fast brew day planning

[SlitheryDee]

Ok so sometime this weekend I'm going to attempt to speed brew a simple cream ale to see what I can make happen. I'm trying to lay out a plausible timeline for the day to make sure I have the procedure cemented in my mind so as to eliminate any delays while I puzzle over what my next step should be.

First of all I'm shaving an hour right off the top by implementing a 40 minute mash and a 20 minute boil. I thought about going 30 minutes on both, but I decided to give the mash a bit more to help with conversion efficiency. This timeline assumes that the night before I drew my mash water, measured my grains, measured my hop additions, and mixed up a 5 gallon batch of star san.

What I'm looking for is whether the times I'm assuming for each step seem incorrect. Like, am I allowing too little time for the water to heat to strike temps, or allowing too much time for it to reach a boil, etc. Also, am I forgetting any steps? Generally how does it look to you?

Ok so here it is

7:00 A.M. - Turn on burner under mash water to begin heating

7:30 A.M. - Strike temp reached. Mash in

8:10 A.M. - Lift bag to begin draining, start burner for boil. Squeeze bag at some point.

8:25 A.M. - Boil begins. Add bittering hops. Discard spent grains and clean brew bag.

8:45 A.M. - Boil complete. Begin chilling. Sanitize fermenter and prepare yeast. Clean everything that is not currently holding wort.

9:30 A.M. - Chill complete. Transfer to fermenter, aerate, and pitch yeast. Place in fermentation chamber. Clean kettle.

10:00 A.M. - Brew day finished.

So, there's my 3 hour all grain brew day. It's possible I'll get started before 7:00 A.M., but I chose that time because I usually like to get up at around 5:30, have a little coffee an exercise before I do anything else. That gives me time to finish that up and get out to the brew shed by 7:00 A.M. Still, getting all that out of the way by 10:00 A.M. would feel glorious. What say you guys to my plan?

 

[cubalz]

I wish you the best of luck. Even brewing recipes that I have done a 100 times, I still cannot get below 4.5 hours but then again, I still do 60 minute mashes and boils. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[lslbrew]

For the process, I think it looks correct. I assume you made adjustment for the lower hop utilization with the shorter boil. I also assume you will be able to drive off DMS, etc with a 20 min boil. Other than that it looks doable.
For the boil and chill times, I did not see the size of batch you are doing and I don't think anyone else would be able to tell you if the times are correct because it will depend on your specific set up.
BTW, I will set up the night before then get up at 5:30 and heat the strike water. I have my coffee, etc during the mash, do all of the above with full mash and boil times on a 10 gallon batch and can be done by 10:00.

 

[SlitheryDee]

For the process, I think it looks correct. I assume you made adjustment for the lower hop utilization with the shorter boil. I also assume you will be able to drive off DMS, etc with a 20 min boil. Other than that it looks doable.
For the boil and chill times, I did not see the size of batch you are doing and I don't think anyone else would be able to tell you if the times are correct because it will depend on your specific set up.
BTW, I will set up the night before then get up at 5:30 and heat the strike water. I have my coffee, etc during the mash, do all of the above with full mash and boil times on a 10 gallon batch and can be done by 10:00.

Yeah I accounted for the shorter boil in my planning. I'm not using any pilsner malt, so I'm not expecting to have any issues with DMS, but I guess we'll see. The batch size is going to be 6 gallons, so I'll be heating about 7.68 gallons of water to 159F for the mash in. I've never timed myself heating mash water, so I'm just guessing that'll take around 30 minutes. Hopefully it'll be done sooner and I'll be able to move the timeline up a bit. Once again, I'll just have to time myself this time and make sure to work that figure into my next plan.

I'm pretty set on getting my exercise done first thing in the morning, but your method has given me an idea. Maybe I could wake up at 5:30 like usual, have my coffee while the mash water heats, mash in, and then go exercise. That would likely give me close to the full 60 minute mash while getting it out of the way earlier. It would look something like:

5:30 AM - Begin heating mash water. Have coffee.

6:00-6:15 AM - Mash in. Go work out.

7:00 A.M. - Exercise and mash complete. Lift bag and turn on burner for boil. Squeeze bag at some point.

7:15 AM - Boil begun. Add hops. Discard spent grains and clean brew bag.

7:35 AM - Boil complete. Begin Chilling. Sanitize fermenter and prepare yeast. Clean everything not holding wort.

8:20 AM - chill complete. Transfer to fermenter, aerate, and pitch yeast. Place in fermentation chamber. Clean Kettle.

