All-grain Brewing Alone

[MaryB]

Tuesdays brew session was 6 hours start to finish. I weighed everything the day before but ran out of time to prefill the mash tun and HLT with water and to crush the malt so did it on brew day. That added about 20 minutes.

 

[bucfan1234]

I took the advice here, and I brewed my first 10 gallon all grain batch today. I didn't run a stop watch, but I came in about 30-45 minutes longer than my last 5 gallon batch. I attribute that to the fact that it took that much longer for the larger volume of wort to come to a boil.

Another funny thing happened. I got a new weldless kettle to heat sparge water in, and the weldless fittings leaked like a sieve. By the time I got them stopped, by scrounging old gaskets from my cooler HLT, the mash was over and I hadn't even begun to heat my sparge water.

The mash was perfect and the first running were right on target.

So I thought ... oh crap, what now? Then, inspiration. I read about cold water batch sparging on this site, so what the heck, I'll try it! Batch sparged as usual, but with cold water. The way my system is set up I was able to run it through my herms coil and get it up to about 100F on the single pass.

Sparged to my boil volume and checked gravity, expecting the worst. What do you know I was over my numbers! Expected a preboil gravity of 1.039 and I was at 1.044.

The whole batch came in a couple of points high post boil, but the volumes were right on, the plate chiller didn't clog, and I was happy to have two full fermenters.

So, according to beersmith, my screw up cold water sparge yielded me my best efficiency to date.

What on earth? lol

 

[coypoo]

I did one last weekend for the first time too (golden sour recipe). My efficiency was a little less (68 instead of about 73) and it took about 45-60 longer only bc it took my banjo burner that much longer to reach a boil

 

[urg8rb8]

Lead Software Engineer. Though my PM sucks so yeah I mostly do her work for her.

Do you use Agile Development?

 

[wilserbrewer]

I know this isn't exactly on topic, but is anyone doing 10-11 gallons all gravity-fed (i.e. no pumps)? I want to move to 11 gallon batches (5.5g now), but not wanting to buy any pumps until I go all electric. As it is, I have to lift my kettle after sparging to get it onto the burner. Don't think that's gonna work with 10g batches.

All good ideas above, I would suggest a one gallon plastic pitcher. Rather than lifting buckets and pouring 4 gallons to your kettle, just do it a gallon at a time.

Moving 6-8 gallons of wort or sparge water with a gallon pitcher is easy and takes about a minute, less time than hooking and unhooking and cleaning a pump.

I've brewed all sorts of large batches up to 15 gallons without a pump, just grab the pitcher and bail.....one batch I recall I had to bail chilled wort out of the kettle to the fermenters with a sanitized pitcher, aerated along the way no charge.....

Ghetto yes, but simple easy and effective.

No home brewery should be without a 1 gal Rubbermaid pitcher, aka poor mans pump.

While I can certainly afford to buy a pump, I don't want the exercise involved hooking up hoses and cleaning flushing etc etc

Pumps are great, lots of people love and swear by them, but they are not labor free by any means IMO.

 

[MaryB]

When your sparge is 1/2 to 3/4 of the way done start your boil burner and get the kettle heating. Shaves about 20 minutes off my day that way.

I took the advice here, and I brewed my first 10 gallon all grain batch today. I didn't run a stop watch, but I came in about 30-45 minutes longer than my last 5 gallon batch. I attribute that to the fact that it took that much longer for the larger volume of wort to come to a boil.

Another funny thing happened. I got a new weldless kettle to heat sparge water in, and the weldless fittings leaked like a sieve. By the time I got them stopped, by scrounging old gaskets from my cooler HLT, the mash was over and I hadn't even begun to heat my sparge water.

The mash was perfect and the first running were right on target.

So I thought ... oh crap, what now? Then, inspiration. I read about cold water batch sparging on this site, so what the heck, I'll try it! Batch sparged as usual, but with cold water. The way my system is set up I was able to run it through my herms coil and get it up to about 100F on the single pass.

Sparged to my boil volume and checked gravity, expecting the worst. What do you know I was over my numbers! Expected a preboil gravity of 1.039 and I was at 1.044.

The whole batch came in a couple of points high post boil, but the volumes were right on, the plate chiller didn't clog, and I was happy to have two full fermenters.

So, according to beersmith, my screw up cold water sparge yielded me my best efficiency to date.

What on earth? lol

 

[bucfan1234]

Will do that on the next one. Thanks!

 

[mongoose33]

All good ideas above, I would suggest a one gallon plastic pitcher. Rather than lifting buckets and pouring 4 gallons to your kettle, just do it a gallon at a time.

