Brew days wear me out!

[rtracer]

Didn't drink any yesterday while brewing, maybe that was the problem

Anyways, I don't get stressed while brewing, like others have mentioned it is a relaxing day psychologically, just exhausting physically
Probably the fact that I use a heavy ass Keggle, opened, soaked, cleaned two Sanke kegs and used my heavy 7 gallon glass carboy added to the work. Good lord I sound like a WUS! haha

 

[catdaddy66]

I have not felt too tired with the last several brews I've done. I get exhausted when brewing somewhere else, like at my brother's house or the lhbs I frequent. All of the gathering and lifting and loading and carrying... Ugh.

 

[soccerdad]

I guess 40 is the new 70 😀

 

[JimboVorlaufski]

Im 51 but don't feel a day over 65

 

[mongoose33]

Do you exercise regularly? I don't find them as stressful when I am running regularly, and when I have everything planned out ahead of time (even pre-weighing hop additions and using a checklist).

Just want to throw this out there.

I've found that if I stretch before I do things like paint, or brew, I feel much better the next day. I know it sounds crazy, because something like painting is not all that strenuous, except that there's bending, and reaching, and squatting down to get low places, and so on. Literally just a minute of stretching the legs and the torso (side to side) and pulling arms over the head makes a huge difference.

I do the same thing before I mow the lawn, and have similar benefits. And FWIW, I'm on the sunny side of 60, but only barely.

 

[pvpeacock]

I'm 57 and while brewing doesn't wear me out, I do get a good workout. I brew in my driveway/garage and go back and forth to the house which is down a small flight of stairs (maybe 8 steps). My wife got me a fit bit and I log approx. 7,500 - 8,000 steps just brewing from start to finish. In addition, I can usually feel my back the next day after lifting and carrying 5 gallon water bottles, a full stainless steel mash tun with grain and water, 5.5 - 6 gallons of cooled wort in the brew kettle and finally my full SS Brewtech 7 gallon fermenter. I use only gravity for all my steps -- no pumps.

On the other hand, I will say that once you get your system down, all the stress goes away. That takes a big strain out of the day and makes it relaxing to me. I love putting on old vinyl records and reading between brewing steps. Makes for a nice day.

 

[Firewalker11]

I'm 50 and I still do double brew days! Common ladies, lets do a triple!!!

 

[Yooper]

I notice that cleaning is what tires me out. I brew 11 gallon batches, but I have pumps and a tippy dump so it's not too much work. I sometimes clean in place, but when I take it apart to clean every once in a while, I feel beat afterwards.

I use kegs for my HLT, MLT, and BK. I never move the HLT or that pump (as it's always been water only), but hoisting and cleaning the MLT and BK is a pain if I"m tearing it all down. I think that a keg is about 30 pounds (?) empty. They are a bit harder to manipulate into my brewery sink with the connections, the hardware for the connections, the electrical stuff, etc and somedays it's tougher than others.

I weigh about 130 pounds and I'm 52 years old. By the end of a brew day, I'll have lifted and measured 25+ pounds of grain, and then hauled it up the stairs from the basement just to start, mashed in with it, dumped it (wet it weighs lots more!), and then cleaning adds tons of weight. By the end of the day, I'm sure I've lifted more than twice my own weight. I'm in good shape but it's not very much fun anymore.

I always think when I do smaller batches that I'd get a picobrew or grainfather or something.

 

[ericbw]

I hate having to clean and put it all away. It feels like when you're done, you should be done, right? But there's always one more thing to put away.

 

[PADave]

I hate having to clean and put it all away. It feels like when you're done, you should be done, right? But there's always one more thing to put away.

Same here, I love the brewing, but dread the cleanup after.

 

[GPP33]

Back to back 20g days will bring much needed rest. What takes it out of me is brewing in the garage on a 90 degree day with burners blasting, standing on concrete all day and airating 4 carboys (20g) by manually shaking em (that last part really sucks). Oh, and drinking beer ALL day I'm sure doesn't help, brewing just isn't the same without it though.

 

[oceanic_brew]

When I'm organized and mindful I'm surprised by how easy it can be. If I'm squeezing an unplanned batch in on a Tuesday night it can seem not worth it at times.

Some people are built better than others for these things. For example, I'm a carpenter and I don't exactly specialize in anything but when I see the guys who are just laying tile for like 35 years I cringe. Gotta remind myself that if they didn't possess the physical form and mental capabilities for that specific task they would have failed or quit long ago.

I'm sure some pro brewers are amazingly efficient and clean, yet some homebrewers probably put in twice the amount of work necessary due to improper planning and procedure or bad brew house setups.

 

[rtracer]

BAIB makes cleanup a breeze. Well.... Relatively speaking

 

[NothingRhymesWithCurtiss]

I'm 36 and I hear you about being worn out.

Between work, chasing my kids around, and honey-do lists, I'm pretty tapped out to begin with. My brew nights don't start until 9pm, and go until 2am some nights. And while I wake up physically exhausted the next day, I'm mentally recharged. It's something about the process, from recipe formulation to tasting the final product, that does it for me. Plus, it gets you drunk!

 

[GJOCONNELL]

I crap thunder and whole leaf hops

 

[Nagorg]

I (48) am also pretty wore out after a long brew day. (15G batches..) It is the setup, tear down and cleaning that's the bear. It does make a difference if I am more prepared before brew day as well as doing cleaning during time like the boil, cooling etc... It's actually me feet that bother me the most. Probably shouldn't brew in cheap flip-flops with all the standing on concrete and such...

I love brewing though and am looking forward to the next session!

