all grain brew day in under 4.5 hrs!

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BA_from_GA

BA_from_GA

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did my first all grain in January, took about 7 hours (from milling grain to closing primary). I expected that the transition to all grain would up my brew day time, but was ok with it.

well, i think i may be changing my mind on that... 2 brews in the past 14 days, both 5 gallon batches. I went from grain in the bags to worth in the primary in under 4 and a half hours! I never through it could happen. I was so convinced i was wrong on the first brew day time that i set a clock on the second. Sure enough, dropped the chiller in at just under 4 hours.

Gotta love it!

here's my process

- measure strike water and heat
- measure grain, then crush
- add strike water to MLT and wait for temp to drop to target strike temp
- mash in
- measure sparge water
- measure hop additions
- heat sparge water
- recirculate/drain first runnings
- add sparge (let sit for 20 min)
- recirculate and drain batch sparge
- on the boil
- sanitize primary
- chiller in (usually about 20-25 min cause of summer heat)
- rack to primary (usually around 80*)
- typically leave in primary for a few hours until time settles into low 70s and then pitch yeast.
 
Nicely done. 4.5 is a pretty bare bones time. I usually finish in 4.5-5.0 hours from the time I step in the garage to get started to the time I have everything cleaned and put away.

I don't see much room for improvement as I can't think of anywhere that I could cut my time down any further.
 
Yeah, that's pretty close to perfect. I'm usually about 5 hrs depending on how long it takes to drop my wort down to pitching temps. I also let my wort sit for about 20mins to settle out break materials and hop crap.
 
I do 5 gallons in 3 hrs 15minutes.
If you get your water to the right temp, that'll save you 5+ minutes, then when you drain and mash in again, you only need to wait for the grain bed to settle (5 minutes), that'll save you another 15 minutes. Keep trying to get more efficient! You can even cut your mash time down as well......as low as 20 minutes!
 
Wow, I looked at the process for a while and found out the process is
dominated by these times:

1. Heating strike water to 170 - 40 mins
2. Mashing - 45-90 mins
3. Sparging (fly) - 45 mins
4. Boiling - 60 mins
5. Cooling (immersion) - 15 mins
6. Whirlpool - 15-20mins
7. Xfer to carboy (counterflow) - 15 mins.
8. cleanup - 10-20 mins

total 4.5 hrs minimum. If everything's perfect. No missed mash temps, waiting for water, etc.

Good job.
 
adam01 said:
Wow, I looked at the process for a while and found out the process is
dominated by these times:

1. Heating strike water to 170 - 40 mins
2. Mashing - 45-90 mins
3. Sparging (fly) - 45 mins
4. Boiling - 60 mins
5. Cooling (immersion) - 15 mins
6. Whirlpool - 15-20mins
7. Xfer to carboy (counterflow) - 15 mins.
8. cleanup - 10-20 mins

total 4.5 hrs minimum. If everything's perfect. No missed mash temps, waiting for water, etc.

Good job.
Click to expand...

Well, I think fly sparging definitely takes longer. I batch sparged on my last brew day. I didn't mash out, and just did a quick double batch sparge. It saved about 1/2 hour or so.

Much of my time is "hands-off"- mashing for 45-60 minutes, and doing the CIP procedure (clean in place). It takes longer, but I'm usually not even in the room during some of those steps. I almost never mash for longer than 60 minutes, unless I'm doing a grainbill with lots of adjuncts.

I don't whirlpool, but I recirculate through my CFC until I get to 100F, then send through the chiller again to my fermenter. It took 20 minutes total last week for that. I guess it counts as a whirlpool, as well as chilling, though!
 
Impressive. I give myself all day so I dont have to rush it so it usually takes 6-7 hours from pulling the first piece of equipment out to hanging the towels up. Although after brewing, when the kitchen is a complete disaster and the yeast has been pitched and airlock in place, I take a quick little break.
 
