All-grain Brewing Alone

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piratefan

Olde Bastard Brewing
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I have resisted going full all-grain because it seems to be a lot to do alone. Due to my schedule and that of my friends, we are not able to get together as often as we'd like to brew, so I usually end up just doing an extract batch after putting the kids to bed. I have an all-grain setup with pump and plate chiller, so in theory it should be easy. I am skeptical though, and don't want to get into a 7 hour ordeal before realizing I have made a poor choice.

For those of you who do all-grain alone, what are your tips and secrets?
 
Keep a spray bottle of star san handy, keep a rag in your pocket, keep a bucket of rinse water nearby, have all your tools organized and handy (spoons, thermometer, refractometer, pH meter, etc) have a step by step plan for the brew day, follow your plan, improve your plan for next time. Brewing by yourself is how you learn your system, give it a shot! And don't think of it as an ordeal, think of it as a labor of love. If you don't enjoy brewing beer, then maybe it isn't the hobby for you!
 
Keep a spray bottle of star san handy, keep a rag in your pocket, keep a bucket of rinse water nearby, have all your tools organized and handy (spoons, thermometer, refractometer, pH meter, etc) have a step by step plan for the brew day, follow your plan, improve your plan for next time. Brewing by yourself is how you learn your system, give it a shot! And don't think of it as an ordeal, think of it as a labor of love. If you don't enjoy brewing beer, then maybe it isn't the hobby for you!

Don't get wasted.

Good advice.

I would also add: Clean as you go. Dump the mash tun, clean it and put it away during the boil. Put anything that you are done with away when you are done with it. It makes the end of a brew day much easier.
 
Unless your kids go to bed at 6pm, starting an AG batch after bedtime probably isn't a great idea.

I've done some after work batches with this basic plan....

1) Prep the water and mill the grains the night before - have all the other equipment laid out.
2) Have the kettle/burner in place so that I can just start heating the strike water the second I walk in the door.
3) Mash in
4) Make dinner and eat in that hour or so rest time
5) Quick batch sparge with the first runnings heating in the kettle
6) 60 minute hop addition
7) get the kids to bed
8) proceed as normal to finish brew day

It still has led to some late nights because it messes up my normal "clean as you go" plan. Also, that was when my older daughter was going to bed around 8pm.
 
A 7-hour ordeal? I wouldn't want to brew all-grain either if that's what it took.

A typical all-grain day is 5 hours for me. I can shorten that by maybe 45 minutes by doing some things ahead of time--which sounds like something you should consider when kids enter the equation.

Perhaps you can crush your grain ahead of time, lay out all your hop and mineral additions, and so on. Maybe you can set up everything ahead of time so that when the kiddies are down, you're right into it with no delay.

When I started doing this I saw all sorts of inefficiencies of time and effort. So I worked to reduce the steps needed, make sure things are right at hand, and so on. If I have to move things around all the time, I'm not organized nor am I efficient. I store my brew stuff in the garage in a rolling cabinet so I don't have to schlep it all up and down the stairs to the basement. I crush the grain in the basement but that's it.

I borrow a few items from the kitchen, but I'm working on getting them all in my brew equipment so I don't have to go searching. Things like a small colander, a turkey baster, like that. Searching for them in the kitchen takes time, and it all adds up. Some people probably don't think saving 10 seconds here, 20 seconds there, is important, but it is. It gives you extra time to think, preplan, rearrange, and reduce wasted motion.

Another tip is cleaning as you go. While my wort is heating to a boil, I'm rinsing out the mash tun, rinsing out the 5-gallon kettle, putting stuff away I no longer need. There is downtime in a 5-hour brew; if I'm sitting there with nothing to do, I'll look to clean something, put it away, arrange things for more efficiency, whatever. Once I'm past the hot break during the boil, I'm getting out the immersion chiller and hooking it up, so when I need it, it's right there.

Related to that is cleaning stuff immediately. As soon as the immersion chiller comes out of the kettle, I put the kettle lid on to keep nasties from entering, and take that chiller to the sink to rinse it off. Takes maybe 30 seconds to rinse it, but if I let it sit and have stuff dry on it, that increases the time to clean. Same w/ the boil kettle--as soon as I've racked to the fermenter, I close the fermenter to keep nasties out, and take the kettle into the kitchen and rinse hop residue and break material and whatnot out of it. I'll fill it with 4 gallons of water, toss in some PBW, and let it begin soaking while I return to aerating the wort and pitching the yeast.

