A 5g batch takes me about 4 hours, start to finish. Normally I do back-to-back batches though, and I can get that done in 6 hours (boiling the first while mashing the second, etc).
I've never really timed it, but I'd guess maybe 6 hours for a 10 gallon batch. I'm sure I could shave off an hour or two if I better utilized the time I spend drinking beer and relaxing in my lawn chair, but why in the hell would I want to do something stupid like that?
for me, it's all just about being ready for the next step and never standing there doing nothing at all during the day.
roughly: 20 minutes to heat up water, 60 minutes to mash, 10 minutes to sparge, 15 minutes to get boiling, one hour of boil, 20 minutes to chill.
That's 3 hours and 5 minutes. half an hour for cleanup at the end, and I'm at roughly 3:30.
I even manage to keg the month old batch while I'm mashing and rack the two week old batch while I'm boiling. I weigh and mill my grain while water is heating at the start. I don't do anything in advance.
Granted, brewing like this isn't super leisurely. I'm a whirlwind of activity for those 3 to 4 hours, but I still enjoy it. If I have friends over while I brew, it ends up taking me a hell of a lot longer because I am standing around bullsh!tting and not cranking through things.
Thanks for the tips. How does it only take you 10 minutes to sparge? The way I understand batch sparging, once your add your sparge water, you're supposed to wait 10 minutes to let the grain bed settle. I just don't see how you can add water, let the bed settle, vorleuf, and sparge , all this twice for a double sparge, in 10 minutes. Please explain.
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