How long is your brew day?

[MrClint]

It doesn't make sense to time things that I enjoy doing. I just do it for however long it takes and as long as I am enjoying the process, time seems to fly. Brewing is as much of a diversion as baking bread, gardening, fishing, playing music, or wood carving etc, and is therefore mostly a labor of love. It's a way to get out of the day to day work grind where time is money and we are always on the clock. As a small batch brewer, if I'm short on time I will brew a tasty all extract amber ale.

 

[Zenmeister]

I have a Spike 20-gallon trio system, usually brew 17 gallons at a time. Brew days are almost always 6.5 hours.
The night before brew day I spend a quick 15 minutes filling the kettles, attaching the hoses and plugging it in. Basically getting it ready for flipping the switch the next morning.
I usually flip the switch at 6:00 am and it's about an hour to heat up the water. In that time I mill the grain (use the Blichmann grain mill, through which I can run about 35 pounds of grain in about five minutes) read the newspaper, etc. (Yes, they still make newspapers!) Then it's brew on!
By the time I am all finished and put everything away, it's usually six and a half hours later.
I have eliminating the Mash out (that usually added about 40 minutes) but have increased the whirlpool time and hop rest time on flameout.

 

[Cgeern]

About 4 hours, BIAB 4 gallon batches. I get everything set up the night before: collect water, measure hops & water additions, etc. Fermentor already cleaned and sanitized. I had gotten in to doing 40 minute mashes and 30 minute boils (for most beers) but actually lengthened them back to 60 because I found that those longer times gave me a chance to get a workout in during the mash, and do some cleaning during the boil. Cleanup is quick and in my mind one of the best benefits of BIAB.

 

[Broken Crow]

Hey @ZapperMike , Thank You for this thread! I almost replied right away with a question; "which brewday? the one I start setting up, or later in the week when I've finally finished cleaning up and putting things away?" ... I'm disabled and have spent the 5 years or so trying to work my way up to performing tasks as close to the speed of 'the average person' as possible. Reading through all the details and times that everyone's replied with has been very helpful to me in setting my long-term goals.
Just wanted say; Thank You!

 

[ZapperMike]

Hey @ZapperMike , Thank You for this thread! I almost replied right away with a question; "which brewday? the one I start setting up, or later in the week when I've finally finished cleaning up and putting things away?" ... I'm disabled and have spent the 5 years or so trying to work my way up to performing tasks as close to the speed of 'the average person' as possible. Reading through all the details and times that everyone's replied with has been very helpful to me in setting my long-term goals.
Just wanted say; Thank You!

Thank you for the inspiration! I’m glad to hear you are still brewing and striving to achieve your goals with a disability. My hats off to you!

 

[DosGatosBrewing]

4.5 hours including cleanup if I am paying attention.
I measure out the water the night before. 2 Propane burners, 10G cooler mash tun, 2 batch sparges, 60 minute boil. I start heating the first sparge batch and try to time the draining of the mash tun; same with the 2nd sparge. When the mash tun is dry from the 2nd sparge, I fire up the Bayou classic 14G and get it up to boil in about 15 minutes. Chill with a 50' copper immersion coil with a 25' copper pre-chiller in a bucket of ice water. Even had a beer during cleanup last Saturday. Still hit my target temps and volumes. I forgot the OG (we were drinking), but it will be beer, and we will like it.

 

[nanobrau]

1 - 2 gallon batches. 2 hours doing short-n-shoddy and 3 otherwise. This includes cleanup. If I’m keen on keeping a tight schedule, I mill grains a few days before and treat water the morning of.

I want to get down to 1.5 hours but it’s tough. There’s always cleaning and sanitizing to do during mash and boil.

 

[IslandLizard]

I want to get down to 1.5 hours but it’s tough.

I'd consider doing 2 of those batches back to back. You can probably heat the 2nd run while chilling the first. And still only one last cleanup, and twice the beer. They can be different versions, or even styles, of course.

 

[khannon]

Running a ~11g batch,
I start the night before, grind the grain, measure/treat strike water ~20 mins
Day of, roll out of bed, turn on HLT to get to temp, fall back asleep.
wake up, transfer water from HLT to mash tun ~5 mins.
Shower, get breakfast, coffee etc, I suppose ~1 hr while mashing...
transfer, sparge, etc.. ~the amount of time it takes..
boil, cool, put in fermentor.
Clean all the equipment.

I want to say, on 60 min mash, 60 min boil days, I wake up and hit a button at ~6 and am cleaned up by ~11:00, with wort at ~80F and ready to pitch, so roughly 5 hours with maybe 2.5 hrs of that being active "brewing"..

 

[nanobrau]

I'd consider doing 2 of those batches back to back. You can probably heat the 2nd run while chilling the first. And still only one last cleanup, and twice the beer. They can be different versions, or even styles, of course.

Interesting idea! I hadn’t considered that. Cleaning more equipment in one go sounds nice.

 

[Slim M]

I BIAB 10 gallon finished product, 60 minute mash, 60 minute boil, & probably 60 minute chill with my immersion & aquarium pump. From start to finish including cleaning probably 6 hours. I know I could shorten mash time & boil times but the time between makes it not so rushed. I do crush the night before.

Ways I know I could cut time are put the plate chiller in action, cut the mash time in half, & get a better propane burner. All in all though if 6 hours yields 10 gallons of beer that’s not to bad in my op. Honestly i love brew day and for some reason I like keg day much less.

 

[DuncB]

The skill is making it a brewday. If I finished quickly I'd have to do something else perhaps less fun, so I pace myself and do try and complete my brewday and all tidy up during daylight.
My wife knows that a brewing day is a day.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

When my brew day is over, I like to sit back and have a beer, it normally is a HB from before and maybe something else. I look forward to that time to relax and think about the next batch or just ponder the brew day I just had. I also take the time to cleanup my notes.

 

[Ninoid]

BIAB, no chill, 5g batch, from preparation to drying of equipment in total 5 hours.

 

[Beerstein]

Using my spike solo, I can do a batch (5-15g) in under 3 hours.

When I'm doing low-carb beers, I mash in before work, let it mash for 5 to 8 hours, let the pot drain for 1 or 2, then boil. I'm not at the "station" most of this time. It's asynchronous. I can brew once a week, and be done by 6pm, and get my 8 hours in for the man!

 

[leedspointbrew]

Pretty consistently 4 hrs for a 4 gal BIAB - passively cooling the wort old school in my sink doesn't even add much to the time. Try to be efficient, cleaning what's been used (colander for sparge, strike water kettle, etc). Then, after yeast is pitched, everything's clean, time for an HB.