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

[brewinginnc]

Grain pre-crushed
5 gallon
60 minute mash
60 minute boil
Biab
3-4 hours

 

[Roughster]

I was worried I was super slow till I read this thread now feel better. I pitched in just under 5 hours today for a Blueberry Blonde. I was all cleaned up like it never happened in just under 6 hours.

 

[buzzbromp]

I typically brew two 10 gallon batches with the help of one friend. We start sanitizing and setting up around 7:30 am and usually finish cleaning around 6 pm. That includes 30 minutes of aeration for each carboy and pitching.

We just started to smoke meat while brewing, which also takes awhile. It's a good time to do it!

 

[Schol-R-LEA]

I usually end up taking about 8 hours, mainly because I use a stovetop for heating (gas, not electric, but the heat doesn't get very high), which makes for a very slow boil - it rarely gets really rolling, in fact, but is often more of a high simmer, something which annoys me immensely. I would like to use an outdoor burner, but the garage is occupied by other things at the moment and there are no other suitable places to set up shop. I've been considering using a heat wand, but chronic money problems have kept me from getting one (and a lot of other equipment I really could use).

 

[MetallHed]

From start to finish, usually about 4 hours.

5 gallon batches. Fly sparge.

 

[Soup4you2]

Start to finish, usually 5 hours for a 10 gallon batch thats fly sparged.

I prep the grains and bring the equipment into staging the night before.

 

[danorocks17]

Usually between 5 and 6 hours

 

[kombat]

I used to take 6 hours, but I've managed to tweak my process and find some efficiencies that have got me down to 5 hours now for a single 5 gallon batch. I can do 2 batches in 7 hours. Some things I've done to shorten the day:

Prep my equipment the night before, move everything to the garage, weigh out (but not yet mill) the grains.

Then on brew morning, I fill my HLT with the strike water (HOT tap water - why waste time/energy heating water when I've already got a huge tank of hot water in my basement?) and get it on the burner while I mill my grains.

I used to light my burner and set it at a comfortable level to heat the water/wort, but now I open it up quite a bit more (till I get that "jet engine" sound) to speed up the heating process. Might as well get to temperature as quickly as possible, right? Once I hit the temperature I'm looking for, I dial it way back and set it at just enough to maintain the boil.

I clean as I go. While I'm boiling, I clean my mash tun.

I use a plate chiller, which has dramatically sped up my chilling. I recirculate the chilled wort back into the kettle until the thermometer on my kettle reads 60° F (15-20 minutes). Then I stop the chilling and siphon the wort from my kettle into the fermenter with an autosiphon (I've been unsuccessful in transferring wort from my kettle to the fermenter through the kettle outlet valve - it always loses siphon with several quarts remaining in the kettle, regardless of how much I restrict the flow. Because of the Hop Stopper I use).

I then carry the fermenter downstairs, aerate it with a Fizz-X on a drill for 2 or 3 minutes to work up a nice, frothy foam, pitch the yeast, clean the boil kettle (while pumping PBW, water, Starsan, and finally more water through my plate chiller), and put everything away. 5 hours.

 

[bferullo]

I mill my grain at the shop when I buy it, so that saves some time. My water comes out the tap at close to 160° so heating strike and sparge water doesn't take too long. I mash for an hour, fly sparge for an hour, boil for an hour (on average.) I measure out hop additions during the sparge and clean out my mash tun during the boil. From start to finish my brew days usually run five hours.

Not to thread jack....but I always wondered about this. I always thought if using tap water its best to use cold water as water that sits in the hot water heater can pick up extra minerals from the deposits on the heating elements??? If this isn't the case...that will save me a chunk of time as well.

 

[Clonefan94]

From the time I open my closet and grab the first piece of equipment, to when I close that closet after I'm all done and everything is put away, is almost exactly 6 hours. I could probably speed it up if I had to, but I really don't mind taking my time.

 

[kombat]

Not to thread jack....but I always wondered about this. I always thought if using tap water its best to use cold water as water that sits in the hot water heater can pick up extra minerals from the deposits on the heating elements??? If this isn't the case...that will save me a chunk of time as well.

My hot water tank is natural gas, so no element to collect minerals.