If all goes as planned it takes me just under 5 hours from the time I step foot in the garage to the time everything is cleaned and I'm back playing MW2. add another 30 if its a 10 gallon batch. Not too many ways to cut the time down further for me as I have no inclination to batch sparge...possibly cut 15 minutes off mash, get some super cooling IC/Plate chiller combo unit with glycol, and pay the neighbor kids to clean up.
 
Years ago my all grain batches on my stove in my apartment took 9 hours. I used a 4 gallon pot to heat my mash and sparge water. My mashtun was made from two 6 gallon plastic buckets - one with holes drilled for my false bottom (direct from my Papazian book). Then I would do my boil in an 8 gallon enameled canning pot on my patio with a turkey fryer for a burner. I used an emersion chiller that would knock down some of the heat...and then carry the pot thru my apartment in put in into my bathtub in an ice bath. After an hour of cooling, I'd pour it into my fermenter and pitch my yeast.

Through the years I've learned that my equipment is what saves me my time now. Without naming names, I can bring my water up to strike temp in 15 minutes in a 10 gallon kettle on a 65,000 btu burner. My mash is done in an hour or less. My fly sparge is done in 45 minutes. My boil is done in an hour and 15 minutes. My wort is cooled to below 75 degrees and in my fermenter in 5 minutes using a pre-chiller and the expensive chiller. I also use a pump to move my liquid around to save my old back muscles.

A better stove, a better kettle, better mash tun and HLT, better chiller and my pump make for better efficiency.

IMHO a 4 to 4.5 hour brew day for my money has been money well spent.
 
I've been getting closer and closer to 3.5 hours for a batch-sparged, all-grain, 5.5 gallon batch. I measure the grains, then start the water as I mill them. After some recent modifications to my burner, I get the water heated in around 15 minutes. My mash is usually going within 25-30 minutes.

One thing that cut almost an hour off my time was installing a shower hose in my ground floor bathroom. Now I draw all my water, and clean everything, right where I brew. No more filling buckets upstairs and hauling them downstairs.

Cleaning in place is definitely the way to go. At the end, all I have to clean is my pot and chiller and I'm finished, kicking back, drinking something from another batch.
 
I am at 5.5 hours on a 17 gallon batch, I dont think I can do it any faster than that, 4.5 hours is really good dude, brew on:rockin:
 
Yeah I never understood doing things the night before. That's not technically saving you any time, it's just moving it from one day to another. I'd much rather do everything at once as opposed to spreading it out over two days instead of one.
 
strat_thru_marshall said:
For all grain?

Mashing and Boiling takes at least 2 hours...how can you possible cram everything else into 1 hour?

I average 5.5 hours on 10 gallon batches.
Click to expand...


Because there's nothing else to cram! What other steps are you taking besides mashing and boiling that can't be done in the 10 minutes before mash in (when you are heating your water) or during the mash or boil?
 
Airborneguy said:
Yeah I never understood doing things the night before. That's not technically saving you any time, it's just moving it from one day to another. I'd much rather do everything at once as opposed to spreading it out over two days instead of one.
Click to expand...

I find that it's convenient just to lay out all of my equipment the night before and walk into the kitchen in the AM and start brewing.
 
jagg said:
I am at 5.5 hours on a 17 gallon batch, I dont think I can do it any faster than that, 4.5 hours is really good dude, brew on:rockin:
Click to expand...

Jagg, that's great time. I've noticed that anything above 10 gallons takes about 5.5 to 6 hours for me as well. The biggest I've done is 30 gallons. it takes the same 5.5 - 6 hours. I think that if I really pushed itand ran around like a nut I might be able to get it done in 5 hrs 15 minutes, but that'd be tight. At the 30 gallon mark, it takes longer to mill than it does to get the water hot for mashing in. I find it best to have 2 people working the big kettle so that one can mill while the other preps water for the mash. After the water is on the second guy keeps feeding the mill.
 
