All-Grain Brewers: How long does your typical brew day take?

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If you caount the mash water heating in the eHLT and clean up, 6 to 8 depending on style. Low hop (Belgian for example) 5 gal go about 6 hours. High hop 10 gallon IPA's go upwards of 8 hours lately since I started Hop standing and longer aeration with the aquarium pump and stone. Not to mention higher ground water temps have lengthened my chill time.

However I don't usually count the mash water heating as time brewing though since I pre stage the water the night before and just flip the switch when I get up in the morning and enjoy my coffee and paper before I have to mash in.

The key for me in maximizing time is multi-tasking. I am almost always transfering beer in one stage of fermentation/finishing or another and/or cleaning kegs and bottles.
 
I've been brewing in the kitchen for a few years and if I grind the grain the night before and get everything together while the mash water is heating up, I can finish in 4 to 41/2 hours. But I recently got a larger pot and went back to brewing outside (its hot out now!) and with propane, I save about 45 minutes as I have a kick ass burner and it gets me thru my day much faster.
 
Starting from "everything in the garage", including conditioning grain, etc:

3 batches of 10 gal, 9 hrs
4 batches of 10 gal, 11 hrs

batches in assembly line format (one batch is mashing, another boiling, etc).
 
kombat said:
Intuitively, that doesn't make any sense.

Initially, the water tank had no mineral deposits in it. It was factory new and perfectly clean, right?

So assume that over time, the water going through the tank deposited minerals in it. Then logically, the water coming out of my hot water tank actually had LESS minerals in it than straight cold tap water (because it had dropped some of its minerals in the hot water tank, whereas the cold water just came straight out of the tap).

So assuming that's the case, why would the water suddenly switch to PICKING UP the deposited minerals? Isn't that saying that my hot water is currently making my hot water tank CLEANER, by removing minerals? At what point will it switch back and start depositing minerals again? Is it some sort of cycle?

At any rate, given the thousands and thousands of gallons of water that go through that tank, I think any increase/decrease in mineral content would be absolutely trivial, and completely imperceptible in the final taste of any beer it is used to produce. And it saves me a solid 20 minutes of heating strike/mash water. :)
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If you've ever looked at the inside of a used hot water tank, you'd never even think about drinking the water that's in there.
 
It used to take me about 6.5 hours. Now unfortunately I wrap it all up in just under 5.

DAMN the EHERMs efficiency!

Should point out as other's have that I get water and grain ready the night before, hops additions laid out if they aren't full bags etc.
 
lstrowge said:
Not to mention higher ground water temps have lengthened my chill time.
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This. My cold water was coming out at 39-40F during the winter/early "spring" but now that summer is in full swing in Chicago the lowest I can get is 62F or so. Makes a big difference if you ask me, but I'm impatient to begin with. :D
 
jhurt said:
If you've ever looked at the inside of a used hot water tank, you'd never even think about drinking the water that's in there.
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But if I have to look at the tank to see what's there, then who cares? What I'm saying is, if I can't taste any difference, then what's the problem?

Anything living (bacteria, whatever) is going to be killed in the boil. And if the water tastes fine, who cares what the inside of the water tank looks like?
 
I run about the 5 hour mark. I'm getting better with condensing clean up and could improve, IE clean the mash tun during the boil but what I do with my wort chiller is run off the first few gallons in to a pot to use to reheat the brew pot to clean it with BPW and a scotch brite pad. The subsquent gallons go in to the mash tun to rinse, clean and those other duties. Even with my cold water I'm finding my wort chiller is running about 30 gallons to cool wort to the 60s. (Yeah I may get a pump and a plate chiller)
Still, I have set up time in this as well as clean up/tear down time. I do note though that after one brew I'm wiped out!
 
HawksBrewer said:
This. My cold water was coming out at 39-40F during the winter/early "spring" but now that summer is in full swing in Chicago the lowest I can get is 62F or so. Makes a big difference if you ask me, but I'm impatient to begin with. :D
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My tap water is already 80 and the lowest it ever gets down south here is about 60. I now use my chiller to get me to about 110 degrees in 20 minutes or so then switch to a pond pump in ice water that gets met o 66 in another 10-12 minutes. Doing 10 gallons would be painful so I keep it to 5.
 
My tap water is already 80 and the lowest it ever gets down south here is about 60. I now use my chiller to get me to about 110 degrees in 20 minutes or so then switch to a pond pump in ice water that gets met o 66 in another 10-12 minutes. Doing 10 gallons would be painful so I keep it to 5.
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My last 10 gal session took almost 50 minutes to get to pitch temp. I have a 50' Immersion chiller and I whirlpool. It usually only takes about 30 for ten gal and around 20 for a five gal batch. I'm thinking about going the pond pump/ice water bath method myself, atleast for the warmer months anyway.
 
kombat said:
but if i have to look at the tank to see what's there, then who cares? What i'm saying is, if i can't taste any difference, then what's the problem?

