Brew day is exhausting!

[Traftas]

I’m going to reply without reading any other posts just to see how many people have said the same thing.

Get an electric biab all in 1 system. One pot and you can brew inside. You’ll be done brewing in 4ish hours including cleanup.

I was actually considering selling the system and go to that but I am planning to brew in garage this week. I am planning to better organize brewing accessories to make it a little easier. I can’t store brew gear in garage because of space limits and dust created doing an auto restoration.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Full volume BIAB... went there 3 years ago?... never looked back.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I’m getting ready to brew in my driveway just outside the garage. I don’t store all of the other brewing gear in garage because I am doing a 1968 Ford Bronco restoration and that creates a lot of dust.

ground grain and mashed in on my lunch today.
I keep majority of my brewing equipment in a large round garbage can from walmart outside.
everything stays dry. sometimes spiders nest under the brim but they are no bother.

only thing not in the can is my brew pot.

I wish I had a garage.

 

[kevin58]

It is exhausting. Try recording videos for Youtube at the same time.

As for storing your equipment while working on your vehicle... buy a gas grill cover. I have a three vessel system and can cover all three using one of those.

 

[eric19312]

I'd say brew days can be exhausting but it's not a requirement. Smaller batches, extract brewing, lots of ways to simplify and shorten the process.

My brew days are a workout but I'm into heavy gear and significant production volumes. My job is pretty sedentary. My main exercise comes from walking my dogs. We get a couple good walks in daily and I'm into tracking steps and keeping up my counts but that doesn't really prepare me well for a long day moving gear, grain and water around my garage.

A few strategies that help me (aside from the stuff already in this thread related to being organized and pre-staging gear and ingredients day before)
- start early in the day. This helps because you will wrap up earlier and there is something about the day ending late and stretching into dinner/family time that makes it seem even longer.
- stay hydrated. It is physical activity in usually warm environment.
- no beer till late in the process. Alcohol is a sedative and a diuretic. If you are tired from the physical activity adding a sedative is just going to make it worse. Also alcohol can contribute to making mistakes and mistakes usually mean extra work, longer process...

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Over the years I did many things to reduce the work and time.
First and foremost was going full volume BIAB. That cut a good 25% of time and at least 30% of the work.
Then I bought a RV hose and filter and pour the water straight into the kettle. That saved hooking the whole house filter to a bottling bucket, getting out another bucket and filling it etc. until I reached my volume... and then on brew day drag out the two old fermenters I filled with the filtered water and pour that into the kettle.
These two things reduced both time and work.
Brew day is now about 4.5 - 5 hours with an hour and a half/ hour 45 minute break with mashing. No big deal

 

[NitrogenWidget]

It is exhausting. Try recording videos for Youtube at the same time.

As for storing your equipment while working on your vehicle... buy a gas grill cover. I have a three vessel system and can cover all three using one of those.

ha!
I was covering up the grill last night and thought..."hey, this would fit over my brew rack".

 

[thehaze]

I don't have a brewing shed or a customised space to brew in, but I'm glad I live in a house. On its own, this allows for more flexibility. I mash and boil outside, on the patio/terrace and then I move the kettle inside, in the kitchen to hook it up to water, for chilling and transferring the beer. Brew days vary, from 5 to 7 hours, depending on how cold or hot is outside, recipe, boil time, etc. I dread the cleaning and the bottling when I have to do it, but I do also get so excited when I have to brew again and then taste / enjoy the beer with friends.

 

[eric19312]

Then I bought a RV hose and filter and pour the water straight into the kettle.

RV hose was a big one for me too. I also got these garden hose camlocks to connect the RV hose to the kettle.

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/camghd.htm

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I bought an RV-hose also.
I run from the kitchen faucet through the window, through a hole in the screen the dog made. then put a towel on it to stop most of the cold in the winter time.

 

[JAReeves]

I'm in SoCal, so no basements (sand+earthquakes=no fun). Our house has the kitchen upstairs, so the first 2 years was me carrying everything up from the garage to the balcony outside the kitchen to brew. No fun.

I moved to the garage/driveway and found space and that has made all the difference. It's tight, and I don't have to deal with snow (props to winter brewers out-of-doors elsewhere), but it works. I have a plan for better, but this is already better than carrying a ton of SS equipment up and downstairs every weekend.

 

[D.B.Moody]

I make many, many trips up and down basement steps because that’s where everything lives and I am also tired by the end of the brew day. I’m getting north of 60 now and I’m saying the same thing. I need an easier way.

Just wait till you're getting south of 80. Hauling 5 to 5.5 gallons down the stairs in a pail with no handles and up the stairs in a carboy wasn't a problem in 1996. I do it differently now, and, yes, I am an extract brewer.