8:50 - Brew day complete.

Even if everything doesn't quite go the way I plan, this would probably have me finishing up well before 10:00 anyway. Thanks for the idea!

 

[lslbrew]

Exactly. The first time I started a brew at 5:30 was because I needed to be done early. I realized that I liked the "me time". I have a nice back yard, the birds start coming up to the feeder and my daughter is still asleep. She wakes up talking so early brew day is quiet time. Everyone is usually up by the time I am done batch sparging. I have two burners, one is for the HTL to heat strike and sparge water. I have been known to take that burner and fry up some eggs and bacon and we all have breakfast on the back patio.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Heh - there's a parallel discussion started in the middle of this thread.

You're probably OK on DMS, the question would be whether to go no-chill to save a)the chilling time and b)20 minutes on your hop additions - whether 10 minutes would be enough to clear the DMS is another matter.

Another saver - measure the grist the night before then have an electric kettle on a timeswitch, so you have either water at mash temp or boiling water that can be diluted with cold to dough in as soon as you wake up....

 

[popsicleian]

I can do a brew day in under 3 hours with 60 minute mash and boil, but only if I'm doing no-chill. I also use a sous vide to get my water up to strike temp ahead of time (in your case, I'd set it up the night before).

 

[wilserbrewer]

Mash in the night before and go to sleep, save around an hour....let the enzymes work while you rest win win

 

[Grod1]

Mash in the night before and go to sleep, save around an hour....let the enzymes work while you rest win win

this is what is as going to say. i have not found 12 hours to ever produce off flavors.

 

[eadavis80]

If you're in that much of a rush, just buy beer or - at most - do extract. I don't see the purpose in 'rushing though' a brew day - that's like running up to your ball on every golf shot. It's a hobby - relax. That being said, I hope for your sake, you reach your goal - for your sake.

 

[RM-MN]

Ok so sometime this weekend I'm going to attempt to speed brew a simple cream ale to see what I can make happen. I'm trying to lay out a plausible timeline for the day to make sure I have the procedure cemented in my mind so as to eliminate any delays while I puzzle over what my next step should be.

First of all I'm shaving an hour right off the top by implementing a 40 minute mash and a 20 minute boil. I thought about going 30 minutes on both, but I decided to give the mash a bit more to help with conversion efficiency. This timeline assumes that the night before I drew my mash water, measured my grains, measured my hop additions, and mixed up a 5 gallon batch of star san.

What I'm looking for is whether the times I'm assuming for each step seem incorrect. Like, am I allowing too little time for the water to heat to strike temps, or allowing too much time for it to reach a boil, etc. Also, am I forgetting any steps? Generally how does it look to you?

Ok so here it is

7:00 A.M. - Turn on burner under mash water to begin heating

7:30 A.M. - Strike temp reached. Mash in

8:10 A.M. - Lift bag to begin draining, start burner for boil. Squeeze bag at some point.

8:25 A.M. - Boil begins. Add bittering hops. Discard spent grains and clean brew bag.

8:45 A.M. - Boil complete. Begin chilling. Sanitize fermenter and prepare yeast. Clean everything that is not currently holding wort.

9:30 A.M. - Chill complete. Transfer to fermenter, aerate, and pitch yeast. Place in fermentation chamber. Clean kettle.

10:00 A.M. - Brew day finished.

So, there's my 3 hour all grain brew day. It's possible I'll get started before 7:00 A.M., but I chose that time because I usually like to get up at around 5:30, have a little coffee an exercise before I do anything else. That gives me time to finish that up and get out to the brew shed by 7:00 A.M. Still, getting all that out of the way by 10:00 A.M. would feel glorious. What say you guys to my plan?

Use iodine to test if there is starch left in the grain. Your mash may not be done in 40 minutes.....or it might be done in 20. Don't go less than 20 minutes for the mash unless you want tasteless beer. It takes more time to extract flavor than for the mash to convert.

I've read that hop isomerization is 90% complete in 30 minutes. I've no idea if this is correct but it seems to work for me. How much isomerization can you get in 20 minutes?

I don't have an immersion chiller so I set my pot of wort in a tub of ice water (easier to do in winter as keeping the water cold is easy with adding snow) which takes longer to chill so I expect a 3 1/2 hour brew day. Sometimes I do a no chill batch and can cut the time a bit more.

