advice to more brewing indoors and shorten brew day

[drudini11]

I have been brewing AG for a few years now with a pretty basic setup using a single banjo burner, 15 gallon HLT/BK and 10 Gallon Rubbermaid Cooler MT. Have been doing mostly 5 gallon batches using single infusion / no sparge or batch sparge. A typical brew day for me is about 6-7 hours from setup to cleanup. This winter I have come to 2 conclusions………firstly is that I really need to move my operations indoors as the weather in New England has simply sucked for brewing this year and secondly I just don’t have 6-7 hours to spare on a weekend with a wife and 3 daughters that also need my attention. My goal is to start putting together a setup in the garage that will allow me to continue doing AG batches but try and get the timing down to between 4-5 hours and also not be impacted by bad weather all the time. My current equipment includes:

1 Spike Brewing 15 Gallon Kettle (with 3 couplers)
1 10 Gallon Rubbermaid Cooler with False Bottom
1 8 Gallon Heavy Duty Kettle (use for the occasional 5 gallon extract or 3 gallon BIAB)
1 Banjo Burner
1 Shirron Chiller (gravity fed….no pumps currently)

This is not something I expect to happen overnight. Any additional money that I use towards this goal takes away from buying ingredients so a bit of a trade off.

Looking for advice on how to best take advantage of the equipment that I already have, shorten my brew days and move the brewing process indoors. If I still want to actually brew this year then I am looking at a budget of $500 or less to enhance this setup for the current year so not sure how far that will get me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[julioardz]

I often mash, sparge, and collect the wort in the kettle at night, then boil in the morning. That doesn't save time, but it lets me start the process after the child is in bed and I'm done before noon the next day.

What about BIAB? It's less cleaning and no sparging, so it should save time. Plus, a bag does not cost much.


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[kenny_d]

I agree with going full BIAB. With your 15 gallon kettle you could easily pump out 7-8 gallons of wort that way you get more wort for the same amount of time spent brewing. You'll have to split the batch if you don't have fermenters big enough, but totally worth it IMO. This is my process and I spend 5 hours max on a brew day.

 

[Homercidal]

You can save time by finding little areas to cut or modify to save time, like heating water needed for later so it's ready on time, checking mash conversion with iodine and start the lauter as soon as it's complete, rather than waiting the "usual" 60 minutes (It's often done before 60 minutes), cleaning as you go.

Also, I've found I save a lot of time and hassle when I have everything planned out, organized, and ready for action. Pre-crush grains, measure hops and water, treat water, set up pump, etc.

I don't know about using a banjo burner inside.

 

[IslandLizard]

I consider the time from heating strike water to pouring the chilled wort into a fermentor a pretty uninterruptable block of time you need, regardless. You can pitch yeast a few hours later if you must, although it adds only a few minutes.
You could do the cleanup as you go while you're boiling and chilling or after as many hours as you need once you're done, even the next day. Just soak everything in water.

You can do all your prep work like getting your recipe printed, weighting and milling grains, and filling your kettle the day before, so when you're ready to commit to your time, just turn on the heat.

Please don't use propane indoors. If you want to brew inside, go electric, either with kettle elements ($200 + handy time) or a 3500W induction plate ($177), provided you have easy access to a 240V, 20 or 30 Amps circuit, like used for dryers.

I often mash, sparge, and collect the wort in the kettle at night, then boil in the morning. That doesn't save time, but it lets me start the process after the child is in bed and I'm done before noon the next day. [...]

I don't think it is good letting warm wort sit for several hours. That's enough time for it to start to sour. You know what your mash tun smells like the next day. I'd say anytime over 2 hours would be pushing it already.

 

[drudini11]

just to clarify only time I have used the burner indoors is in the garage with the door wide open.........outside of that I would prefer to switch over to all electric and get an electrician to wire the garage for 220/240v.

 

[Zamial]

I can pretty much promise you that your bottleneck is how fast you can heat water/wort. Build a RIMS tube or a heat stick.I had no concept of how much time this would save me but now can not imagine brew day without it.

 

[drudini11]

I definitely could try and prep more the night before the brew day which may save a bit of time. I like the idea of the 3500W induction plate vs heating elements simply from a safety POV (not much of an electrician and nervous about installing/using the heating elements) but only my 8 gallon kettle is magnetic so I'd need to get a new 15 gallon to replace my Spike Kettle if I went that route. I also think going full BIAB may be a good option as well. Spending a few extra $$ to increase my base malt to hit the efficiency would be well worth the time savings.

 

[bajaedition]

What it sounds like to me is that you need to invest in one of the more automatic systems like a Braumiester
http://morebeer.com/products/braumeister-20l.html
you do not need to do a lot of babysitting one of these systems ans can multi task

 

[IslandLizard]

I definitely could try and prep more the night before the brew day which may save a bit of time. I like the idea of the 3500W induction plate vs heating elements simply from a safety POV (not much of an electrician and nervous about installing/using the heating elements) but only my 8 gallon kettle is magnetic so I'd need to get a new 15 gallon to replace my Spike Kettle if I went that route. I also think going full BIAB may be a good option as well. Spending a few extra $$ to increase my base malt to hit the efficiency would be well worth the time savings.