I do all-grain in a cooler mash tun. I have a single brew kettle (8 gallons) and a smaller 5-gallon kettle in which I gather the wort as it runs out of the mash tun.

I heat the mash tun pre-heat water on my stove (a gallon). I dump the boiling water in the tun, close it up, and it pre-heats which is important to hitting my target temp.

I don't have any pumps or such; I've been tempted but i can't see any great advantage to them with my setup (5 gallons). With a larger setup I'm sure they'd be valuable. I read the stories of plate chillers being hard to clean or clogging, and I'm not going to go there. I think a counterflow would be better, but what I'm using is an immersion chiller. Others may have found ways to make that work, but given that it's 60-seconds to rinse off the immersion chiller and put it away, I don't see any time savings to be had with a plate chiller.

I've found the most efficient way for me to move water is not pumps and hoses; it's a pitcher I use to dip the water from the kettle into the mash tun. I can move a gallon at first, and as the water level drops in the boil kettle, less. It takes me about 5 times to move the water to the mash tun, then I pick up the boil kettle (which by that time has maybe a gallon in it) and just dump it in the mash tun.

I see this is kind of rambly, but I'm done w/ break and I'm back at it. The key IMO is eliminating wasted steps, moving things more than once, cleaning as you go. Might sound like a pain but once it becomes a habit it's no more difficult than scratching your nose.
 
I have resisted going full all-grain because it seems to be a lot to do alone. Due to my schedule and that of my friends, we are not able to get together as often as we'd like to brew, so I usually end up just doing an extract batch after putting the kids to bed. I have an all-grain setup with pump and plate chiller, so in theory it should be easy. I am skeptical though, and don't want to get into a 7 hour ordeal before realizing I have made a poor choice.

For those of you who do all-grain alone, what are your tips and secrets?

I too usually do all grain with a friend (really helpful doing those heavy ass 10g batches).

However I just did my own solo a few weeks ago and it went fine. It actually went quicker than when we both do it (usually from just talking and what not). took me 4hrs tops including cleanup.

its very doable alone. my setup is a pretty basic one.

Keggle boil kettle.
Igloo mashtun.

MXgv7Qt.jpg

thats it. I dont have any fancy pumps, any HLT (which would probably save me some time as well).

Thinking about what you need to do next and cleaning as you go are helpful. While your mash is resting, heat up that sparge water (if no hlt). I turned my burner on low and by the time my mash was done my sparge was heated up perfectly.

brewing is an order of operations math problem. its pretty easy to solve it though.

also... who needs brew sculptures when cinder blocks are a buck a piece?
 
I also brew alone, working around kids and schedules. I do BIAB 2.5 gallon batches to keep things manageable. I usually mill grains Thursday night, mash Friday night (storing the wort in the fridge overnight), and boil Saturday morning. Spreading it out keeps each task manageable without conflicting with parenting activities.
 
Just do it!

If it takes 7 hours you are doing something wrong. Takes me about 4-5 hours.

A good portion of the time is just waiting, for the water to heat, for the mash, for the next hop addition during the boil. You can prepare or clean up during those times. It is really no more difficult than doing an extract batch. There are a few more steps and a little more to pay attention to. I advise that you leave the homebrews in the fridge, until you are comfortable with the process.

In my 95+ all grain batches I had help with just 5 or so. These were brewed for a friend.
 
Organization helps. I get everything ready the night before. I also have a brew day sheet that is the recipe with steps. The first step is, heat ____ gallons of water to ____ to reach mash temp of ____.

My first couple all-grains took longer than they do now. I can now finish in 4-5 hours. Then maybe 30 minutes to finish cleanup.

Also have things that make the brew day less labor intensive. I have a dollie that saves me from carrying heavy pots from the kitchen to the burner outside.
 
Almost any size BIAB on the stovetop can be an evening activity, though as noted above 2.5G will go that much faster. Crush the grain a day ahead and pitch the yeast a day later and you basically have a three hour brew day .. heat water ... 60 to 70 minute mash .. heat water again .. 60 minute boil .. DONE
 
Yep, organization, and multitasking.