Moving 6-8 gallons of wort or sparge water with a gallon pitcher is easy and takes about a minute, less time than hooking and unhooking and cleaning a pump.

I've brewed all sorts of large batches up to 15 gallons without a pump, just grab the pitcher and bail.....one batch I recall I had to bail chilled wort out of the kettle to the fermenters with a sanitized pitcher, aerated along the way no charge.....

This is exactly how I do it. I use this pitcher, it fits my Megapot 1.2 8-gallon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NEWBBU/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Ghetto yes, but simple easy and effective.

Oh, how I disagree with this--it's called efficiency and safety!

No home brewery should be without a 1 gal Rubbermaid pitcher, aka poor mans pump.

I have two pitchers, the one above and a cheaper one I bought from Wally World or some such.

While I can certainly afford to buy a pump, I don't want the exercise involved hooking up hoses and cleaning flushing etc etc

Pumps are great, lots of people love and swear by them, but they are not labor free by any means IMO.

Interesting; I drew the same conclusion. Perhaps if I go to 10-gallon batches I might change my tune, but despite the coolness factor of pumps, I can't see them saving me any time at all. And I'd have to clean all that stuff.

 

[govner1]

When your sparge is 1/2 to 3/4 of the way done start your boil burner and get the kettle heating. Shaves about 20 minutes off my day that way.

I was taught to add low heat to my BK as soon as I had an inch or so of wort from my first runnings. Them when I start draining my sparge i turn the heat up and once my MLT is drained or I reach my pre-boil volume I really turn it up and it boils fairly quickly. You just need to watch your hot break and be ready to turn the heat down to avoid a boil over.

 

[schematix]

I was taught to add low heat to my BK as soon as I had an inch or so of wort from my first runnings. Them when I start draining my sparge i turn the heat up and once my MLT is drained or I reach my pre-boil volume I really turn it up and it boils fairly quickly. You just need to watch your hot break and be ready to turn the heat down to avoid a boil over.

^^^ THIS

Also serves as final mash out to end enzymatic action

 

[mongoose33]

I was taught to add low heat to my BK as soon as I had an inch or so of wort from my first runnings. Them when I start draining my sparge i turn the heat up and once my MLT is drained or I reach my pre-boil volume I really turn it up and it boils fairly quickly. You just need to watch your hot break and be ready to turn the heat down to avoid a boil over.

I have two kinds of spray bottles: small green ones that always and only contain Star-San, for sanitizing.

The other kind is blue, and always and only contains water. I use this to spray the surface of the boiling wort, and it prevents a boilover. I never turn the heat down--I just spray/mist the hell out of the foam for 20-30 seconds until the hot-break eruption subsides.

The same goes for the eruption that happens when I add hops--I'm ready w/ my blue spray bottle to cool down the foam. Spray fast, spray hard; it works.

I get those little spray bottles in the travel/sample section at Wal-Mart.

 

[Jwin]

I've gotten into partygyle brewing a lot lately. Haven't broken in the new 20g kettle yet but hope to in the next few weeks.
Process I foresee taking once some diy is complete.
Setup and crush the night before. Measure strike water and add campden.
Sleep.
Wake up, engage rims to heat mash water in the tun(30+g Coleman extreme). Coffee/breakfast.
Make one big beer, collecting 15+g in 20g kettle.
Set aside 2-4 g first runnings for second brew.
Fireup the burner on the first brew.
Transfer sparge from 15 g kettle.
Drain sparge back into 15g kettle. Add saved first runnings. Fireup second kettle when first is around the 40 minute mark.
I hope to be pushing out 2 11g batches in 5 hours or less. I've experimented doing a mini mash/steep with roasted and specialty grains with a gallon or two of first runnings pulled around 30m from the mash with good results. I then dunk them in the BK to sparge. This allows me to brew a dark beer and a pale off the same mash. pH is a little more predictable using the pale mash as well.
The second beers tend to lack body a bit, but something pale and yellow to throw a ton of hops in that adds an hour max to my brew day works for me. I've considered adding a bit of grain/dextrin malt treating the sparge as a second mash. With two young ones, brew days are few and far between but getting 4 full kegs in a half a day keeps the pipeline full.

 

[LBF]

I typically brew alone. This year was the start of my adventure into all-grain. My stove-top partial mash adventures had become 8-11 hour marathons, and that severely cut into my desire to brew much. With some prep the day before (grains measured, hop additions measured, etc.) I can pull off a 5.5 or 11 gallon brew in 4.5-5.5 hours by myself including clean up. I use an edelmetal bru burner outdoor burner, spike brewing 15 gallon kettle, 72 quart extreme cooler for my MT, 48 quart cooler for an HLT, and a copper counterflow chiller.

