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

[mjdonnelly68]

Depending on the style - minimum of 4.5 hours, maximum of 6.0 hours.

 

[seatbelt123]

Definitely sub four hours for me. I do electric, single vessel BIAB. Sometimes I speed this up by only partially cooling before putting the fermentation bucket in the fridge fermentation chamber. Then I O2 and pitch the next day. Full disclosure: my last batch with 27lbs for a barley wine was a mess and took about twice that long (terrible efficiency, so I mashed twice and boiled for two hours!).

 

[djt17]

I just finished 5 hours of pure bliss. The smell of the mash & boil; along with a few home brews...(cue elevator music here)...it just don't get any better then this.

 

[olz431]

I'm 3.5 hours in and just started a 90-110 minute boil.

 

[elkshadow]

I do 3 gallon batches with a 4 gallon boil. It used to take me 5 hours start to finish on the stovetop but with a burner I can be done in around 3.

Honestly, I miss the longer brew day.

 

[daksin]

My days are pretty consistently 5 hours. 4 hours is common if I'm paying attention to nothing but brewing, but usually it's 5 hours.

 

[RM-MN]

I do 3 gallon batches with a 4 gallon boil. It used to take me 5 hours start to finish on the stovetop but with a burner I can be done in around 3.

Honestly, I miss the longer brew day.

You could do two batches in a single day to take up the extra time.....

 

[FATC1TY]

I'm around 4 or 4.5 hours. I usually mash in and drag out the rest of my gear. I also measure out my water additions the night before when I do the necessary stuff on my starters.

Do the hops while I mash and sparge.

Boil I'm cleaning the mash run. Once I start y hop stand and cooling ill start putting stuff away and cleaning. By the time it's cool and I've hit it with oxygen and put in the fermenter I've got most of it cleaned up and away.

 

[LovesIPA]

I honestly can't figure out how you guys are getting 5 gallon batches done in 4-5 hours.

I feel like Kramer in that Seinfeld episode where he was trying to figure out how to shower in 10 minutes.

 

[RM-MN]

I honestly can't figure out how you guys are getting 5 gallon batches done in 4-5 hours.

I feel like Kramer in that Seinfeld episode where he was trying to figure out how to shower in 10 minutes.

Look for posts that talk about BIAB. Start with a very fine crush, one that would guarantee a stuck sparge on a conventional mash tun. Stir that into the bag that is suspended in the strike water and cover it. Check it in 30 minutes and I'll bet you'll see signs of conversion. Pull the bag and let it drain a bit, then squeeze it until it quits giving up wort. Turn up the heat and start your hour long boil. Notice that there was no sparging mentioned? That's another saving. You could dunk the bag of grains in water while the wort you had already collected is heating, then just add it in. All those little things cut the time. I don't even have a wort chiller and I can still get a 5 gallon batch done from bringing out the equipment to cleaning and putting it away with the yeast pitched in less than 4 hours.

 

[ButcherBoy]

5 gallon batches here, batch sparging. Takes me 5-7 hours, setup to no trace left. My stove takes 45-60 minutes to boil, bummer. I'm considering a propane burner upgrade in the near future, but that also means I have to move to the garage or back porch. Not sure I want to do that. I enjoy my brew days.

 

[user 143549]

From setup to packed away is 5-6 hours....

 

[Ondori]

5-6 hours seems to be my average. I love every minute of it

 

[KIAKillerXJ]

5 or 10gal BIAB. Ranges 4-5 consistently.


Even that is hard to fit in though, thinking of getting water heated overnight like the thread on this page using a bucket heater, and also milling my grains night before. Could go straight to the mash and save 45 mins or so.

 

[mosquitocontrol]

Usually turn on the burner on around 8:30 and am finished cleaning up with the rig pulled back into the garage around 3/3:30. I do a 90 minute mash on every batch. So about 6-7 hours. Most of this time though I can do something else as its mostly waiting. So drinking my coffee during initial heat. Making lunch/breakfast during the mash. Etc. Makes for a nice relaxing weekend day with no expectations.

Definitely looking into ways to speed it up with a separate HLT and bucket heater. But I feel I should take a hiatus on buying new equipment for a few months.

 

[orion7144]

4 to 4.5 hours (10g batch) if I do not drink so I try and do it in the morning. That is preping the night before (crushing grain and staging). The biggest two pieces to reducing my time from 6 to 7 hours to my now normal 4 hours was a pump and plate chiller.

