How long do you take to brew a batch?

[Ravenshead]

tough to cool wort in the summer outside though with ambient 90 degree temps though...

If you shake your IC up and down you can speed the cooling process quite a bit. You can actually feel the output hose heat up as you shake it. I was getting my worts down to about 95 F in 20-ish minutes that way when it was 105 F in the shade this summer.

I think the increased turbulence helps with heat transfer.

 

[Chowe]

My brother and I brewed 2, 5 gal batches back to back yesterday, a Blonde and Porter. Start to finish took us 7 hours including clean up. We can cool the wort down to 80 in 5 min with our wort chiller using 48 degree well water and stirring rapidly.

 

[jfr1111]

Assuming 60 minute mash and 60 minute boil for a 19L batch, 3 hours from start to finish, but it's an intense 3 hours. I clean and put away things as soon as they are not needed anymore, so I don't have much time to drink and relax. I can do that afterward anyway. I spend more time next to the kitchen sink rinsing and washing than watching the beer boil.

My tap water is about 48F ambiant too, so it helps cooling down quite a bit. I can cool in 15 minutes no problem if I continually stir the beer with the immersion chiller.

 

[davcar74]

If you shake your IC up and down you can speed the cooling process quite a bit. You can actually feel the output hose heat up as you shake it. I was getting my worts down to about 95 F in 20-ish minutes that way when it was 105 F in the shade this summer.

I think the increased turbulence helps with heat transfer.

Good tip - thanks.

 

[BBKing]

about 4 hours, give or take.

AG batch sparging, with 90 minute mash.

 

[biggben]

takes me 3-4 hours to get it in primary, unless I'm drinking allot then it might take longer lol.

 

[chrislehr]

4.5 hours or so on 10 gallon all grain batches.

Typically 60 minute mash, 30-45 sparge, 60 minute boil.

Plate chiller bought me a solid HOUR of spare time.

5 gallon batches were about four hours... highly recommend upping batch size to make more beer in almost the same time to anyone who hates the time investment to beer ratio.

 

[Bradinator]

If I include milling time and transferring time, which I try to do the day before and day after the brewday, its about 4.5-5 hours for an all grain with a 60 minute mash and boil.

If its just the brewday, its usually done in well under 4 hours, including cleanup.

 

[Exbeerienced]

Wow! I think a few folks here are erring to the "efficient" side! I shoot for 13 1/4 gallons pre-boil, and a best case scenario requires at least five hours.

Roughly:

1 hour to heat strike water and grind grain
1 hour mash
.5 hour sparge
.5 hour bringing wort to boil
1 hour boil
.5 hour to cool wort
.5 hour to pitch yeast and clean up

But the reality? Truly from start (filling the kettle with strike water) to finish (entering data and notes) takes me six to eight hours. I must be a leisurely brewer!

 

[Spintab]

I'm at just about 5 hours or a hair less. That's AG, fly sparge, 60 mash 60 boil. I think I could do a number of things to drop that down. If I had a wash sink in the garage with me I could clean quicker and be more willing to clean as I go. If I had a 20amp rated extension cord for my HLT I could sparge directly into the kettle as it sits on the burner and fire it up as it fills. My IC is kinda ghetto. If I updated that, I could cool a little quicker.

 

[ayoungrad]

Takes me 6-8 hours but I do two (split) boils because of BTU/space issues. Last batch was 6 hours by toning down a few things and still got 83% efficiency. Not too bad for two 60 minute boils and two pots to chill IMHO.

 

[squirrelly]

My wife normally starts the brew day by milling the grains at about 9:00, and we are typically washing out the boil kettle at about 1:00 pm.

 

[aceinthehole]

I just brewed my 3rd extract batch yesterday, and it took me 4 hours from start thru cleanup. It was the longest of my 3 batches, I cant really explain why it took so long this time, other than I was drinking with my dad... I guess that explains it.