I use hot tap water for preheating. Heat the strike water first, then heat the sparge water while the mash is going. Clean as I go.

 

[LBF]

I know this isn't exactly on topic, but is anyone doing 10-11 gallons all gravity-fed (i.e. no pumps)? I want to move to 11 gallon batches (5.5g now), but not wanting to buy any pumps until I go all electric. As it is, I have to lift my kettle after sparging to get it onto the burner. Don't think that's gonna work with 10g batches.

Don't have a picture on here's, but I do 11gallon batches gravity flow. Took some considering, but I turn my work truck into a brew truck. Put a scaffold plank on the ladder rack and a folding stage on top of that. Brew kettle never leaves the burner till cleanup. Burner sits in the bed, mash tun gets gravity filled with strike water only, then hoisted up on the plank and the grain added. Sparge water gets heated and run into a HLT cooler which gets hoisted up onto the folding plank. From that point on, it's all downhill. The only heavy lifting is done with coolers, so there's less risk of injury with hot stuff.

I batch sparge, so it runs from th MT to the kettle. Sparge runs from the HLT to MT, then to kettle. Take down the high stuff and clean while the boil runs. Counter flow chiller sits on the tailgate and the fermenters behind he truck. Naturally, not everyone has a truck to do that on, but give some thought to it, you may be able to come up with a similar idea.

 

[MagicRat]

I went right to all-grain, always alone and 20 batches later I always plan on a 6 hour day, give or take half an hour. I go at a casual pace, some clean as I go. I brew once a month, religiously.

 

[DurtyChemist]

I have resisted going full all-grain because it seems to be a lot to do alone. Due to my schedule and that of my friends, we are not able to get together as often as we'd like to brew, so I usually end up just doing an extract batch after putting the kids to bed. I have an all-grain setup with pump and plate chiller, so in theory it should be easy. I am skeptical though, and don't want to get into a 7 hour ordeal before realizing I have made a poor choice.

For those of you who do all-grain alone, what are your tips and secrets?

It takes me 5-6 hours to do a brew by myself. The key is minimizing downtime. I heat a lot of water for the mash and strike at once, use a pump to move it to the mash and HLT. While mashing I weigh out hops and setup gravity sampling. I recirculate the mash for the last 15 then after the first running are in the kettle I begin hearing them. I batch sparse with two batches and recirculate as well. After the first batch sparse is done I add it to the kettle and turn the heat up a little then by the time I add the second batch sparse im within 30 degrees of a boil. While the boil is going I rinse out the mash tun and put away as much as needed. When I'm chilling I add the hot water into my mash tun to mix my cleaning solution.

Something that helps me personally is starting early. I'm a morning person so i try and setup brew sessions the night before so it saves a little more time. I've even brewed inside the house to minimize down time and used hot water from the sink to reduce the time I takes to heat water to strike temperatures.

 

[govner1]

I brew alone fairly often. On top of that I'm basically one handed!
I have a direct hookup via a hose bib from my water heater & start w/ 120°, filtered water. This saves a good bit of time plus just like @ Durty I use a pump for transfer from my HLT to MLT & also for chilling/whirlpool.
Also using "dead" time for weighing out hops,etc., saves time. Also use that time to set up your chilling/whirlpool setup.
I avg 5 hours if it's a 60 min boil & mash.

 

[johnmac22]

I haven't read the entire thread and I'm sure someone has already said this but the best thing I have done to speed up brew days is to clean as I go. Use the down time to get things done. The boil time can be used to clean the mash tun and anything else that needs cleaning/sanitizing. I used to sit back and relax on brew day (sometimes it's nice to have a 5+ hour brew day) but recently I just want to get a brew done and over with. Since I have started to clean as I go, my brew days last about 4.5-5 hours. It's hard to reduce the time more than that though...You honest have to try to get a brew day that last longer than 6 hours...IMHO of course.

 

[MaryB]

I brewed Sunday, 11 gallon batch took me 7 hours start to finish because I didn't get any prep done the night before. Normally I have everything weighed out, grains crushed, water in the kettles waiting for me to turn the heat on. I had company Saturday and they didn't leave until 4AM so I got nothing done ahead of time!