 

[madscientist451]

I did some quick brew experiments after hearing the idea on the basic brewing podcast. The ingredients were just extract , water and hops with a 15 minute boil, and flameout/ whirlpool hop additions. I did it in the winter and just set the kettle outside and went to bed. The whole thing took about an hour. The next morning before work I dumped it in the fermenter and pitched the yeast, it was churning away nicely when I got back. So it was quick and easy, but the beer was just OK. I never went back to the method, basically if I don't have time for to relax and do an all grain brew, I just don't brew.
Another method is to steep some specialty grains in a bag in your kettle while you are bringing the water to a boil, keep an eye on the temp and pull the bag before you reach a boil, then add your extract and hops.
I haven't tried it, but this is the method they talk about on the Basic Brewing Podcast.
Recently, I've done some reading about commercial NE IPA's where all the hops are added in the last 20 minutes and after flameout. The result is lots of hop flavor without a making a huge bitter bomb.
So I may try quick brew method again. My thinking is that if you are making a hop flavor-forward beer, the extract flavor won't be as noticeable? I'm going to have a bumper crop of homegrown cascade hops to use up, so that's where some of them will go.
For the OP, your timeline includes taking time to exercise and then start brewing; why not take some freeweights out to your brew shed and and do some exercise out there while the mash/boil is going on? Or just fire up the burner and start mashing when you first get up and do your regular exercise routine during the mash. If you just do that , you can do a conventional brew day and still be finished by 10am.
The 15 minute brew day was discussed in this article, but if you look on google there are several podcasts and you tube videos:
http://beerandwinejournal.com/15-minute-pale-ale/

 

[SlitheryDee]

If you're in that much of a rush, just buy beer or - at most - do extract. I don't see the purpose in 'rushing though' a brew day - that's like running up to your ball on every golf shot. It's a hobby - relax. That being said, I hope for your sake, you reach your goal - for your sake.

I really enjoy all grain brewing though, even when it's rushed. I get immense satisfaction from it. I still plan on getting in some full length brews whenever time permits. This is just an experiment to see what I can get away with. If it produces acceptable results then it'll just be another tool in my belt for when I don't have a lot of time.

If this works out, I'll know I'm capable of squeezing a brew day into timeframes that I previously thought were insufficient. I have a baby due in a month, and I expect that the opportunities for a full length brew day will be few and far between after that. I'll have to take what I can get. Using this time before the baby comes to experiment might result in a few brews where I thought none were possible. If it comes down to having to choose spending time brewing or spending time helping with the baby I'll choose the baby every time, but I still have some hope that I might be able to have my cake and eat it too if I can work out a fast enough process.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Use iodine to test if there is starch left in the grain. Your mash may not be done in 40 minutes.....or it might be done in 20. Don't go less than 20 minutes for the mash unless you want tasteless beer. It takes more time to extract flavor than for the mash to convert.

I've read that hop isomerization is 90% complete in 30 minutes. I've no idea if this is correct but it seems to work for me. How much isomerization can you get in 20 minutes?

Good point about using iodine to optimise mash time. You can get an idea of hop usage by playing with brew software - if you take 2 hours as the theoretical maximum alpha, then after 60 min you get 91% of the maximum, 30 min 70%, 20 min 55%, 10 min 33%. Won't be quite the same for every hop but that gives you an idea - you can adjust the amounts obviously. My preliminary tests suggests you do get a slightly different quality of bittering, but that's a personal thing whether that's important.

Another option would be to use first-wort hopping before the boil. But especially if you're no-chilling then boiling the wort for DMS is more of a limiting factor than bittering.

As for the thing about why bother - I completely get it. Sure, we'd all love those lazy days when the boys come round for a few beers and a relaxed all-day brewday. But if the alternative is either zero pleasure from not having time to brew becuase life catches up with you - fatherhood being a classic example - or getting 80% of the pleasure from brewing a beer that's 90% as good but brewed in 60% of the time - I sure as hell know which I would choose.

On the exercise front - if you're not already, look up high-intensity interval training, you can get the same amount of benefit from a much shorter exercise period. Also 5BX can be useful to fit in those odd 15 minute periods when you need half an eye on your boil.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Well I did this this morning. I woke up a little later than I intended, but luckily I had decided to try an overnight mash, so all I had to do was boil for 20 minutes and chill. I managed to finish the brew day and bottle a batch by 9:30 this morning, so I'm going to consider this a success. I believe I could have been done a good bit earlier without a bottling session and all the attending preparations.

I got pretty insane conversion efficiency with the overnight mash, which kind of surprised me. I know I should expect a few points, but my preboil gravity was higher than my expected fg! I'll have to try a few more to see if this is a continuing trend. Overall it was one of my smoother brew days due to a number of improvements I've made to my process. The wireless thermoworks thermometer, ratcheting pulley from wilserbrew, and submersible pump for running ice water through my immersion chiller all streamlined my day considerably.