3500W Induction Plate

You only need a 20A 240V service for this plate, which is simple and fairly cheap to run. Heck you can run 2 of them for twice the price

From what I read, apparently there's no GFCI needed with the induction plates. GFCI panel breakers are ridiculously expensive ($90+). That's why most install a spa panel instead ($75), which can deliver 50A at 240V, and includes GFCI.

Look to the future for your electrical needs, so you don't have to do it twice. If you know someone who you trust to run the wire and install it, you probably save $500 on an electrician.

 

[Homercidal]

Agreed. If you are thinking that electric brewing is the way to go, investigate now. See where you have a 220V outlet, or see where you could put one.

They are not hard to wire up if you have the basic knowledge and a reasonable sense of safety (Turn the power off to the breaker panel when installing the wiring!) Find out about proper cable installation and grounding. GFCI is required for all standard heating elements.

I went the spa panel from Lowes route. I think it cost about $70 total and has 50A of power so I can run both elements at he same time (boiling wort while heating mash water so I can start the boil as soon as the first runnings is captured, or it I'm wishing to do a double brew day.)

There are several ways to go about using that electricity and MANY different control options. It would be quite an interesting thing to read up on them all and decide which one would work best for you.

 

[Phunhog]

I routinely do 11 gallon batches in 5 hours and that includes clean up. 6-7 hours seems excessive.... I haven't done this but have you thought about a tankless water heater? Instant hot water at near strike temps should dramatically shorten your day. Plus with a family you can push the tankless water heater you can push it as something that helps the whole family.

 

[julioardz]

I don't think it is good letting warm wort sit for several hours. That's enough time for it to start to sour. You know what your mash tun smells like the next day. I'd say anytime over 2 hours would be pushing it already.

Yeah, not everyone would be willing to mash at night and boil in the morning, but I've done it countless times without any problems. I hate sour beers and would notice a sour mash. I mash out, so who knows, maybe that's killing the nasty bugs that could potentially infect the wort while it sits overnight. I also keep it covered of course.

 

[RM-MN]

BIAB, grain milled super fine since the bag is the filter, not the grain husks. Shorten the mash to 30 minutes or less (10 seems like too short but it works). From starting to heat the water to having the yeast pitched should take you less than 4 hours. The time constraints are heating the water to strike temp, the mash period, the boil, and the time to chill. Clean and put away equipment as you finish using it. If you need to shorten the day more yet, pour your hot wort into a bucket fermenter and put the lid on. Use an "S" shaped airlock so you don't get suck back and pitch the yeast the next day.

 

[drudini11]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think the first thing I'll do is speak with an electrician about getting a 220V outlet installed in the garage. Seems like this will need to be done regardless of whether I go with induction or heating elements. Safe to assume that I'd need 2 outlets installed to support element in MT and BK? Once I get everything wired I'll determine next steps. In the meantime while still using propane I'll probably go the BIAB method to save a bit of time and maybe just do all 3 gallon batches for the time being. Was planning on brewing an Oatmeal Stout so I'll convert to BIAB and see how things go.

 

[UberHasselhoff]

drudini11 -- The best thing I did to cut down on time was to go no-chill. I went from a 6-7 hour brew day down to under 5. Plus you can pitch when you're ready.

There's an extremely long thread about no-chill and people on both sides of the fence, so the best thing I can say is read up, spend $15 bucks on a good cube and find out for yourself.

I have a pretty picky palate and have noticed no difference between my chilled vs no-chill batches. YMMV of course.

 

[Setesh]

There are several ways to go about using that electricity and MANY different control options. It would be quite an interesting thing to read up on them all and decide which one would work best for you.

Boy do I agree with this! If ever there was a 'rabbit hole' in brewing research this is it. I just got done building my Kal clone panel and EHERMS system a few months ago and I can't even guess how many hours I put into researching the different ways of doing things. It was a fun journey though! If I had to do it all over again I would bite the bullet and buy Blichmann kettles instead of going the cheap route and using recycled kegs.

 

[Homercidal]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think the first thing I'll do is speak with an electrician about getting a 220V outlet installed in the garage. Seems like this will need to be done regardless of whether I go with induction or heating elements. Safe to assume that I'd need 2 outlets installed to support element in MT and BK? Once I get everything wired I'll determine next steps. In the meantime while still using propane I'll probably go the BIAB method to save a bit of time and maybe just do all 3 gallon batches for the time being. Was planning on brewing an Oatmeal Stout so I'll convert to BIAB and see how things go.

If you don't want any control and only want to use the electric for heating water, you could do this. Most people going to electric are looking to also add some control into the system for mantaining mash temps, adjusting boil rate, etc.

In those cases you would likely want a single outlet from the panel going to a control panel for the brewing rig. That would have the components for controlling the operations, such as PIDs, PWMs, SSRs, PLCs, etc. It just depends on what you want to do.

I'm currently building (or will when it warms up again) an eHERMS using PID for MLT, PWM for BK, pump switch, float switch disconnect, and I plan on adding a non-integrated keyboard and mouse and PC to the rig so I can surf HBT and crank some tunes right from the brew stand.