Morning brew day

[Crafty_Brewer]

Anyone do a high prep early morning brew day? Work has been crazy lately so I put in the work to prep as much as possible for brew day, get up early and get my brewing in. It was honestly the best brew day I’ve had in a while.

I got my recipe and yeast starter squared away early in the week, got my brew area prepped, night before weighed and crushed the grains, leak tested and filled the kettle and got the brewing salts added, measured out the hops, and staged all my small equipment.

Morning of, get up early, walk out with a cup of coffee and fire up the burner. Peaceful, low stress, and done by noon, including a 2 step mash and 90 minute boil.

Might be one of the best process improvements I’ve made. Pic of my brew dog - she had a great time too.

 

[redrocker652002]

I keep thinking of doing just the same thing. Getting everything done the day before, but then something always happens where it doesn't work out. My Grainfather even has a delay start where I can have the strike water started before I get up so even less time spent on brew day. Most of my brew days run into the 3 to 4pm area and some of the cleanup runs into the next day.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

I keep thinking of doing just the same thing. Getting everything done the day before, but then something always happens where it doesn't work out. My Grainfather even has a delay start where I can have the strike water started before I get up so even less time spent on brew day. Most of my brew days run into the 3 to 4pm area and some of the cleanup runs into the next day.

Yea, a system with electric and a controller would shave at least 20 minutes off the process for me. Might even be able to squeeze it in after work if I wanted to with that kind of a setup.

I had to kind of force the prep to happen. We had placed a grocery delivery order to save time, of course it was delayed by a couple of hours, my kid was hyper that night, I wish I had their level of energy. It was about 11:30 pm after groceries were put away, kid had their bath time/bedtime routine done, and finished my brew prep. Made for a good morning brew day though.

 

[day_trippr]

The evening before a brew day I get my 3v2p rig filled with RO water and get enough of everything else staged so that I just have to light the burners in the morning, dump the grain in the MLT, and when the strike temperature is reached underlet the mash, and I'm off and running from there. There's plenty of time to measure out the hops while the mash is recirculating, the rest is just a matter of letting things play out...

Cheers!

 

[Halfakneecap]

Definately. Im usually up early ( 5am is a sleep in ), so i'l prep on saturday or friday afternoon. Then up early, turn the Robo on and i'm done by 9 usually. I prefer it to afternoon brewing

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Yeah, kinda, sorta... I'll fill the kettle, mill the grains, and hook-up the hoses the night before. Sometimes I'll even overnight mash. Otherwise, getting up early and getting finished before lunch gives you back a surprising amount of your weekend.

 

[MaxStout]

With our seemingly non-stop hot, humid days lately I might just get up early and brew before the heat sets in.

 

[mashdar]

My brew days vary, but my routine lately is to have all the grain measured and treated water in the AIO. Sometimes I pre-crush grain the night before; still deciding if that causes staling issues. Delayed strike water timer means I get up, maybe crush grains, and get mashing before 8AM. Usually done by noon, possibly with a bit of cleanup through 1PM on longer days.

Sounds very similar to your day, Crafty.

I like morning brews because they are easier to work around family stuff. Also, if work is slow and I have a bunch of morning zoom/teams calls, I sometimes do workday long mash and boil through morning, then chill and transfer over lunch!

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

My brew days vary, but my routine lately is to have all the grain measured and treated water in the AIO. Sometimes I pre-crush grain the night before; still deciding if that causes staling issues. Delayed strike water timer means I get up, maybe crush grains, and get mashing before 8AM. Usually done by noon, possibly with a bit of cleanup through 1PM on longer days.

Sounds very similar to your day, Crafty.

I like morning brews because they are easier to work around family stuff. Also, if work is slow and I have a bunch of morning zoom/teams calls, I sometimes do workday long mash and boil through morning, then chill and transfer over lunch!

I used a bucket liner bag twisted shut inside of a Homer bucket with a lid for the crushed grain just to be on the safe side for mitigating any staling. The samples tasted good so far.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

With our seemingly non-stop hot, humid days lately I might just get up early and brew before the heat sets in.

It was pretty nice to get ahead of the heat.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

Yeah, kinda, sorta... I'll fill the kettle, mill the grains, and hook-up the hoses the night before. Sometimes I'll even overnight mash. Otherwise, getting up early and getting finished before lunch gives you back a surprising amount of your weekend.

It was pretty wild that brew day was only half a day.

 

[SFC Rudy]

I only brew in the morning. Gives me the rest of the day to do whatever.

Night before I prep my water and set the timer on my M&B. Then I weigh and crush my grains. I usually dough in around 0630 and am done with clean up around 1000.

