What do you hate most about brew day?

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Daphne-weizen

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Hi everybody! This morning I brewed my very first mini mash(SNPA clone) and survived it just fine. In fact it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought,its the stupid stuff that followed afterward that made my brew day less than relaxing.:mad:
So with that being said, I have a question. What do you hate most about brew day?
#1 I hate waiting for my water/wort to boil. I have a glass top electric range, which I absolutely HATE!! Seems like it takes forever to heat up.
#2 I hate waiting for my wort to cool down. Seems like that takes forever too. I manage to cool it down within 15 mins but that seems like forever. Wah!
I was wondering if using a turkey fryer would speed up the boil process and using frozen bottled water, in plastic containers, would help rapidly cool down my wort.
Opinions?
 
A turkey burner will greatly speed up the boil process, and make yourself an immersion chiller to cool off the wort quicker.

Only thing I hate about brew day is when it ends.
 
Cleaning. God damn cleaning.

A turkey fryer will help tremendously. Don't go throwing plastic in boiling wort, though. Look into either making an immersion chiller or doing no-chill brewing (google is your friend).

My immersion chiller has a thick layer of dust on it from switching to no-chill. For 90% of the beers I make, I have found no disadvantage to not immediately cooling the wort.

EDIT: Trox got the jump on me, and it's scary how similar our posts are...
 
Finding out you gotta make a trip to the brew store AGAIN because you forgot to check if you had anymore Irish moss.

The neighbors calling the cops on you because they think you are cooking speed in your garage.
 
My back is usually screaming at the end of the day. That's about it, though. I like the waiting. It gives me a chance to sit quietly and think. Or have lunch. Both of which can be rewarding experiences.
 
I like it all. I guess watching for a boilover is tedious, but it's part of the game and I enjoy the game. Lifting a full kettle is prob the hardest part for me physically.
 
get a turkey fryer.
How do you cool in 15 mins without immersion chiller?
get into kegging if not there already.

the ONE thing i hate about brew day is that i know i have 6 weeks before i can taste my latest creation.
 
Ugh. I hate cleaning. I clean as I go though, so it's not AS bad... It still sucks. I usually have a buddy over to help with lifting (BIAB) and I still won't let them clean. Its because I hate it so much that I can't let anyone else do it. I'm also meticulous, which is another reason why I hate it. I feel it has to be really clean. Though I probably should lighten up, since there's no way to really know if it's clean or not without a dunk in the Starsan.

I also dislike waiting for wort to cool. My IC just isn't cutting it, and I don't have the budget to make a new one. One day...
 
What I hate is not having an area dedicated to brewing.

I carry everything I need (except for burner) to my truck and haul it down to my shop. Then brew...which I do enjoy... but then haul it all back to the house and back to the basement till the next brew day.
 
ktblunden said:
CLEANING! Brewing is something like 60% cleaning, 39% waiting, and 1% actually doing stuff.
Click to expand...

^^^^ this! I find I do a lot of listening to music and talking with friends when I'm not cleaning that fills up the 39% of waiting time. Lots of darts games. :)
 
I love all the process of brewing except cleaning the boil kettle. Everything else is cleaned by the end of the brew day.. My nemesis is the boil kettle.
 
I only hate brew day if I am tired going into it like I was today, makes for a very difficult session.
 
I got live in help so I just leave my mess where it is and they clean and sanitize it all. Easy livin'.
 
Cleaning my boil kettle for sure.

The OP's problems are very easily solved with a propane burner and IC.
 
Scheduling. I dont mind the cleaning. Its the fact that I want to brew any day, but on week days if I start a brew when I get home from work I get to bed later than usual and as a result am tired the next day at work.

I also hate running out of propane or when I do something stupid like melt the plastic tubing leading to my IC or break another thermometer.

It is all worth it though.
 
PasbitinusBluinusRibbinus said:
Cleaning. God damn cleaning.
Click to expand...

Wow, this is my answer. Well, it's not so much the actual cleaning, but the whole process of cleaning, picking up, putting everything away. It doesn't help that my storage is all in different parts of the house as well. Basement for some, storage shed in the backyard for other stuff and a few things in the attic over the garage.

I'm getting a bigger shed this summer, so at that point I'll probably build a simple brewstand taht I can at least stack everything on. Hell, having one point of storage will probably shave an hour off of my brew day in time savings of moving everything from all over to brew, then putting it all away.

Every other process I really enjoy.
 
As someone else said, not having a dedicated brew space but I am working towards that. I brew in the garage but keep most of my stuff in the basement. I also ferment in the basement, so I take a lot of trips up and down stairs on brew day. I am in the middle of building a shed, which will make room on one side of the garage to convert it to a permanent brewery. That'll make the wife happy as I can get everything out of the basement and it'll make me happy to have it all in one dedicated space.
 
I hate all the trips up and down the stairs between where all my stuff is stored and the garage. I am planning to put in an electric brewery but that may be a while yet. There are a couple of other projects to do first and I'll probably have to have my electric service upgraded$$$.
 