I don't need to be hanging around for the hour of my immersion mash. I do other things.

yesterday, from gathering my stuff, to cleaning and putting it away, 5 gallon batch (ag) was 3 hours 15 minutes...

basically it has to do with making the most of your time. Start the stike water, then bring up the cooler, and the rest of your stuff, then tape the valve, so when the water is ready, everything is ready. etc etc.. if using a plate chiller or counterflow, I start running pbw through mine at the start of the boil. then rinse and get it ready, clean what's not being used and put it away. I found this makes for a very enjoyable brew day.
 
the first time I went alone it was a bit of a handfull but that made me reaqlize my inefficiencies, and strive to improve them. It's just a process and the more you do it, get used to it and refine it the better it will become. Now I actually much prefer to be alone as I am not distracted. One thing I do is to always be thinking whats next, and after that what needs to be cleaned or put away. Any time I am idle thats what I'm thinking.
 
i brew all grain alone 99% of the time. its really simple. just think of doing 2 extract batches back to back. Just use your down time during the boil to clean everything. use your down time during the mash to prep for the boil. make starsan, measure out additions, get your fermenter ready. Im usually cleaned up and back in the house after 5 hours on a standard brew that has a 60 min mash and a 60 min boil. If i didnt use my herms to mash out, i could save 15-20 min as well.

Another thing that helps is getting everything ready the night before. everything measured, and preped the best you can.
 
I prefer to brew alone, instead of with a friend. With someone else, I get distracted and that's when mistakes (messes, especially) happen.

Most of the work is hands-off, really. Pumps help so there isn't as much heavy lifting. I clean the MLT during the boil, so after the boil all that is left is the boil kettle. I usually fill it with some water and PBW and let it recirculate or soak while I put the fermenters where they go and put everything else away. I'm a "clean as you go" kind of person in all things anyway, so by the time I'm cleaning the boil kettle out, everything else is done.

From start to finish, a brewday takes me about 5 hours. I make 11 gallon sized batches.
 
Not really a big deal to brew alone for me. I also think BIAB makes it easier. Full volume no sparge for simplicity and still get around 80%. For me I can knock out a batch in 3.5 hours or less no problem. That is from the moment I light my burner to the time I pitch the yeast.
 
Unless you feel you REALLY need to do a 60 minute or 90 minute boil, you can shorten your boil to about 15 minutes.

Deeds describes a process for making a 'bittering tea' in his book Brewing Engineering:

One quart of water boiled for an hour or more with one ounce of 15% alpha acid hops can be used to produce a bittering tea. Water may need to be added to make up for boil off. Two teaspons of this tea will add one IBU to a 5-gallon batch of beer.​

By making up a large quantity of this tea ahead of time, you only need to boil long enough for flavoring hop/whirlfloc/irish moss/yeast nutrient/aroma hop additions.

I have not tried this method yet, and i can't imagine it would be ideal for every type of beer, but it looks like a simple way to cut 45 minutes out of your brewday.
 
I prefer to brew alone, instead of with a friend. With someone else, I get distracted and that's when mistakes (messes, especially) happen.

Most of the work is hands-off, really. Pumps help so there isn't as much heavy lifting. I clean the MLT during the boil, so after the boil all that is left is the boil kettle. I usually fill it with some water and PBW and let it recirculate or soak while I put the fermenters where they go and put everything else away. I'm a "clean as you go" kind of person in all things anyway, so by the time I'm cleaning the boil kettle out, everything else is done.

From start to finish, a brewday takes me about 5 hours. I make 11 gallon sized batches.

I brewed my 24th batch last weekend. Was showing a friend brewing, the batch was ingredients he'd paid for, was giving him the same benefit I had in watching a friend brew.

Well. What a screwup! Forgot to do water additions until we hastily threw them into the mash and mixed and mixed, screwd up the hop additions, forgot to add the IC until we were done, forgot to put in the Whirlfloc tablet at the 15 minute mark.

Why? I wasn't brewing alone. Lost focus in doing all the explaining, had a somewhat different setup.

I think the beer will turn out fine, but man--having the distraction of another person there asking questions threw me for a loop.
 
I'm 60 years old, I brew 10 gallon batches, and I always brew alone. It takes me 6 hours start to cleanup. Having 3 burners and a pump is the key to my system, I can heat strike water and hot liquor at the same time, and I heat cleanup water during the boil. And I always brew sober, my first beer gets poured when the burners are all off and I start the cleanup. Like others have said, brewing with friends creates distractions, I've taught several people to brew all grain over the years, but I definitely prefer the solitude of brewing alone.
 
Your first all grain brew day will take 30-50% longer than your 50th. It takes time to figure out the rhythm of your setup. My advice would be to set aside a full day for the first few times before you try to squeeze in an evening brew.