Anything living (bacteria, whatever) is going to be killed in the boil. And if the water tastes fine, who cares what the inside of the water tank looks like?
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+1
 
Varmintman said:
Well depending how much I drink and how good a job I do cleaning 4 to 4 1/2 hours.
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:rockin:

Pre-crushed grain
Get everything out and setup and cleaned - 30 minutes
Fill strike water and heat - 20 minutes
Dough-in - 5 minutes
Mash - 1 hour (Step mashes are longer)
Sparge - 20 minutes
Boil - 85 minutes (Probably takes 25 minutes to come to a boil)
Cool and fill fermenters - 30 minutes
Clean up - 30 minutes.

4hr 40 minutes total....

Then add 15 minutes for every pint drank over 3 pints... :drunk:
 
Weighing and crushing grain included and all the clean up afterward and my brew day is usually about 4 1/2 - 5 hours for a 5 gallon batch.
 
From mashing in to pitching yeast is about 3 hours and 15 minutes, give or take... more like a total of 4 hours if you include time to heat water, clean up afterwards, etc.

I heat water in a 33qt kettle on a bayou classic, mash in a cooler, do about 45 minutes mash rest plus about 10 minutes to recirc... about an hour to run off to 6.5-7 gallons, bring to boil and boil for an hour, use immersion chiller
 
On Friday I brewed three ten gallon batches in nine hours (7:30am-4:30pm).

Only prep was grains milled at LHBS and yeast starters.
 
5 hours including an hour long whirlpool hop stand. Add at least an hour and a half when making lagers or anything with low mash temp and pilsner malt.

For the first time today I started heating my kettle while I was sparging. That saved some time, for sure.
 
Cubslover said:
3.5hrs for me. 5gal batches. Single infusion mash, batch sparge. Start boiling as I sparge.
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I have thought about starting the boil during the sparge. The only trouble I see is if u come up short on your target volume. Im going to try this next batch
 
I think I did 10 gallons in about 4 hours a few weeks ago, maybe 4.5. A big time-saver for me is just no-chill brewing. I took apart my immersion chiller a few months back to make a counter-flow chiller with the copper, but never finished it. Instead I've been dumping the boiling wort into empty corny kegs, and throwing it in my basement to chill naturally. It's cut a huge amount of time out of my brew day, and it's so easy to just pitch the yeast a day or two later when I have the time. I don't know if I'll ever go back.
 
for 20-25L (5.5 - 7 gallons), 60 minute mash, 60 minute boil, no chill - about 3.5 hours.

for a 38L (10 gallon) batch, about 4-4.5 hours, as I have to 90 minute boil and stagger the sparge.

Add half an hour for chilling (usually anything late hopped only).
 
4.6l5 to 6. If I'm brewing on my own, its on the lower end, if I'm doing a 90 min mash or boil or both its 6+. I recently discovered how much more I like brewing alone.
 
set up and let strike water get to temp: 20 min
mash: 60 min (generally) + 10 min to mix and tend to
sparge: 30-45 min
boil: 60 min (gen) + 10 min lead time coming to rolling boil
cool down: 30-45 min
pitch yeast, etc: 10 min
clean up: 30-60 min

TOTAL: 4.5 - 5.5 hours
 
annoyingrob said:
Instead I've been dumping the boiling wort into empty corny kegs, and throwing it in my basement to chill naturally. It's cut a huge amount of time out of my brew day, and it's so easy to just pitch the yeast a day or two later when I have the time. I don't know if I'll ever go back.
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How does this affect the beer, if at all? Is it cloudier (chill haze, etc)?
 
Sweet beginning to bitter end -> 6 hours.
Soon to upgrade from a turkey fryer to a Blichmann burner, and hoping that will shave half an hour to 45 minutes from current times.
 
I usually leave me stuff set-up in the garage once I get it out for the year. That way I can brew at will with out to much getting stuff out and setting it up. This only works for Spring-summer because in the fall I use that side of the garage for other hobbies.

So I usually start at 7:30 in the morning and get done around 3:30 PM for two back to back 10 gallon batches. 20 gallons total. Last week I only had enough ingredients to do one 10 gallon batch. I had my yeast pitched by noon. I Just had some clean up of the boil kettle, wort chiller and tools to do. Felt like a vacation day after doing two back to back brews.
 
from heating mash water, to cleaning gear...5 hours.
We do 2 (5-6 gal) batches (2 tuns/2 pots)
 
From the moment I start drawing water to cleaning up the last bit of equipment, I am looking about about 6-7 hours.

I still brew on an eletric stove unfortunately.
 
I typically run about 6 hours start to finish clean up. I've gone 9 before on a big barleywine. Lots of boil down.
 
Our typical time per batch is around 4 hours for a 5 gallon and 5 for a 10 gallon. We (two of us) did a 5 gallon triple decoction mash (just to say we did it) for a dopplebock plus another 10 gallon batch on 7/4. It took about 12 hours total. The triple decoction mash itself was almost 5 hours long. We did do some concurrent brewing for the two batches but also do a full 60 minute sparge on both and a 90 minute boil on the dopplebock.
 

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