Daphne-weizen said:
Hi everybody! This morning I brewed my very first mini mash(SNPA clone) and survived it just fine. In fact it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought,its the stupid stuff that followed afterward that made my brew day less than relaxing.:mad:
So with that being said, I have a question. What do you hate most about brew day?
#1 I hate waiting for my water/wort to boil. I have a glass top electric range, which I absolutely HATE!! Seems like it takes forever to heat up.
#2 I hate waiting for my wort to cool down. Seems like that takes forever too. I manage to cool it down within 15 mins but that seems like forever. Wah!
I was wondering if using a turkey fryer would speed up the boil process and using frozen bottled water, in plastic containers, would help rapidly cool down my wort.
Opinions?
Click to expand...

Turkey frier is what I use. WAY faster than on the stove top. I got mine at Home Depot for like $30 and it came with a 30qt pot. I've since moved on to a 40qt pot, but still use the 30qt as my sparge pot. While water/wort is coming up to temp I do other things to pass the time. Weigh out hops, clean up gear that's been used and I'm done with for the day, etc.

And if moving your brew day outside with a turkey frier, you may as will get a wort chiller. This will also speed up your day. I have my brew day down to about 4hrs and couldn't be happier.

I really don't care for anything that needs to be done after the boil is over. Chilling, racking, aerating, cleaning, etc. I do it of course, but am really looking forward to the day my son is old enough to lend a hand. I may just "allow" him to take over some of these "very important" responsibilities ;)
 
1) transporting everything upstairs from the basement then back down when done.
2) Herding small humans away from the hot, sticky, precision boiling device with hop additions stacked next to it because they feel a Hotwheels car or other "ingredient" would be an appropriate addition.

I think both could be solved with a dedicated brew space. I'm working on that.
 
sumbrewindude said:
1) transporting everything upstairs from the basement then back down when done.
2) Herding small humans away from the hot, sticky, precision boiling device with hop additions stacked next to it because they feel a Hotwheels car or other "ingredient" would be an appropriate addition.

I think both could be solved with a dedicated brew space. I'm working on that.
Click to expand...

This, and add the cleaning to it...
 
Wort chilling. If I just let the IC go it takes 30 minutes so I carefully stir with sanitized paddle every 3 minutes. I'm worried about contamination the entire time, hoping a bug doesn't fall in the wort since I brew outside on the deck.

Other than that it's not so bad. As for cleaning: If you clean as you go it's MUCH less tedious at the end of the brew day. When my wort goes into fermenters the only thing I have left to clean is the kettle.
 
This is like trying to figure out what the worst part of a nice day at the beach is. I guess packing up your beach stuff and cleaning up. Everything else is just groovy, it's still a day at the beach.
 
Jayhem said:
Wort chilling. If I just let the IC go it takes 30 minutes so I carefully stir with sanitized paddle every 3 minutes. I'm worried about contamination the entire time, hoping a bug doesn't fall in the wort since I brew outside on the deck.

Other than that it's not so bad. As for cleaning: If you clean as you go it's MUCH less tedious at the end of the brew day. When my wort goes into fermenters the only thing I have left to clean is the kettle.
Click to expand...

So long as you pitch appropriate amounts of yeast quickly they should elbow out most nasties that can get into your beer. I brew outdoors/in my garage which is not a clean room by any stretch and have even left the wort overnight (up to 24 hours) in the fermenter in my ferm chamber to come to temp after cooling down to 90 because I forgot to pitch the yeast with no issues.

Using an IC, if you send the warm/hot exit water and fill your emptied MLT or HLT with it, you get warm cleanup water. Use the MLT water for a prewash (there usually is leftover grain material in there, even after dumping) of everything to remove gross debris, then use the HLT water for final rinses. Makes things far easier and much more comfortable to clean up with and far less wasted water.
 
I'm going to go with the cleaning AFTER brewing. You'd think that when it's in the carboy/bucket you're ready to go and relax, but no. You don't want that wort to harden all over everything.

I'm also plagued by the crappy glass stovetop. Thinking of switching to an induction stove when I get around to (and can afford) the kitchen renovation. Condo rules won't let me have a BBQ, I can't see an open flame propane ring on the balcony being any more permitted. Presumably when I start really getting into yeast harvesting or using liquids I'll hate having to plan a brew a few days in advance. I like the idea of "What do I feel like today?" as compared to "What did I do 3 days ago to prepare for today?"
 
Zepth said:
Condo rules won't let me have a BBQ, I can't see an open flame propane ring on the balcony being any more permitted.
Click to expand...


Same here, but rules are meant to be broken.... or at the very least, tested. I've been grilling for 8yrs and brewing for 4yrs at my condo. It's somewhat of a private area and my neighbors are all cool. Make friends with your neighbors. Invite them over for a nice grilled steak and a homebrew. They'll keep their mouths shut if you keep them full :mug:
 
Carrying the wort downstairs to the fermentation area.

And Zepth, growing yeast isn't that time sensitive if youre ok with about a quart of starter in the beer, and have a stirplate. You can go from 40 billion to pitching numbers that day if you start the yeast early.
 

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