Early Morning Brews

Got strike water up to temp around 5:45, crushed grains and doed in by 6:30.
Nice pumpkin ale brewing today. Crushing apples with the kids later for fresh cider. Got a pork butt smoking too. Good day coming up!

JGlav said:

Got strike water up to temp around 5:45, crushed grains and doed in by 6:30.
Nice pumpkin ale brewing today. Crushing apples with the kids later for fresh cider. Got a pork butt smoking too. Good day coming up!

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What's your address and what should we bring

Fired up the HLT at the crack of 7:30am. Admittedly a little on the underachiever side for an "early morning brew", but I LOVED the Sunday sleep-in and should still have a 10G batch of BCS American IPA in the fermenter by 1pm.

It's a gorgeous day here in CT and I'll get out for an afternoon 25 on the bike to round out the day and earn my beer for tonight.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

I am not sure if this was mentioned, but when I brew early, I put a heat stick on the mash tun and put it on a timer. I usually have the timer turn the heat stick on at around 3:00am, so when I come down at 6:00am, my mash water is at or near strike temperature. This way, no need to fully heat up the strike water-- just mash in and get some coffee.

macosenza said:

I am not sure if this was mentioned, but when I brew early, I put a heat stick on the mash tun and put it on a timer. I usually have the timer turn the heat stick on at around 3:00am, so when I come down at 6:00am, my mash water is at or near strike temperature. This way, no need to fully heat up the strike water-- just mash in and get some coffee.

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I do the same with my HERMS, set the temp before bed, wake up to perfect strike temp. shaves a ton of time off brew day.

Up an hour before sunrise this morning for my 2nd brew day on my new rig (single tier, single pump, dual burner). Sun has been up for about 45 minutes now, all the equipment is ready to go, grains weighed out and milled, hops weighed out, preheating the mash tun. Cats and dogs are both fed, folded a load of laundry, and left a pot of fresh coffee for SWMBO when she wakes up, so all-in-all a pretty good morning so far. Hope the rest of the brew day goes as well!

Well Done. Hope the day is a good one for you. Was 45F this morning here in the Mid Atlantic. Good crisp fall day. Wished I was brewing when I left for work.

Well Done. Hope the day is a good one for you. Was 45F this morning here in the Mid Atlantic. Good crisp fall day. Wished I was brewing when I left for work.

The valve went out on my good propane bottle, time for an exchange..got strike water going by 0430, mashed in at 5:15, time for Rosemary Blonde again (Belgian Golden)

HLT fired up at 6:30. Mashing in shortly for a Pliny Clone AG brewday. Should be able to put 12g in the fermenter by 1:30 and clean-up by 2:30. Opening the taproom later and will have some fellow homebrewers over for a brewery show and tell and sampling a few things on tap.

Beat 'cha. Strike water was heating up at 5:30!

Excellent fellas. Sounds like a great day ahead

Missed my mash temp by a fraction of a degree F and the mash pH was a teensy bit high - hopefully that takes care of Murphy for the day.

It's 5 AM somewhere.

15 Gallon batch of Pumpkin Lager in the AM, yes please!

Today is the day for an early start. Or an early finish if you turn the clock back while brewing.

Just doughed in for batch 1 of 2 today. This whole daylight savings time thing isn't so bad

Cheesy_Goodness said:

Just doughed in for batch 1 of 2 today. This whole daylight savings time thing isn't so bad

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It is when your at work and working 13hrs instead of the usual 12.

JonM said:

Beat 'cha. Strike water was heating up at 5:30!

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Jealous! That was my plan but last night ran late and...

Fired up the HLT at 6:00am. On-deck: the annual Christmas Card beer.

Moist, foggy and overcast out there. Should lift after a while though, and should be a beautiful day. Looking forward to getting out this afternoon.

Step mash for a German a Pilsner. The house is nice and quiet. Not for much longer. Love early mornin brewing

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Up at 6 this morning. A chilly morning maybe in the 20s, so I put on an extra layer. After a recipe rundown, started heating strike water around 6:45. Got the mash going then brewed up the morning coffee. Nice smell of grains and coffee. Was pitching the yeast around noon, just in time for lunch. After some equipment/kitchen cleanup, was out the door around 2 p.m. for the rest of the day.