 

[DevilDog2000]

Guess I'll have to time it next time. I always set aside the day (don't plan any other major activities) and just enjoy the process. So, I've never really considered how long it takes me.

 

[Spintab]

Guess I'll have to time it next time. I always set aside the day (don't plan any other major activities) and just enjoy the process. So, I've never really considered how long it takes me.

I like this thinking. I usually take note of how long it takes me to brew, only because I generally brew alone. I definitely prefer to not care too much and enjoy brewing. If anyone was helping or just hanging out while I brewed, I'd probably only do one thing at a time and save more cleanup until the end. That and I'd probably be consuming more home brew and would need to be a little more deliberate about what I was doing.:cross:

 

[sillyburt]

4 hrs minumum, but typically 4-5 hrs. inlcuding clean up and carboy in temp control frig....

all grain double batch sparging in cooler, 60 min mash, 60 min full boil in kitchen. grain is crushed and in MLT prior.

5-6 gallon batches

 

[jfr1111]

Guess I'll have to time it next time. I always set aside the day (don't plan any other major activities) and just enjoy the process. So, I've never really considered how long it takes me.

I still set the day aside, but I'm done by 10am, which leaves more time for football watching and beer drinking

 

[Ellis]

About 3.5 hours for all-grain. Hear me out.

I'm an "overnight batch sparger". Typically, I mash right before I go to work, and boil right as I get home. Also, I use a wort chiller to get the temps to about 100, then use a chest freezer overnight to finish.

So, 30 mins to get the mash up to temp, 30 mins for the secondary mash. About 30 mins to get the 6.5 gals of wort up to boiling, and boil for 60 mins. 30 mins with the wort chiller, finishing up with about 30 mins of cleaning.

 

[scottland]

All-grain. I almost always have a friend helping, so it takes 3-3.5 hours. The extra set of hands really helps cut 30-45min off of the brew day.

 

[user 64661]

About 3.5 hours for all-grain. Hear me out.

I'm an "overnight batch sparger". Typically, I mash right before I go to work, and boil right as I get home. Also, I use a wort chiller to get the temps to about 100, then use a chest freezer overnight to finish.

So, 30 mins to get the mash up to temp, 30 mins for the secondary mash. About 30 mins to get the 6.5 gals of wort up to boiling, and boil for 60 mins. 30 mins with the wort chiller, finishing up with about 30 mins of cleaning.

I'd like to hear more about this. You setup your mash then go to work for 8/9 hours?

 

[indios40]

Extract - Usually set aside 3-5 hours from start to finish, just brewing started in late January brewed 13 batches so far and have shaved some time off as I became "more comfortable" with my brewing.

 

[Spintab]

About 3.5 hours for all-grain. Hear me out.

I'm an "overnight batch sparger". Typically, I mash right before I go to work, and boil right as I get home. Also, I use a wort chiller to get the temps to about 100, then use a chest freezer overnight to finish.

So, 30 mins to get the mash up to temp, 30 mins for the secondary mash. About 30 mins to get the 6.5 gals of wort up to boiling, and boil for 60 mins. 30 mins with the wort chiller, finishing up with about 30 mins of cleaning.

I'd like to hear more about this. You setup your mash then go to work for 8/9 hours?

Ditto, please elaborate.

 

[tonyolympia]

Typically, I mash right before I go to work, and boil right as I get home.

Do you mash out? If not, do you find that you have difficulty brewing styles that call for a thick, malty mouthfeel?

I sometimes let my mash sit for a couple of hours before boiling, and the times I didn't mash out, the beer was terribly thin and dry.

 

[Spintab]

Do you mash out? If not, do you find that you have difficulty brewing styles that call for a thick, malty mouthfeel?

I sometimes let my mash sit for a couple of hours before boiling, and the times I didn't mash out, the beer was terribly thin and dry.

So, 30 mins to get the mash up to temp, 30 mins for the secondary mash.

