from the plastic fermenter bucket to a carboy
Boil an apricot ale

I'm planning to bottle in a mix of 0.5 liter swing tops and 12 oz bottles. The apricot ale is a standard extract + steeped grains kit. I do have a second carboy if that helps order the steps better.

I will have two people to help me, so I can do more than one thing at once if needed. Basically, since I'm not experienced at brewing and I've never bottled before, I'd like suggestions on the order to do things to avoid downtime without ending up with 6 things to do at once.

jar said:

I've just started homebrewing, and I'm gearing up to a batch a week schedule to build up a stockpile. This coming Sunday will be the first day with multiple things to do, so I'm seeking input for what order to do them in.

The to do list is:
Bottle the Rubber Pail Ale (currently in glass carboy)
Rack the Hefeweizen from the plastic fermenter bucket to a carboy
Boil an apricot ale

I'm planning to bottle in a mix of 0.5 liter swing tops and 12 oz bottles. The apricot ale is a standard extract + steeped grains kit. I do have a second carboy if that helps order the steps better.

I will have two people to help me, so I can do more than one thing at once if needed. Basically, since I'm not experienced at brewing and I've never bottled before, I'd like suggestions on the order to do things to avoid downtime without ending up with 6 things to do at once.

Click to expand...

You pretty much have it right on with this:

"The to do list is:
Bottle the Rubber Pail Ale (currently in glass carboy)
Rack the Hefeweizen from the plastic fermenter bucket to a carboy
Boil an apricot ale"

In order to transfer to the secondary, you have to make room. To make room you need to bottle first. Then to make your primary available, you need to rack that over to the secondary.

Bottle, rack, boil

EDIT: You do have a second carboy though, so you don't necessarily have to bottle first. The most important thing is free up your primary and have time to clean and sanitize it. With the flexibility of having a free carboy, just bottle whenever you want.

jar said:

I've just started homebrewing, and I'm gearing up to a batch a week schedule to build up a stockpile. This coming Sunday will be the first day with multiple things to do, so I'm seeking input for what order to do them in.

The to do list is:
Bottle the Rubber Pail Ale (currently in glass carboy)
Rack the Hefeweizen from the plastic fermenter bucket to a carboy
Boil an apricot ale

I'm planning to bottle in a mix of 0.5 liter swing tops and 12 oz bottles. The apricot ale is a standard extract + steeped grains kit. I do have a second carboy if that helps order the steps better.

I will have two people to help me, so I can do more than one thing at once if needed. Basically, since I'm not experienced at brewing and I've never bottled before, I'd like suggestions on the order to do things to avoid downtime without ending up with 6 things to do at once.

Click to expand...

Nothing pressing here. But if you plan on drinking on Sunday while doing these things, my order would go like this.

1. Brew the Ale and use the glass carboy(get rid of the plastic fermenter, yuck!), use a blowoff tube into a bucket of water.

2. Bottle the beer and then clean and sanatize the carboy.

3. Rack the Hefenweizen.

If it was me I would bottle the beer first and get that out of the way. With a couple of friends that would really speed things up. Then I would make the new brew and move the Hefeweizen to a secondary while in the process of brewing.

I agree with Blender. Get the worst part out of the way. Sounds like you're gonna have one hell of a beer day. Enjoy.

hey jar, i am doing my first bottling this weekend as well, along with racking my second batch off to the secondary.

i will be waiting for at least another week after that to brew again. pumpkin ale up next for me.

good luck with your weekend dude. i need to invite a couple friends over and have them work for future beers...

My next beer day is going to be kinda long, trying to stockpile myself. Must bottle what's in 2nd, clean that carboy. Next rack whats in primary to 2nd and clean primary. Then I have room to put what I'll be brewing in. I don't think I'll be drinking too much beer that day or only one of the 3 things will get done, hehehe. :cross: Also thinking about using one of my 5 gal kegs as the 2nd... The beer is going to end up there anyhow and trube removal is just a couple glasses away... If I do that then I may brew 2 beers that day and when it's time to rack them to 2nd just rack the one that'll end up in a keg anyhow to my 3rd keg and rack the other to the other carboy, hehehehe I have this bad habit of drinking all my beer while it's green. The only way, I figure, to get around this is BREW MORE!!!! ALOT MORE!!!! Then, maybe, I'll have some beer that isn't green, some that might actually be mature.

Get your boil started. While you are enjoying tha nice rolling boil, start racking your beer, and finish up with bottling.

Sounds like you have help, and many hands make light work, so deligate those tasks like cleaning, and santizing, and migrating your beer from vessel to vessel.

On a big brew day I have an extra set of hands around to help start the boi, and then rack the beer to secondaries or tertiary fermenters. While that stuff is being racked, I get the bottle soaking, and the primer sugar ready for the bottling.

Oh yeah... don't forget those hops addtions while you are multi-tasking

Wow, you guys mean business....

My brewdays include setting up, putting some swill on ice to drink while brewing, boiling and sitting around for an hour bullsh*tting with a buddy of mine until it's done. For me it's all about relaxation (and a good reason to get a buzz going early in the day......).