When it comes to shortening the brew day, everyone is going to mention "Clean while you go". This is the single biggest time saver. Every minute you sit there sipping a beer and watching steam roll out of your kettle is a minute added to your brew day. Clean something, put something away, hook up a hose, or unhook a hose. If you want to be done fast, then you have to treat brewing more like work.

The other big potential time saver is actually doing a step different from the standard approach.

-Add 5-10% more base grain to your recipe and try a 30-40 minute mash, that could save you 20-30 minutes.
-Re-calculate your hops additions and reduce your volume slightly so you can try a 30-40 minute boil, that could save another 20-30 minutes.
-Buy a cheap immersion heater to speed up your heating steps, you could save 15-20 minutes going from cold to strike temperature, and another 15-20 minutes going from the end of the mash to boiling.
-Don't spend time chilling all the way to pitching temperature. Use the immersion chiller (since it's faster/easier to clean) and just get it down to the 80s or 90s. Run it into the carboy and pitch the yeast the next day when it has cooled off the rest of the way. You could also try out no-chill, but there are more variables in that approach.
-When it's in the carboy, call it quits. If you've been cleaning up as you go, the only dirty stuff left will be the kettle and the IC. If it's late just cover it up and clean it another day, it really isn't that bad.
 
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If I can make 1 suggestion, it is to be organized during the session. a brew day for me takes 4-5 hours from starting strike water to clean up. but as others have suggested, making things such as spray bottle of star san, and laying out your ingredients ahead of time really helps. My process is as follows:

9 am open the garage door to start
pull out my rolling brewery stand, and fill HLT and get the heat going
while that's heating, I crush my grain, and gather my hops/ etc from my freezer

930 i'm ready to mash in
start by filling my mash tun (42 qt igloo cooler) with the required strike water amount and any minerals if needed
pour in grains and stir vigorously for about 1 min to make sure theres no dough balls

while waiting about an hour for starch conversion, I measure out the hop schedule and prepare my boil kettle, I also refill my HLT

1030 check for starch conversion, if successful, I begin vourlauf and draining/sparg process
Once I have 1/4th of my bk full, I start the burner

1115 achieve full boil, add my bittering hops and start the timer.
add any additional hops as required throughout this process, I also start cleanup on everything used so far, mash tun etc...

1200 add in my immersion chiller and irish moss and continue with hop additions.

1215 flameout (steep any flameout hops etc if required) and/or start running cold water through my chiller

1245 achieve pitching temps, draing the boil kettle into the fermentation vessel, aerate and pitch

1pm put ferm vessel in ferm chamber, and begin cleanup of the BK

130 put everything away, and close garage door



this is my process in a simple form, but the bottom line, is while your waiting on things to get done i.e. strike water temp, mash/ starch conversion etc, I spend all my time preparing for the boil, then while the boil is going, in between the hop additions, I spend that time cleaning everything else up. It really helps me to have my brew stand set up the way I have it, as everything I need is right there, I don't have to search for stuff....I also use a checklist that I write outthe night before when I am going over my ingredients so that I don't forget any additions.
 
I brew alone, kind of like the time spent outside,
It's the Bottling day that I recruit help, cleaning and sterilizing bottles and equipment, filling bottles, capping, tilting bottling bucket while filling bottles, it all goes really a lot faster when I have help bottling.
 
I have kids and find that for me it works best on a weekend in the morning. I get the grain measured and milled the night before. Set out the equipment. Set the alarm for about 5:30 am or so

I am up and heating water by 6:00. At some point during the mash the kids wake up and and I help them with breakfast. By the time 10:30 or 11:00 rolls around I am finished and cleaning up. And I the rest of the day for family duties.

this also prevents me from drinking too much during brewing. I will have one but not before chilling.
 
I have kids and find that for me it works best on a weekend in the morning. I get the grain measured and milled the night before. Set out the equipment. Set the alarm for about 5:30 am or so

I am up and heating water by 6:00. At some point during the mash the kids wake up and and I help them with breakfast. By the time 10:30 or 11:00 rolls around I am finished and cleaning up. And I the rest of the day for family duties.

this also prevents me from drinking too much during brewing. I will have one but not before chilling.


This is what I do. And I find it helps if I can sneak away for a half hour during boil to cook up some eggs for the kiddos. Political capital is important!
 
I understand the brewing after kids go to bed thing... it is the only time you're truly off duty. Both of mine used to be sacked by 7, but the oldest is up until 8 these days.

I don't mind brewing till midnight though, as long as I've got a brew available. I think as other's have stated, preparation is the key. Have tools, cleaning and equipment ready to go laid out in an organized manner.