 

[Radboud]

I always brew alone as none of my friends are very interested in producing beer (drinking it is another matter entirely). To not stretch a brewing day into the night I do:

- Prepare water and grains the night before. Milled grains won't spoil overnight.
- Don't drink during the brewing session. With no other pair of eyes you need to think of everything yourself and having a buzz doesn't help.
- Use waiting time (during mash and boil) to clean up and put away stuff you no longer need
- Design your process with as little lifting / moving of heavy stuff as possible. I got a pump and went electric so I can brew near my fermentation fridge.
- Invest in extra safety features to prevent spills etc. I use a set of automotive hose clamp pliers for instance to clamp hoses shut before disconnecting them.

 

[catdaddy66]

I love brewing alone. I love brewing with a partner or two. I love brewing!

Today and tomorrow will be the first time I have done consecutive brew days. I will be alone but family will be here and there.

 

[jbunton]

Just brewed a brown ale alone and loving it. Wasn't loving the cold much though. Need to get heat in my shop

 

[summerofgeorge]

I typically brew alone but that's more due to me trying to squeeze the brew sessions in during the week after work. What I find helpful is making it a family affair. My daughter really enjoys dumping water into the HLT and adding grains to the MLT and stirring everything. I'm all electric and she also likes pressing buttons and turning switches on my panel. I really enjoy her helping out and I don't have to feel guilty about making beer instead of playing. Of course, I make safety the #1 priority.

Here's how I typically start my brew days:

• Have all equipment setup the night before.
• Come home from work and start heating strike water (with help from my daughter). Usually it's ready before I need it but timing isn't important.
• Shortly before bedtime for the kiddo, dough in (again, I have help with the grains - milling them, tasting them, and adding to MLT).
• 60 minute mash during bedtime routine. Might go over time a little but that's ok.
• After bedtime, sparge and once boil gets started, move on to cleaning up.

This actually adds time to the brew day since I might not dough in as soon as the strike water is ready or the mash might go a few minutes long. What I really try to hit is having the mash almost done when I come downstairs from putting my daughter to bed.

 

[Sparkncode]

I have done all 3 of my all grain batches alone on my eHERMS. Two 23L and one 10L. Nothing difficult. I don't expect doing a 40L batch would be much harder either provided I split into two fermenters to make it easy to get inside.

Nice to take it at my own pace. Especially while learning. With the alarm and timer I can go inside and do some computer work between steps or while heating up or coming close to a boil etc.
I could clean in this time but to not make things so rushed I havent done that yet although might do that next time.

 

[jgourd]

90% of the time I brew alone and enjoy it. 5% of the time, I brew with others who have done it many times before. The hardest 5% is when I brew with folks who want to learn or just want the experience. Teaching while brewing is a completely different thing than just brewing. It's much harder and I am exhausted at the end of it. The only downside to brewing alone is when bad things happen. Although extremely rare for me, I had that experience during my last brew. Stuck mash. And I mean S.T.U.C.K. Plus, I ran out of rice hulls. So hand filtering I did. It sucked. But a bad brew day is better than many other things I end up having to do...

 

[pshankstar]

I typically brew alone. My wife hates the smell of it, so I mainly brew outside. My kids are young (4 & 7 next month) and my oldest doesn't like the smell either. Plus with work and family life, I usually brew at night after everyone is in bed. Go out to the garage, turn on the radio or a brewing podcast and brew. I do have one friend who wants to record me brewing one day and he bought the ingredients for a honey basil beer (found a clone recipe here to use). That will probably happen this spring or right after the super bowl. Other than that, no one else has any interest to come over and brew at night or they can't. Some times I can sneak in a brew day when my wife has a girls day with our kids, but those are few and far between. Although this weekend is one of them! Woohoo!!!!

I enjoy it b/c it gives me some time to myself and some times the dogs who might join me outside. Although the puppy is too hyper to be out with me brewing.

 

[labcor]

I brew alone. One question: None clean the Pot and other items BEFORE using them?

 

[mongoose33]

I brew alone. One question: None clean the Pot and other items BEFORE using them?

I don't know if anyone does that or not, but I don't. I do clean the kettle very well before putting it away (PBW soak and a scrub), I rinse out the mash tun but don't wash it. Generally what I think a lot of people do is if it's on the hot side, they don't worry about it as much as anything on the cold side, where infection can take hold.

Anything on the hot side--kettle, wort, spoon, etc--is sterilized by the heat of boiling.

 

[schatzke]

I brew alone. One question: None clean the Pot and other items BEFORE using them?

I put everything away clean so it's still clean when I go to use it the next time. No need to sanitize a mash tun or a boil kettle before use, the wort will be boiled.

 

[apl_seed]

I always brew alone. The only thing I do the day before is grind the grain. Tho, the wife cleans the whole kitchen for me the day before brew day, which is great, since that is always a chore. Thats her contribution to the homebrew, besides the drinking, of course.