 

[glick]

4- 5 Hours for me. Five gallon batches.

 

[mikescooling]

I did a partygyle off the 3rd runnings and banged out 18gallons in 4 hours, but I've got at least 4 more hours of cleaning.

 

[DonnieZ]

My hot water tank is natural gas, so no element to collect minerals.

Do you routinely drain down your hot water heater? If not, there's most likely inches of mineral sediment in the bottom that is changing your water profile to be much harder.

As for my AG brew day, it takes a good 6 hours. My setup consists of either mashing in a bag in my small cooler, then sparking in an ale pail or for bigger beers mashing in my 48 qt. cooler and sparking after that.

It always takes longer than I anticipate. I really need to get a better system down, but is hard when I live in a condo and using a turkey fryer is probably verboten. I've to been told about it yet, but I try and be discreet (balcony or garage with door only cracked..)

 

[kombat]

Do you routinely drain down your hot water heater? If not, there's most likely inches of mineral sediment in the bottom that is changing your water profile to be much harder.

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.

 

[Bamsdealer]

Fly sparging a 5 gallon batch and 60 min boil usually takes about 4.5 hours w cleanup. 90 minute boils whirlpooling etc can push it past 5 hours easy.

 

[Magic8Ball]

AG 4.5-6hrs depending. Last weeks AG took 10+ hrs. Everything went wrong and then some.:smack: Still it was a very satisfying brew day, problems solved, beer brewed. I must be a masochist with a last name of MacGyver.

 

[DrunkleJon]

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.

From the Bloomington IL water quality information page
http://bloomington.in.gov/documents/viewDocument.php?document_id=594

Water heater information

The quality of your drinking water can be affected by your water heater. If you do not properly maintain your water heater, small, white particles (calcium carbonate) may begin to appear in your water and clog your fixtures. These particles appear when the thermostat in your heater is too high and causes the particles to loosen and end up in your water. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended that you periodically flush your water heater. Flushing a water heater consists of draining the water in the heater and filling it up again. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's owner's manual for instructions on how to flush your water heater.

The rest of the guidance I was able to find only say that cooking/drinking from the hot water tap is bad because in old houses the hot water will dissolve more lead from old pipes. But yes, even though it will take some out, you can get more deposited in if any of the scale gets chipped off.

 

[kombat]

small, white particles (calcium carbonate) may begin to appear in your water

Calcium Carbonate is necessary for yeast health. Brewers often add it deliberately. You should HOPE some flakes off.

Calcium is a necessary yeast nutrient and is abundant in most waters. Brewers add calcium in the form or gypsum and calcium carbonate

- brew-monkey.com

The rest of the guidance I was able to find only say that cooking/drinking from the hot water tap is bad because in old houses the hot water will dissolve more lead from old pipes. But yes, even though it will take some out, you can get more deposited in if any of the scale gets chipped off.

Lead plumbing was banned 70 years ago. The vast majority of people reading this have copper or PEX plumbing.

Nothing will chip off inside your water heater unless you're allowing wide variations in the temperature (causing thermal flexing) or you "bump" it somehow. And unless you have unusually hard water to begin with, there probably aren't even any deposits in your tank. I'm on city water, with PEX tubing for my plumbing and a natural gas hot water tank, so none of those are concerns for me. Anyone in similar circumstances can confidently use water from their hot water tank for brewing.

 

[JPicasso]

Grain pre-crushed
5 gallon
60 minute mash
60 minute boil
Biab
3-4 hours

This.
And I crushed my grains while the room-temperature water was heating to 160.
Kids in bed at 8, done at 11:30 with 30 min cleanup the next morning. (equipment makes a bunch of noise banging around the sink, so it got wiped and put away later)

 

[lstrowge]

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.

 

[Beer-lord]

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.

 

[outside92129]

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).

 

[jhurt]

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.

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.

 

[MuddyCreek]

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.

 

[HawksBrewer]

Not to mention higher ground water temps have lengthened my chill time.

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.

 

[kombat]

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.

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?

 

[ObsidianJester]

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!

 

[Beer-lord]

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.

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.

 

[lstrowge]

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 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.