 

[DogFace_Brewing]

Brewed a extract yesterday.
Burner on at 9am...last piece of equipment was cleaned at 12:15pm. A high BTU burner and wort chiller is the key to a short brew day.

 

[FATC1TY]

I'm gonna build me a rig with it all attached and ready to roll. Dragging out individual parts in a PITA and one of the reasons I dread brewing something. Once I get everything out and mashing in.. I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

Infact.. I need to get off here. I've mucked around enough and have a DIPA to brew.

 

[Darkness]

I can run 60gal in 9:30 min. 10gal batches all the time

 

[GMJager]

did my first all-grain today. 6.5 hours (20 min was going to the gas station to get another propane tank when i ran ot... whoops!). 7.5 total with a trip to the LHBS

 

[diS]

I mostly finish for 6 hours with crushing and cleaning.
As long this is hobby I don't worry about time, so few hours +/- are not a big deal.

 

[LowNotes]

5 gallon BIAB batches tend to fall into the 5-6 hour timeframe. I don't really rush at all, I pretty much only brew on weekend mornings. Setup mash and boil all go pretty quickly for me as I brew in my kitchen on a good stove burner, and I have a tankless water heater that gives me 135-140* water right out of the faucet. Wort chilling takes awhile, usually 1.5-2 hours with an IC...but I am usually cleaning/sanitizing during a good bit of that.

 

[high5apparatus]

i've settled in at 6 hours from hauling everything up from the basement, to cleaning up and putting the fermenter into the beer room.

 

[FATC1TY]

Mine yesterday was from 12:30 in the afternoon, till 11.30 at night.

Only because stopped half way through and went to play a rd of golf!

Do you guys with the really long times, brew outside and have to drag part by part out to a location not close to where it's stored?

I have to do that, and find that pulling it all out and cleaning it all before putting it away is the longest my dreaded hours by far. Last night I finally packed it all onto one furniture dolly and pushed it around the back yard to the garage. Worked better.

 

[Beer_Eugenics]

Five for the first batch seven for two and nine for three. That’s from measuring the grain to cleanup. So I typically do two five gallon batches a day as three is a little too much.

 

[RonPopeil]

i'm 4 batches in, no mill. from grain to bucket i'm at about 4.5-5 hours. by the time i clean i'm at 6.

 

[Bulls Beers]

5 hours..If I do a decoction, then maybe 8-9 hours..

 

[wherestheyeast]

Wort chilling takes awhile, usually 1.5-2 hours with an IC...but I am usually cleaning/sanitizing during a good bit of that.

What are you using as an IC?!?

Not to hijack, but it's always been my understanding that there can be sediment buildup in your hot water tank or that lead dissolves more readily with hot water:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/health/29real.html

and

http://www.howtodothings.com/home-garden/how-to-remove-sediment-from-a-water-heater

 

[Steelfball]

I am usually around 5-6 hours for a 5 gallon batch. All depends on which burner I use. Standard turkey fryer buner or my MEGA hot burner. Problem with the big boy is that it freezes my propane tanks quick in the cold upstate NY weather. Warmer weather she will boil 6.5 gallons of 100 degrees in like 15 minutes!!!

I also like to get a pot of water the night before... to at least start with room temperature water. Sometimes I even put it on the wood stove to start even warmer.

 

[woknblues]

My last biab 5 gallon American wheat went like this:

20 minutes to heat strike water (banjo "jet engine" sp1)
60 minute mash
8 minutes to boil
60 minute boil
10 minute "cool" to 200, dry hop addition
5 minute drain and seal no chill.
20 minute clean up (one pot with fittings, some tubing)

3 hours, 3 minutes. I like brewing, but I like hanging out with my family on my days off, and that was my barrier to all grain until I found these methods.

A 10 gallon batch is a few minutes longer, and if I am doing a starter, add 10 minutes to fiddling around with stir bar and whatnot.

I think I will be investing on some 10 gallon fermenters to cut down on dirty equipment and shave a bit more time off of the 10 gallon batch. Also, would like a sink in the garage, that would not cut down on overall cleaning times much, but would sure make it a lot easier than dripping the sticky pot to the bathroom bathtub to wash/rinse.

I consider the time savings aspects to also be "fun" in a way as well, but that is my personality. (weird I guess?)