I enjoy my brew days and don't rush through things, and I can go from setup to cleaned up in < 4 hrs for a 5 gal batch. 10 gals takes an extra 30-60 mins for heating and transfer. Compared to the OP, I don't mash longer than 45 mins (usually 30-40), I batch sparge, which takes less time, and I don't whirlpool. It's pretty easy to be smooth and efficient when you've got your process down and take care of setting up things to come while something else is going on. And trust me, there's still plenty of time to sit and have some pints with your brew buds.
 
twoodward15 said:
Because there's nothing else to cram! What other steps are you taking besides mashing and boiling that can't be done in the 10 minutes before mash in (when you are heating your water) or during the mash or boil?
Click to expand...

I am with you in that.... I am typically 3.5 hours, depending on my mash in temp. I BIABw/mash out style sparge, but I have had slightly shorter times closer to 3 hours. Only takes like 10 mins to heat my water on my stove in 2 good pots during which time I mill grains and weigh my hops. Mash, mashout, boil, cooling is simple in a water bath with tons of ice that has been coated in salt. Using salt took cooling time from 30 mins to 10.

Bada-bing-bada-boom. Although, I also agree some days I just take my time and enjoy a beer or two and it takes... as long as I want it to take.

HUGE TIP: A huge time saver is to have a gallon of gently boiling water on hand, and a gallon of cold tap water on hand. Use these to adjust your mash temp if you are a point or two off. Guarantees you can correct your temp within 2 mins.
 
Reducing my brew time is my primary reason for building my electric HLT (almost done). I hoping to be able to set it on a timer so that when I wake up, I am ready to transfer the strike water to my MLT and start my mash in.
 
I think we average a 6.5 hour brew day, when all is said and done. I have noticed that people haven't factored in the time it takes to watch their spawn when SWMBO gets tired of wrangling. That easily adds 30 mins to our brew days, although they are generally not bad minutes to add... :)
 
4.5 hours from start to finish is about average for me, using most of the time savers people have already noted. Cleaning the mash tun while the boil is happening, or during chilling is helpful.
 
I finally got my all-grain batch time down to 4.5 hours yesterday. Everything went smoothly, and even though I fly sparge, putting my copper manifold into a paint straining bag has allowed me to sparge in 30 minutes or less (and hit the gravity exactly as planned). The only ways I can possibly get any quicker is to start boiling the wort as soon as it leaves the MLT and to invest in a counterflow chiller (chilling takes me at least 30-40 min). Overall I'm pretty happy with my process though.
 
My last two batches both took 3 hrs 46 mins. That is starting up the burner to pitching the yeast. I still have clean up after that.
 
I'm at about 4-5 hours myself. My electric stove takes a bit of time to heat up my strike water (40 mins), then, because I use BIAB, heating the sparge water back up to boiling takes an additional 40ish mins after combining all the wort together.

But, we also bottle two and rack one while brewing one, so we're getting a lot done while we're drinking and having dinner. And putting the baby to sleep.
 
fugazzi said:
I'm at about 4-5 hours myself. My electric stove takes a bit of time to heat up my strike water (40 mins), then, because I use BIAB, heating the sparge water back up to boiling takes an additional 40ish mins after combining all the wort together.

But, we also bottle two and rack one while brewing one, so we're getting a lot done while we're drinking and having dinner. And putting the baby to sleep.
Click to expand...

How do you sparge with BIAB? Dunk the grain into another pot?

From what I've read, the Aussies usually don't.
 
Apendecto said:
How do you sparge with BIAB? Dunk the grain into another pot?

From what I've read, the Aussies usually don't.
Click to expand...

Correct, they don't. I'm using Deathbrewer's method which is more of a BIAB+sparge technique. I mash using about 3.5g of water, then sparge (stick the bag of grain in, mix around, and let it sit for about 10 mins) in about 4g water. I think the aussies just use the full boil amount of water from the get go, and I don't currently have a pot big enough for that.
 
fugazzi said:
Correct, they don't. I'm using Deathbrewer's method which is more of a BIAB+sparge technique. I mash using about 3.5g of water, then sparge (stick the bag of grain in, mix around, and let it sit for about 10 mins) in about 4g water. I think the aussies just use the full boil amount of water from the get go, and I don't currently have a pot big enough for that.
Click to expand...

Nice.
 

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