I really like the morning brews. A nice quiet time to think. See the sunrise, the geese and the coming of winter.

5 am here, but brew in the basement. Great brew day, citr/azacca pale ale inspired by zombie dust.

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Mashed in for a protein rest at 3:40, only 52* outside, a few days ago..in the upper 30*s, low 40*s..gotta love Southern CA weather. Got another 40 until mashout and my girls will still be sleeping, hopefully the wife too.

Lit the fires at the crack of 8:15 today. Out late last night so this will have to pass for early morning.

Had prepped water and ground grains the night before. Third time brewing this BCS American IPA. Hit the mash temp perfectly. Now into a 90 minute mash.

Mash is underway. Got started at least an hour later than I wanted. It doesn't feel right starting when the sun is already starting to rise.

Fired the burner at 4:30. Finished by 10:30 including an extended whirlpool. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1459625199.855085.jpg

Well this thread has inspired me to brew early. I can even setup the night before. Have my HLT ready with my water so right at 0500 I can flip the switch on my heaters. Potentially done by 0900! that's amazing. I don't even think the wife would be up by then with the little one.

Grains milled, mash/sparge water treated and ready to go, hop additions all weighed and brew plan in place the night before.
Up at 545am and in the barn at 6am.
16 degrees in northern VT and I pondered my choice.
Back in the house and breakfast with the family and back out to start brewing at 745.
Glad I did it because the day went extremely well.
Hit all my numbers (actually exceeded my projected efficiency so my blonde ale is gonna be 4.9% instead of 4.5)

Early morning panic. Started to heat the mash-in water and discovered my wort pump was locked up. Disassembled it right there. Cleaned, added missing SS washer (do all March 809's have this missing washer?), reassembled and back on track. Just an hour and a half late.

This will be a long day.

BTW - thanks to Awesome Brewers for the tip on March 809 repair. That's what I love about good equipment. It's usually pretty straightforward to repair. I did luck out finding the SS washer I needed in "inventory".

One other benefit: it's clear that even though I rinse thoroughly and copiously with hot water after brewday, that is not enough. There was a film of dried wort inside this pump. This may have been been the cause of the "stuckness".

New practice adopted after every brewday: circulate hot PBW through pumps for 10-15 minutes.

Just mashed in my ESB 20 minutes ago, got the coffee going, best way to start a Monday

philipCT said:

Early morning panic. Started to heat the mash-in water and discovered my wort pump was locked up. Disassembled it right there. Cleaned, added missing SS washer (do all March 809's have this missing washer?), reassembled and back on track. Just an hour and a half late.

This will be a long day.

BTW - thanks to Awesome Brewers for the tip on March 809 repair. That's what I love about good equipment. It's usually pretty straightforward to repair. I did luck out finding the SS washer I needed in "inventory".

One other benefit: it's clear that even though I rinse thoroughly and copiously with hot water after brewday, that is not enough. There was a film of dried wort inside this pump. This may have been been the cause of the "stuckness".

New practice adopted after every brewday: circulate hot PBW through pumps for 10-15 minutes.

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It is called a trust washer. My second gen chuggers have them, but my first gen green ones do not. It should be required, but since my green chuggers are still chugging after 5 years, ain't broke, dont fix.

May have to start brewing earlier since the sun is up sooner. Got started today a little before 7 and finished cleaning up by noon.

Wanted to start early.. technical issues

Had my earliest start ever this past Saturday. I lit the burner and started heating strike water at 5:10 am. I was doughed-in by 5:30 am. I needed to be completely done and put away by noon, and ended up getting ahead of schedule. I was pretty much done with everything cleaned and put away by 10:30 am. It was a plain American Lager. I oxygenated for 90 seconds with pure O2, and pitched 2 packets of 34/70 (rehydrated). I checked this morning and there is already a layer of white bubbles forming on the surface. It's fermenting away happily at 51° F.

So anybody else up early brewing this morning?

Not here, just a 230 wake up to drive to cape cod

Alpotun said:

So anybody else up early brewing this morning?

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Brewed yesterday. I got an early start!!!!! (for me). Started milling my grains just before 10am......

Woke up later than I wanted. I could have started by 8, but I'm feeling particularly lazy. I guess I'll try to brew sometime midweek.