Otto_on_the_island
Member
So, I decided I was going to brew this weekend. I did 3 batches today (Sunday), and did 2 yesterday (Sat).
Saturdays session was a bit of a bear, just because I was running errands in the morning and got started about 3 hrs later than I had planned. But I still did 2x 8gal batches of Ginger Ale.
Sundays session was about the smoothest brew day Ive ever had. I was out of bed before 8 am, and only mildly hung over (stupid yard glasses lol), and had the first batch mashed in just after 8 (the CYBI Moose Drool clone). As soon as I was mashed out, I gave the mash tun a quick spray out, then started the strike water for the second batch (a Nut Brown ale).
Batch 2 mashed while batch 1 boiled. I chilled the first batch, using the chiller water to measure out the sparge water for batch 2, and the strike water for batch 3.
With batch 1 chilled and pitched, I got batch 2 sparged and started boiling, and batch 3 mashed in. 3 mashed while 2 boiled, just as the first batch did.
When batch 2 was chilled and pitched, I got batch 3 started sparging.
Boiled off the final batch, got it chilled and pitched by 2:30 in the afternoon. By 3:15, the mash tun, kettle, chiller and my odds and ends of mess were cleaned up, and the floor mopped (I boil just out the backdoor in my postage stamp sized townhouse back yard, tromping in mud everytime I come in and out).
I'm so pleased with myself for a couple of reasons - I brewed 5 kegs worth of beer over the weekend, doing 3 brews on Sunday. I hit my numbers pretty much spot on, except for the final brew today, a Founders Red Rye-PA clone. My gravity was off by about 5 pts, but I can accept that. And, I had almost no waste water! Since I live in a strata and he have a shared water bill, I am very conscious of the amount of water I use....Ive already had neighbours griping about my brewing. I recycled my chiller water for the strike and sparge water of the next batch. I recycled it for cleaning my open fermentors, and then THAT got recycled in a laundry load of towles, socks, and gotch (and no, there wasnt a ton of yeast in my laundry, I ferment with bag liners in my fermentors). The last of my chiller water got recycled as rinse water for a cpl loads of dishes in the sink.
All it took was a little organization, a little planning, and a little self control and common sense. All my grains for each brew were weighed out ahead of time and ground the night before. The hops for each were weighed out in 1L yogurt containers, labeled with sticky notes with the time they went in. Same with the irish moss. And the big one, for me anyway, is I didnt pull my first beer until the 3rd batch was mashed in.
Apologies for being long winded, but Im pretty pleased with myself for this. It bodes well as a warm up to the plans I have for the BC Day long weekend coming up - 3x 10 gal batches, for each of the 3 days of the long weekend! Including what will be my first attempts at lagers.
By the way, I pulled this off with my pretty ghetto brewery....1 burner, 1 keggle (with no ball valve), 1 almost 30 liter pot (from the turkey fryer kit), 1 55 qt mash tun, and a 50' IC. :rockin:
Saturdays session was a bit of a bear, just because I was running errands in the morning and got started about 3 hrs later than I had planned. But I still did 2x 8gal batches of Ginger Ale.
Sundays session was about the smoothest brew day Ive ever had. I was out of bed before 8 am, and only mildly hung over (stupid yard glasses lol), and had the first batch mashed in just after 8 (the CYBI Moose Drool clone). As soon as I was mashed out, I gave the mash tun a quick spray out, then started the strike water for the second batch (a Nut Brown ale).
Batch 2 mashed while batch 1 boiled. I chilled the first batch, using the chiller water to measure out the sparge water for batch 2, and the strike water for batch 3.
With batch 1 chilled and pitched, I got batch 2 sparged and started boiling, and batch 3 mashed in. 3 mashed while 2 boiled, just as the first batch did.
When batch 2 was chilled and pitched, I got batch 3 started sparging.
Boiled off the final batch, got it chilled and pitched by 2:30 in the afternoon. By 3:15, the mash tun, kettle, chiller and my odds and ends of mess were cleaned up, and the floor mopped (I boil just out the backdoor in my postage stamp sized townhouse back yard, tromping in mud everytime I come in and out).
I'm so pleased with myself for a couple of reasons - I brewed 5 kegs worth of beer over the weekend, doing 3 brews on Sunday. I hit my numbers pretty much spot on, except for the final brew today, a Founders Red Rye-PA clone. My gravity was off by about 5 pts, but I can accept that. And, I had almost no waste water! Since I live in a strata and he have a shared water bill, I am very conscious of the amount of water I use....Ive already had neighbours griping about my brewing. I recycled my chiller water for the strike and sparge water of the next batch. I recycled it for cleaning my open fermentors, and then THAT got recycled in a laundry load of towles, socks, and gotch (and no, there wasnt a ton of yeast in my laundry, I ferment with bag liners in my fermentors). The last of my chiller water got recycled as rinse water for a cpl loads of dishes in the sink.
All it took was a little organization, a little planning, and a little self control and common sense. All my grains for each brew were weighed out ahead of time and ground the night before. The hops for each were weighed out in 1L yogurt containers, labeled with sticky notes with the time they went in. Same with the irish moss. And the big one, for me anyway, is I didnt pull my first beer until the 3rd batch was mashed in.
Apologies for being long winded, but Im pretty pleased with myself for this. It bodes well as a warm up to the plans I have for the BC Day long weekend coming up - 3x 10 gal batches, for each of the 3 days of the long weekend! Including what will be my first attempts at lagers.
By the way, I pulled this off with my pretty ghetto brewery....1 burner, 1 keggle (with no ball valve), 1 almost 30 liter pot (from the turkey fryer kit), 1 55 qt mash tun, and a 50' IC. :rockin:
