How long is your brew day?

Gavin C said:

Nah... I'm not poor enough, peasant.

Although with 100% brewhouse efficiency I can see its appeal.

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I once had Beer Smith tell me I had 106% efficiency with a BIAB batch.

Math is hard, lets go shopping.

G.I.G.O

You told BS the numbers, it just did the sums.

I'm a shift worker so when i transition to nights, i need to start the transition for my sleep cycle the day before and brewing/drinking is a great way to pass the time!. So, i usually start sunday night around 7 or 8, fire up the tunes and get equipment out to sanitize. Meanwhile get the strike water going. By the time water is heated, i am done cleaning and sanitizing so i mash in. I batch sparge and do full volume boils. I recently bought the blichmann burner and it rocks! Much faster than my old burner. Anyway, 60 min boil, transfer to carboy once i cool to about 85 (hard to get cool in alabama) then let the fermentation chamber take over till pitching temp is reached. I sanitize and am done with brew day by 12 or 1 am (5 hours). I pitch the next morning when i get up!

Nagorg said:

I must just be a slow poke. That or I don't feel like its a race I guess...

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Nah. It takes me forever, I like to take my time and do every step thoroughly.

mattdee1 said:

As much as I enjoy this hobby, I really wish I could get the process down to a point where it’s easy to squeeze in a brew on a weeknight.

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I had the exact same motivation, and I've been able to get my brew sessions down to between 4 - 4.5 hours for a 5 gallon batch. I get home from work by 4:00 PM, so this makes it very do-able on a weeknight for me.

The key time-savers in my case were:

• Weigh out grain and hops the night before. This is kind of a zen-experience for me, I actually enjoy it. I put on my headphones and listen to music while measuring out the grain and sealing it up in a bucket with a Gamma seal lid, and portioning out the hops in individual pouches sealed with my FoodSaver vacuum sealer. I set the mill up over the grain bucket, get my drill ready, have my recipe all printed out, equipment ready to go, I do as much ahead of time as possible.
• Start with already-hot water. I have a huge tank in my basement filled with water that's already at 135° F. Why would I waste time starting with cold water and heating it when I've got 50 gallons already most of the way there? This saves me a ton of time. I collect the required strike water volume, put it on the burner to heat the rest of the way, and in the 5 minutes it takes me to mill my grain, the water's already at strike temperature.
• I bought a plate chiller and pump. In the winter, I can get 5 gallons of wort from boiling down to 65° F in about 3-4 minutes. In the summer, I have to settle for 72° F and it takes a little longer (10-15 minutes), but it's still a huge time-saver over using an immersion chiller.
• Clean the mash tun during the boil. I'm assuming you already do this, but this will save time at the end of the day. Indeed, I clean as much as possible, as I go.

Usually 5 hours(1,5 hours wort chlling in bathtub)

I'm usually less than 5 hours, even when batch sparging. BIAB goes more quickly since cleanup takes less time.

I use the 60 minute mash 'down time' to weigh hops, get out and set up my other equipment, sanitize, etc.

jmpreiks said:

You might want to stop using hot water to brew/cook with. It increases the chance of leaching lead and other heavy metals from plumbing fixtures, solder, etc.

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My house is new enough that it's plumbed entirely with Pex. Hot water tank is gas-fired, so no concern about mineral buildup. I'm not worried about my hot water at all.

I'm around six hours now for ten gallons with fly sparge, including setting up and tearing down the brewstand. That's an improvement from what it was before I got the burners/orifices/regulators dialed in (I don't wait long for water to heat these days). I'm about to switch to a permanently rigged brewstand; that may knock an hour off my time. The rest of the time is spent brewing, which is my hobby, so I don't worry too much about speeding that up.

Just did my first biab-mash in a cooler AG brew and from setup to cleanup, I'm probably somewhere between 5-6 hours. Setup wasn't too bad. Mashing was a breeze. Boiling was easy. The only issue that happened that slowed me down was my wort chiller. One of the vinyl tubes decided to touch the burner while it was in the kettle sanitizing. Luckily, I had a spare tube to use, so once I got that on, I thought I was good. Nope. It decided to leak. Placed the pot in an icebath while I figured out the wort chiller. Then once I was set, it was about another 20 minutes to get from 100F to 80F.

AQUILAS said:

Placed the pot in an icebath while I figured out the wort chiller. Then once I was set, it was about another 20 minutes to get from 100F to 20F.

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Wow, that's a heck of a chiller. The lowest I've ever been able to chill to was 55° F. How did you get the coil out afterwards?

kombat said:

Wow, that's a heck of a chiller. The lowest I've ever been able to chill to was 55° F. How did you get the coil out afterwards?

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DOH!

I meant 80F. I have no idea why I put 20F....I haven't had any homebrew yet!

budbo said:

So I wondered this morning how efficient have I really gotten?

I moved the cars at 0725 this morning, Started the mash water and started Crushing grain at 0730. At noon, I was cleaned up, Wort oxygenated and yeast pitched (and I mowed the lawn between the first hop addition and second).

How long is your brew day?

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Almost exactly five hours from start to finish. (Finish means that the kitchen meets SWMBO's standards)

I brew every three weeks and use the 90 minute mash to clean and sanitize everything, including the bottles for the previous batch.

I then use the 90 minute boil to bottle the last batch and reuse the yeast.

I may not be fast, but I make the most of the time.

I usually set up the water, burner, mash tun, etc. the night before brewing, which takes about 15 minutes.

Assuming a 60 minute mash and a 60 minute boil with no hop stand, I get something like this:

heating strike water, 20 minutes
Mashing, 60 minutes
Recirculating, 10 minutes
Sparging, 40 minutes (I could improve this, I know)
Heating sweet wort, 30 minutes
Boiling, 60 minutes
Chilling, 5 minutes
Transfering to fermenter, 2 minutes
Shaking, pitching, and putting into fermchamber, 12 minutes
Cleaning, 45 minutes...

That gets me just under 5 hours, which sounds about 15 minutes longer than it actually would take. Sparging and sweet wort heating kinda overlap, so that sounds like the source of the issue.

However, I frequently do beers with longer mashes (147 for 75 minutes for Saisons and double IPAs, for example) and 75 or 90 minutes boils (for strong ales, pilsner malted beers, etc.) and hop stands (15 minutes), all of which add some time.

In light of this, I sometimes finish my sparge and heat the sweet wort to a boil to pasturize (this probably also kills a ton of DMS) and then finish the brew day the next day, or in the evening or whatever.

Did my first all grain batch 2 weeks ago. Took around 6.5 hours

It was very relaxing and it felt like SWMBO and I just hung out the entire time.

Including prep, cleanup, and my inevitable screwups, about 5hrs

Started my strike water at 830 and finished the cleanup at 130. Both 90 min mash and boil.

4.5 to 5 hours for 11 gallon, all-grain, batch sparge batches, with a 60 min mash and 60 min boil. 5.5 gallon batches go faster since heating and cooling take less time.