 

[jcav]

I'm 52 and I still love to brew, once I get going. It's lugging everything out of the garage to the lanai to set up that is a pain. Just takes awhile. Then it's cleaning and breaking everything down and putting it away afterwards that is the only thing I really dislike about my brewing process. Wish I had a basement with a dedicated brewery/room, so I could keep everything set up and ready to go. If I set everything up the night before I brew it does make a huge difference in the time saved on brew day and I am not as worn out!

John

 

[rtracer]

I crap thunder and whole leaf hops

Now THAT.... I wouldn't want to see

 

[Redlantern]

Now THAT.... I wouldn't want to see

Wold rather just hear about it - -probably a horrible spectator sport....

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

By the end of the brewday, after the yeast has been pitched and everything cleaned and stored away, I look forward to enjoying a few cold beers. The days of cleaning fermentors, kegs, tubing and pumps during brewday has long since past. By doing all of that stuff, and making RO water at least a day ahead of time brew days have become far more enjoyable and a lot less work.

 

[itsnotrequired]

By the end of the brewday, after the yeast has been pitched and everything cleaned and stored away, I look forward to enjoying a few cold beers. The days of cleaning fermentors, kegs, tubing and pumps during brewday has long since past. By doing all of that stuff, and making RO water at least a day ahead of time brew days have become far more enjoyable and a lot less work.

gosh, i couldn't imagine fooling around with cleaning extra stuff ahead of using it during brew day. the only 'cleaning' i do while brewing that i don't want to do in advance is sanitizing the carboys and whatever hoses i will use downstream of the chiller.

i do cleanup as i brew but that is so i don't have to do it the next day or something like that. i dry out my hlt while the wort is coming to boil and clean the mlt while boiling. i'll also clean the hoses i won't need during chilling and the water pump during the boil. after the yeast is pitched and the carboy is on its way, i'll clean the boil kettle, wort pump and the last hoses.

i clean my kegs as they kick but don't sanitize them until i am ready to rack in a new beer. i clean my carboys right after kegging. similar with starters, i clean the flask right after i put the starter into mason jars to settle. then i don't sanitize the flasks until i am ready to make the next starter.

doing ro water the night before is a total no-brainer. i used to do it overnight before brewing but got too paranoid that i would oversleep and end up with water all over the floor (i fill the hlt directly from the ro unit without any tank or float switches).

 

[mongoose33]

gosh, i couldn't imagine fooling around with cleaning extra stuff ahead of using it during brew day. the only 'cleaning' i do while brewing that i don't want to do in advance is sanitizing the carboys and whatever hoses i will use downstream of the chiller.

i do cleanup as i brew but that is so i don't have to do it the next day or something like that. i dry out my hlt while the wort is coming to boil and clean the mlt while boiling. i'll also clean the hoses i won't need during chilling and the water pump during the boil. after the yeast is pitched and the carboy is on its way, i'll clean the boil kettle, wort pump and the last hoses.

i clean my kegs as they kick but don't sanitize them until i am ready to rack in a new beer. i clean my carboys right after kegging. similar with starters, i clean the flask right after i put the starter into mason jars to settle. then i don't sanitize the flasks until i am ready to make the next starter.

doing ro water the night before is a total no-brainer. i used to do it overnight before brewing but got too paranoid that i would oversleep and end up with water all over the floor (i fill the hlt directly from the ro unit without any tank or float switches).

I do my RO water during the brew; I keep a 7-gallon Aquatainer full of RO water; 3 or 4 gallons goes into the kettle to heat for the mash; as soon as that's in the mash tun, I dump the rest of the water into the kettle to heat for sparging, and begin to refill the Aquatainer with RO water for the next time. It takes about 3-4 hours to refill the Aquatainer, which is just about right for a brew day.

Might not be enough time for tomorrow; I set up the equipment tonite in the garage, filled the boil kettle with water, crushed the grain, so all I have to do to start is hook up the propane tank and start heating.

 

[VladOfTrub]

"I'm 52 and I still love to brew, once I get going. It's lugging everything out of the garage to the lanai to set up that is a pain."

It wore me out just trying to pronounce "lanai." Is that the location where the beer drinker holds a demitasse glass with the pinky finger extended away from the glass?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

prepare the day before, Im older and I just started doing it, everything is milled set up cleaned and ready to go, all I have to do tomorrow is fill the mash tun

 

[Grantman1]

Prep ahead of time, clean as you go, and when lifting, use your legs, not your back! Smooth sailing on brew days.

 

[ericbw]

"I'm 52 and I still love to brew, once I get going. It's lugging everything out of the garage to the lanai to set up that is a pain."



It wore me out just trying to pronounce "lanai." Is that the location where the beer drinker holds a demitasse glass with the pinky finger extended away from the glass?

I wondered what that meant. Figured he's Australian or something?

 

[ericbw]

I clean as I go, but since I started chilling faster (ice water and aquarium pump), there's less time.

 

[20grit]

Brew days aren't bad when everything goes as planned. Last night I had burner issues. Took forever to get to a boil. I have to do something about my chilling... 25' copper IC just isn't cutting it for 10 gallon batches.

 

[GPP33]

Brew days aren't bad when everything goes as planned. Last night I had burner issues. Took forever to get to a boil. I have to do something about my chilling... 25' copper IC just isn't cutting it for 10 gallon batches.

Get a big ass storage container, fill with water, add ice or ice bottles, add hot keg. Helps a ton but make sure you have some thick gloves (such as welding gloves) and a friend to help lift or you'll burn the hell out of your hands.

Or just pump that cold water through your IC using an aquarium pump.

 

[brewcat]

Prep ahead of time, clean as you go, and when lifting, use your legs, not your back! Smooth sailing on brew days.

One thing I would add is having equipment to make things easier. I built a dolly so I can roll my kettle to the burner. A brew hauler or milk crate makes carrying fermenters easier.