 

[RM-MN]

Well I did this this morning. I woke up a little later than I intended, but luckily I had decided to try an overnight mash, so all I had to do was boil for 20 minutes and chill. I managed to finish the brew day and bottle a batch by 9:30 this morning, so I'm going to consider this a success. I believe I could have been done a good bit earlier without a bottling session and all the attending preparations.

I got pretty insane conversion efficiency with the overnight mash, which kind of surprised me. I know I should expect a few points, but my preboil gravity was higher than my expected fg! I'll have to try a few more to see if this is a continuing trend. Overall it was one of my smoother brew days due to a number of improvements I've made to my process. The wireless thermoworks thermometer, ratcheting pulley from wilserbrew, and submersible pump for running ice water through my immersion chiller all streamlined my day considerably.

What that suggests to me is that you hadn't been getting complete conversion previously and this time you did with the long mash. Finer milling may be needed if you want to do short mashes.

 

[brewbama]

http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=30815:

"Another benefit many people have reported is increased efficiency. While most of us know how to check for conversion and to stop mashing when conversion is complete, many of us don't bother with the iodine test because our experience has taught us how long we need to wait. This can, and probably sometimes does, lead to lower efficiency as there may still be starches that aren't broken down, especially if you're only mashing for an hour, and even more especially at lower temperatures. With overnight mashing, you can be assured that your starches are as converted as they can get!"

 

[kangabrew]

I usually bring the water to a boil the evening before, then I turn off the stove and let the kettle remain on it (I have an electric stove top) until the next day. The water is usually within a few degrees from my strike temp when I start.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I'm somewhat fascinated by the concept of these quick brew days, mostly because SHMBO is getting frustrated with my most of the day brew days. There's always something on the honeydo list that's more important (to her).

My problem is that my burner is a crappy turkey fryer burner and it takes forever to heat strike water and even to reach a boil after the mash. I also have a crappy homemade immersion chiller that slows down the chill process. Finally, I brew mostly NEIPAs which really require a significant whirlpool period to nail that juicy hop flavor and aroma.

I have a new burner and a hydra on my wish list, but it'll be awhile before I can make those upgrades.

I'm brewing Saturday and I think I'll try to have everything set up friday night, then get up at 5:30 (my usual weekday time to get up) and see if I can't get done by 11:00 am.

 

[LittleRiver]

I usually bring the water to a boil the evening before, then I turn off the stove and let the kettle remain on it (I have an electric stove top) until the next day. The water is usually within a few degrees from my strike temp when I start.

I'm assuming you insulate the kettle?

I've never tried overnight cooling, but have read plenty of reports of people letting their kettle cool all the way to pitching temp overnight.

 

[BigDsBrewhouse]

Brulosophy did an exbeeriment called a short and shoddy. 20 min mash, 20 min boil. I tried it out, only I did a 30min mash and 20min boil. From grain milling to cleanup was 2hrs, taking into account heating times. Ended up with 61% efficiency as opposed to my normal 80%, but it turned out fine.

 

[kangabrew]

I'm assuming you insulate the kettle?

I've never tried overnight cooling, but have read plenty of reports of people letting their kettle cool all the way to pitching temp overnight.

Yes I do. This works best with an electric stove, because the plate remains hot for a long time.

Once I left the kettle for 24 hours and the water temperature dropped to around 40 °C.

 

[applescrap]

I brew in two and a half hours or so and 3 hours for 10 gallons. I have written about it pretty prolifically under a thread called more quick brewing. Using the mash time and boil times you are using I think I could get to about 2 hours. Hope that thread helps you and you add to it, as I am passionate about Brewing quick. Best of luck

 

[desabat]

Biggest time consumer for me is cleaning everything after I set up my brew space dismantling equipment, soaking parts, cleaning again after use and storing it back.

 

[applescrap]

^^me too and physical.

 

[jtratcliff]

My problem is that my burner is a crappy turkey fryer burner and it takes forever to heat strike water and even to reach a boil after the mash. I also have a crappy homemade immersion chiller that slows down the chill process. Finally, I brew mostly NEIPAs which really require a significant whirlpool period to nail that juicy hop flavor and aroma.

Have you tried supplementing with an immersion heater? Or putting an immersion heater on a timer to kick on an hour or so before you're ready to mash?

I use this one to supplement my stovetop BIAB sessions. Speeds things up quite a bit.