I'm guessing that's what the secondary mash is, correct? A mash out? Been a while since I batch sparged.

 

[Ellis]

I apologize for completely missing that people wanted me to elaborate. Here is my process:

In the morning, I get 1 gallon of water up to 165 (in order to pre-heat my mash cooler). At the same time, I get 3-4 gallons of water (1.25 gallons per pound) up to 165. I dump the 1 gallon from the cooler, put in the grains, pour in the 3-4 gallons, stir around, put the lid on, and go to work...

When I get home, a mash-out of ~1 gallon, and then second runnings of 3.25 gallons @ 155-160.

On the cooling end, I use a wort chiller to get down to about 140, transfer to a bucket, and put the bucket in my chest freezer (@ 60-69 degrees) to finish off the cooling. In the morning, I aerate the wort and pitch yeast. Oh yeah, and then clean all the equipment...

I find it is easier for me to find an hour here and there to brew, as opposed to finding a block of 3-4 hours to do it all at once. I do somewhat similar for bottling. I clean and sanitize the bottles and equipment (Star San), storing the bottles upside down in my sanitized dish washer. Later in the day, I'll finish with the actual bottling and cleaning.

 

[Grinder12000]

Mini-mashing - almost exactly 3 hours every time now!

 

[starrfish]

I started about 8:30 this morning. Brewed one batch of all grain ale. Done at 1:30.

That includes a 75 minute mash, about a 30 minute sparge and a 1 hour boil. My wort chiller takes almost an hour to bring the boiled wort down into the 70s.

Also getting out all the gear from the basement and cleaning it up and packing it back. I leave the kitchen clean so I will have a pass from the war department to brew again


How long does it take you guys?

last all grain went Quick at just over 3.5hrs to pitch. (sorry haven't read previous posts) 45 min mash, 1.5 hour boil, sparge at less .5 hour, .75-.5 hour chill....

 

[kpr121]

All-grain. I almost always have a friend helping, so it takes 3-3.5 hours. The extra set of hands really helps cut 30-45min off of the brew day.

That’s funny because when I have a “helper” over it usually makes my brew day take about an hour longer. I am a whole lot less focused when there is someone there to talk to (and drink beer with). We usually forget to heat sparge water, boilover or spill wort, or are generally less efficient at cleaning and putting things away.

When I am on my own, my 10 gallon brew days usually consist of this:

730AM - Go down to garage (brewery), fill up eHLT and additional buckets for proper volumes. Mill grains. Turn on eHLT. Go upstairs and get breakfast.
845AM - Mash in, fill eHLT again for sparge water.
900AM - Go play basketball for 1 ½ hours. Call wife at around 10 to tell her to go downstairs and plug in eHLT (This is the only task my SWMBO has to do on brewday, besides occasionally making me a sammitch)
1045AM - Drain MLT to BK, begin sparge. Heat additional sparge water if necessary
1130AM – All volume in BK, full fire.
1200PM – Begin 60 minute boil
100PM – Flameout, add whirlpool hops
1:15PM – drain to SS fermentor(s) for no chill, move fermentors to ferm chamber, set temperature. Pull ~2-3 liters of wort for starter if using liquid yeast.
1:30PM – Everything is cleaned and put away. Optional: Eat sammitch that SWMBO made for me.

So its usually 6 hours, but I get an hour and half of basketball in during the mash. It takes longer when I am not so prepared and/or cant have wife plug in eHLT (I should look into getting a 20Amp timer).

I oxygenate and pitch yeast the next day, or whenever the wort cools to pitching temps.

 

[KRYLOK]

All grain- 4 to 4.5 hrs that includes cleanup.
Prost.

 

[BrewerinBR]

All grain double decoction oatmeal stout on Sunday 19 FEB 2012, started at 9:30AM finished mopping the floor at 4:30 PM. Seven hours is not bad for 120 minute mash and 60 minute boil and then the clean up.