 

[JohnDBrewer]

The evening before a brew day I get my 3v2p rig filled with RO water and get enough of everything else staged so that I just have to light the burners in the morning, dump the grain in the MLT, and when the strike temperature is reached underlet the mash, and I'm off and running from there.

Exactly what I do. Get up turn on the burners, make coffee and eat breakfast, mill the grain and I'm usually right around strike temp.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I prep the day before then start the brew day early, like as soon as I get moving the next morning. All the noisy tasks are done so my wife isn't disturbed. Just me, Roxy and fresh coffee for a morning brew!

 

[wsmith1625]

Anyone do a high prep early morning brew day? Work has been crazy lately so I put in the work to prep as much as possible for brew day, get up early and get my brewing in. It was honestly the best brew day I’ve had in a while.

I got my recipe and yeast starter squared away early in the week, got my brew area prepped, night before weighed and crushed the grains, leak tested and filled the kettle and got the brewing salts added, measured out the hops, and staged all my small equipment.

Morning of, get up early, walk out with a cup of coffee and fire up the burner. Peaceful, low stress, and done by noon, including a 2 step mash and 90 minute boil.

Might be one of the best process improvements I’ve made. Pic of my brew dog - she had a great time too.

View attachment 881912

Pretty much how all my brew sessions go. Good prep makes for great brew days!

 

[BongoYodeler]

I wish I could prep more, but I brew on my back patio and I can't leave all my gear out overnight. But a day or two before brew day I'll mill the grains and measure out minerals and hops. That's about it. The typical morning starts with carrying everything from the garage out back to the patio. The Blichmann burner. Then the Spike kettle. Then the 9-10 gallons of water, which I begin heating. Then the rest...plastic bin of miscellaneous items, step ladder, chiller, hoses, buckets, blankets....and so on. After cleaning up I then reverse the process. Yeah, I definitely get my steps in.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I wish I could prep more, but I brew on my back patio and I can't leave all my gear out overnight. But a day or two before brew day I'll mill the grains and measure out minerals and hops. That's about it. The typical morning starts with carrying everything from the garage out back to the patio. The Blichmann burner. Then the Spike kettle. Then the 9-10 gallons of water, which I begin heating. Then the rest...plastic bin of miscellaneous items, step ladder, chiller, hoses, buckets, blankets....and so on. After cleaning up I then reverse the process. Yeah, I definitely get my steps in.

It's exhausting just reading.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

I wish I could prep more, but I brew on my back patio and I can't leave all my gear out overnight. But a day or two before brew day I'll mill the grains and measure out minerals and hops. That's about it. The typical morning starts with carrying everything from the garage out back to the patio. The Blichmann burner. Then the Spike kettle. Then the 9-10 gallons of water, which I begin heating. Then the rest...plastic bin of miscellaneous items, step ladder, chiller, hoses, buckets, blankets....and so on. After cleaning up I then reverse the process. Yeah, I definitely get my steps in.

Getting my pole barn was a huge improvement in a lot of processes for me. I used to keep all my gear in a back bedroom and make like 50 trips outside to setup (and hope it didn’t rain).

Then we had a kid and nap time every 2 hours put a big damper on making trips through the house clanging and banging kettles and such.

Now I can just keep my stuff setup in the barn, and start/stop processes without doing a full setup/teardown; not just brewing, but if I’m working on something for the house, etc..

Having a covered out of the weather space that stuff can just sit is really a big deal.

 

[hottpeper13]

I used to prep everything the nite before, but since I started conditioning my grains I can't mill until just before mash in. I have an induction brewery in the basement so I have to physically push the button to to turn it on. So I wake up make coffee, press the button, spray water on the grains, coffee is done. By the time the grains are milled the BK is ready. I make breakfast during the mash.

 

[AzOr]

You could always mash and sparge the night before. It cuts your brew day in two half’s.

Worse that could happen is you lose a few ounces of wort to the brew angels.

It’s the only way I brew now.

 

[mashdar]

You could always mash and sparge the night before. It cuts your brew day in two half’s.

Worse that could happen is you lose a few ounces of wort to the brew angels.

It’s the only way I brew now.

Do you store the wort at 170F over night?

 

[AzOr]

I use an Anvil Foundry, so I turn it off and program to boil in the morning. It drops to about 140ish, depending on time of year.

Before the aio, I’d put the lid on my pot and let it sit. Because the pot wasn’t insulated, it would drop much more in temp.

 

[AzOr]

There’s been numerous threads that discuss this.
Some will mash overnight and leave the grains in. I’ve never tried this because for me, it makes more sense to sparge the night before and program my foundry to boil when I wake up.