Also, no-chill, or overnight-chill in the kettle. Pitch the next day.

 

[FatDragon]

Have you tried supplementing with an immersion heater? Or putting an immersion heater on a timer to kick on an hour or so before you're ready to mash?

I use this one to supplement my stovetop BIAB sessions. Speeds things up quite a bit.

Also, no-chill, or overnight-chill in the kettle. Pitch the next day.

I've done this a few times too and it works a treat. I also use it in concert with an STC-1000 temp controller to maintain kettle souring temps. In my case, the heater seems to have an electric leak somewhere because it gives you a little zap if you touch the kettle while it's on (just a light buzz, but enough to disincentivize touching the kettle) and I wonder if the electricity could zap my lacto, so I actually put the souring wort in a bucket that goes inside the kettle, where the heater heats water in a sort of double-boiler setup.

Tangent aside, as a six gallon stovetop brewer, I approve of the suggestion to aid heating with an electric immersion heater. I pull it when I reach mash/boil temps, but it shaves probably 10-15 minutes off my brewday when I remember to use it.

 

[jtratcliff]

I pull it when I reach mash/boil temps, but it shaves probably 10-15 minutes off my brewday when I remember to use it.

I pull it at mash temps, but put it back in for the boil and mostly leave it in. My stove top gets a gentle boil over 2 burners, but the heat stick ups the vigor quite a bit...

Saves me at least 20-30 minutes comming up to temps vs. just my stove alone.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

Have you tried supplementing with an immersion heater? Or putting an immersion heater on a timer to kick on an hour or so before you're ready to mash?

I use this one to supplement my stovetop BIAB sessions. Speeds things up quite a bit.

Also, no-chill, or overnight-chill in the kettle. Pitch the next day.

Thanks for the suggestion JT...I think I might give that a try. No mods to the kettle and not very expensive.

 

[mongoose33]

A few thoughts on quick brewing:

1. You can also take some of the strike water and heat it on the stove, reducing whatever is being heated in your kettle. Similar to using a heat stick.

2. Wasted steps is wasted time. Having everything right where you need it helps. I have most of my brewing stuff in a rolling cabinet I can easily pull out and position in my brew area.

3. Setting up the night before. Most people know this, and having everything ready to start heating the strike water immediately upon beginning is important.

4. I'm torn on this one. I used to crush the grain the night before, so everything including the grist would be ready to go. I've been slowly working to get O2 out of my cold-side process, and post-fermentation process, and crushing grain the night before potentially subjects it to oxidation.

I'm considering doing that and flushing the bucket with CO2 so I can claim the time benefit of crushing the night before. Still cogitating on it. I could simply start the strike water heating and go crush the grain on brew day, but I'm a little hinky on having a propane burner going in the garage without me monitoring it.

5. I think most people figure this one out--when I have nothing to do, I look for something to do, to clean, to put away.

6. I suspect most figure this out too--I try to clean things when they're still wet, rather than dealing with dried-on gunk. I use an immersion chiller; once I've finished chilling, I pull that chiller out of the wort, then cover the kettle to keep nasties out. I then take the chiller to the sink and immediately spray it off. Takes about 2 minutes that way instead of 10 minutes if I let the wort and trub dry on it.

********************

Funny thing about brewing quickly--I don't much care for it. Oh, it saves time, but there's something almost spiritual for me about brewing, and rushing to finish it costs me the joy of the process. There's a sort of pacing, a tempo, that is satisfying to me. I think I'd rather take another 30 minutes to brew if it means I can retain that sense of connection to the experience.

 

[lslbrew]

2. Wasted steps is wasted time. Having everything right where you need it helps. I have most of my brewing stuff in a rolling cabinet I can easily pull out and position in my brew area.

I had a collision of ideas recently along this same line. I wanted to build a brew stand and was going to make something that folded or stacked together for storage. But I also hate going back and forth dragging all the equipment outside and back in. Then it hit me. Instead of trying to minimize the brew stand, I built a rolling cart that I can use to store all of my brewing equipment in one place, roll it out, set it up as the brew stand, brew, pack it back and roll it back in and store it. It ended up 4' x 2' about 4 1/2' tall with a top and and a shelf on the bottom. The height was to make 3 tiers with my specific equipment and be able to drain into the fermenter after boil. The 4' x 2' is because I could rip a sheet of plywood and make the top shelf, bottom shelf with a storage bin and make a boil kettle stand. The point is that it is much better to have everything in one place, set up and take down all together. It does save time, but more importantly saves my sanity because everything is in one place.