I'm lazy. Am I missing out not using liquid yeast?

[brewprint]

What is your time breakdown for this 'relaxing and milking it' 3.5 hour brewday?

Well first there's the mash. I crank the heat on my full volume no sparge large amount of water. Maybe weigh out some hops, drink some coffee, clean the litter boxes, etc. Then I check it here and there within this 15 minute period of time. Then dough in. Set my timer to stir every 15 minutes and at the half hour mark apply some heat if necessary.

Now during these 15 minute increments I may drink some coffee, watch some tv, weigh some hops, get on the forums, etc.

Then there's the boil. Once I get it to boil in 10-15 minutes with my 200,000 btu burner I add my bittering hops. Then I have almost 45 minutes before hop additions. I can do all kinds of things in that time. Usually there's no more than every 15 minute additions and if there are that many then it's just like the mash...milking it. I may clean my bag at this time too.

Then I do my flame out and put my 50' triple coil immersion chiller to action. I can have 5.5 gallons of wort cool in 15 minutes if I stir.

Then fill the fermenter and pitch.

Then cleanup. I don't have too much to clean since I rinsed the bag already.
Just the pot, siphon, thermometer and not much else.

Totaling 3.5 hours. No hurry, just relaxing. Of course there is the occasional time where I have to be some where and need to speed up cleanup.

I truly don't know how or why it needs to take longer than that. I do BIAB so I don't know how much more equipment that you guys have that are doing 3 vessels and what not.

 

[Owly055]

Ha, true. But the cost of the initial packet of dry yeast would be less than liquid and I can't imagine there would be any difference in the number of generations you could repitch.

I should say that don't actually harvest yeast, so from my POV it's a bit academic.

It is not necessarily true that dry yeasts are cheaper than liquid yeasts. I recently purchased a packet of 34/70 and a Wyeast smack pack and they were virtually the same price at the LHBS.

There are dry yeasts in most categories, but by no means the variety of choices found in liquid yeasts.

There some who consider dry yeasts in some way inferior or cheaper, but in actual fact the technology required to produce a good viable and reliable yeast in dry form is anything but simple and inexpensive.

The problem I have with liquid yeasts is that the ones I want for a specific brew are rarely available locally. The LHBS has a selection of dry yeasts and a number of Wyeast products, and nothing from White Labs or any of the other producers of liquid yeasts. I have a list of yeasts I want to try.............but the cost of shipping makes them impractical for me to use unless I can piggy back them on top of another order.


H.W.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Well first there's the mash. I crank the heat on my full volume no sparge large amount of water. Maybe weigh out some hops, drink some coffee, clean the litter boxes, etc. Then I check it here and there within this 15 minute period of time. Then dough in. Set my timer to stir every 15 minutes and at the half hour mark apply some heat if necessary.

Now during these 15 minute increments I may drink some coffee, watch some tv, weigh some hops, get on the forums, etc.

Then there's the boil. Once I get it to boil in 10-15 minutes with my 200,000 btu burner I add my bittering hops. Then I have almost 45 minutes before hop additions. I can do all kinds of things in that time. Usually there's no more than every 15 minute additions and if there are that many then it's just like the mash...milking it. I may clean my bag at this time too.

Then I do my flame out and put my 50' triple coil immersion chiller to action. I can have 5.5 gallons of wort cool in 15 minutes if I stir.

Then fill the fermenter and pitch.

Then cleanup. I don't have too much to clean since I rinsed the bag already.
Just the pot, siphon, thermometer and not much else.

Totaling 3.5 hours. No hurry, just relaxing. Of course there is the occasional time where I have to be some where and need to speed up cleanup.

I truly don't know how or why it needs to take longer than that. I do BIAB so I don't know how much more equipment that you guys have that are doing 3 vessels and what not.

I get that brewing is relaxing (it is a hobby after all). But your above schedule doesn't leave any room to shorten, so I don't see how it can be called 'milking it'. I have also brewed in 3.5 to 4 hours (when I've had a limited window of time) but normally take longer because I like a 90min mash (often multi-step....I'm assuming you don't have a mash out), 90 min boil, fly sparge and I like to leave my chilled beer for an hour for the trub to settle before I rack to fermenter leaving the break behind. I also like to leave hot napisan solution running through my plate chiller for an hour or so after brewing (normally while the chilled wort is resting). A long brew day is just as relaxing as a short one - if I sparge for an hour, I'm spending most of that time inside with the kids/drinking coffee while the sparge takes care of itself.

I don't have any problem with BIAB (I've done it a few times myself), in fact, I don't see that it's really different to any other no-sparge brewing method. The constant 'I BIAB and so should everyone else because it's the best and all other methods are a waste of time' (obviously paraphrasing....and not all BIAB'ers bang on about it) comments are starting to get on my nerves though (why was the fact that you BIAB relevant to a thread about liquid yeast?). I like brewing with 4 vessels, I can ramp temperatures quickly and easily, I can follow through with double batches (and triple batches) and it's FUN to setup and use.

 

[brewprint]

I get that brewing is relaxing (it is a hobby after all). But your above schedule doesn't leave any room to shorten, so I don't see how it can be called 'milking it'. I have also brewed in 3.5 to 4 hours (when I've had a limited window of time) but normally take longer because I like a 90min mash (often multi-step....I'm assuming you don't have a mash out), 90 min boil, fly sparge and I like to leave my chilled beer for an hour for the trub to settle before I rack to fermenter leaving the break behind. I also like to leave hot napisan solution running through my plate chiller for an hour or so after brewing (normally while the chilled wort is resting). A long brew day is just as relaxing as a short one - if I sparge for an hour, I'm spending most of that time inside with the kids/drinking coffee while the sparge takes care of itself.

I don't have any problem with BIAB (I've done it a few times myself), in fact, I don't see that it's really different to any other no-sparge brewing method. The constant 'I BIAB and so should everyone else because it's the best and all other methods are a waste of time' (obviously paraphrasing....and not all BIAB'ers bang on about it) comments are starting to get on my nerves though (why was the fact that you BIAB relevant to a thread about liquid yeast?). I like brewing with 4 vessels, I can ramp temperatures quickly and easily, I can follow through with double batches (and triple batches) and it's FUN to setup and use.

The whole topic went south with the 30 minute starter. It excelled from there. I was asked and I gave a response about how I have such a fast brew day. Which I don't think is really fast at all.

Brew with 2, 3, 4 vessels and it doesn't matter to me. To each their own.

I don't do any mash out btw. Currently I see no reason to. I think I may start to dabble in water chemistry soon though.