Start heating your strike water 20 minutes before your kid's bedtime so you can mash in as soon as they hit the sack.

There is a lot of downtime in all grain brewing, so during the mash, you can prep your boil kettle and sparge water. During the boil you can prep your chiller and fermenter. If you've prepared right, there is no reason you can't get a brew day done in 4 hours.
 
I didn't read the entire post so forgive me if some of these have been suggested already. I also have 2 kids under 4, and a very understanding wife but i've still experimented with various time-saving techniques. A typical brew day for 10G is 6 hours for me, yes it used to be 7 but i've cut it down. Also I have only EVER brewed alone.

Other than the obvious tips people recommended of getting stuff ready before brewing (which I do) i've had great results on overnight mashing. I mash in on friday night (3-4F above standard mash temp) seal the cooler, cover with sleeping bag and i'm always above 140F at 7AM with no funkyness going on. If i do overnight mash I can be done, pitched, and cleaned up in 3-4 hours on sat morning.

Also i've done a variant of no-chill with good success, instead of messing with my pump and CFC (which take a while to clean!) I just used my old 5G batch IC when the boil is done, knock the temp down to the 100-120 range with just a few minutes of IC chilling, then I put the lid on and let it cool overnight. i've done this 4 times and never had an infection issue.

PM me if you interested in any more details on the overnight mash.

Cheers!
 
Getting everything ready the night before really helps. I have my grains crushed, my strike and sparge water measured, and all salt and hop additions separated out into containers. I also really like my bucket heater set on a christmas timer. I have it start about 2 hours before I want to mash and the temp is usually in the 150s or so and it only takes a few minutes on the burner to get to my strike temp (instead of heating all the way from tap water temperatures).

I have 2 little kids too, so I will try to time the longer things (mash, boil) around them. While Im mashing I can feed them or put them down, and during the boil (about the first 30-45 min of it) I can do the same thing.
 
I prefer to brew alone, instead of with a friend. With someone else, I get distracted and that's when mistakes (messes, especially) happen.

Most of the work is hands-off, really. Pumps help so there isn't as much heavy lifting. I clean the MLT during the boil, so after the boil all that is left is the boil kettle. I usually fill it with some water and PBW and let it recirculate or soak while I put the fermenters where they go and put everything else away. I'm a "clean as you go" kind of person in all things anyway, so by the time I'm cleaning the boil kettle out, everything else is done.

From start to finish, a brewday takes me about 5 hours. I make 11 gallon sized batches.


Yup. I actually don't like brewing with others. Prep the night before and clean as you go. 4-5 hours no problem for me and most of that is downtime to chill.
 
Lift weights. Build up those muscles.

And I don't realy like brewing with others either. Unless they are complete novices. Why? Because then I can teach them from scratch and won't have to worry about them trying to contradict what I'm trying to do.
 
I have resisted going full all-grain because it seems to be a lot to do alone. Due to my schedule and that of my friends, we are not able to get together as often as we'd like to brew, so I usually end up just doing an extract batch after putting the kids to bed. I have an all-grain setup with pump and plate chiller, so in theory it should be easy. I am skeptical though, and don't want to get into a 7 hour ordeal before realizing I have made a poor choice.

For those of you who do all-grain alone, what are your tips and secrets?

1-you could crush your grain the day before brewing.
2-During the mash you have an hour to get all sorts of gear ready for later steps.
3-During the boil use a timer and you can clean up mash tun and what you used earlier.

You should be able to do a brew in say 4 hrs. 5 at the most.
 
Thanks again so much for all the help. You guys have given me a lot of very useful info!!!
 
I still take a solid 5 hours for brew day. I have dedicated brewing area and have invested in many brew gadgets to reduce my stress level and cut my brew day down to under 3 hours (with a 90 min boil). However this really only effects the brewing process. I still take hours to build my recipe, buy water, pull items from inventory by weight, grind grains, and get organized on the front side. Then it takes an hour or more for clean up at the end of the brewing process. For me brewing is an exhausting yet rewarding process. If I manage to get the front side done a day or so in advance then everything usually goes much smoother. My advice would be to pre-plan as much as possible, then have a dedicated brewing area to cut down setup time.
 
Definitely have a plan. My biggest problem with no help is lifting and pouring large pots of hot water and then pouring the wort into the bucket/carboy/fermonster by myself without spilling. No one to hold the fermenter and/or the funnel while pouring.
 
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