What saves time on brew day?

[n240sxguy]

I'm curious about this as well. Maybe one of these years it could be something I could explore. Right now I have to wheel all my **** out of the garage to fire it up so any time savings would be wasted by moving it twice. If I had a place to leave it set up all the time I could do it. Does it just look like a bowl of oatmeal your kid left out all day?

 

[peterj]

How has this worked for you? It sits for 6-8 hours at 152 deg. respectivly, and in the morming you mash out with 170 dreg. and begin boil?

I would think sitting that long would create some off flavors, but thats my assumption and thats why I'm asking! :rockin:

I see I didnt know about biab, just looked it up, but same question, It sits for that long at 152-156 for hours? cool idea if it works. It would save me alot of time.

Just search "overnight mashing". As long as you can keep your temps above about 130-140 for the 6-8 hours or so then there shouldn't be any risk of souring or off flavors. Maybe just a more fermentable wort. I've never done it myself but I've been reading about it recently.

 

[yewtah-brewha]

Just search "overnight mashing". As long as you can keep your temps above about 130-140 for the 6-8 hours or so then there shouldn't be any risk of souring or off flavors. Maybe just a more fermentable wort. I've never done it myself but I've been reading about it recently.

didn't realize sour beer was an effect of improper mash temps.

 

[peterj]

didn't realize sour beer was an effect of improper mash temps.

It's not really a direct effect. Pasteuization happens around 140*F so if you keep your mash too far below that for too long you are opening the door to wild bacteria getting in, growing, and producing lactic acid which sours the mash. This is one of the techniques used to produce sour beers.

 

[n240sxguy]

It's not really a direct effect. Pasteuization happens around 140*F so if you keep your mash too far below that for too long you are opening the door to wild bacteria getting in, growing, and producing lactic acid which sours the mash. This is one of the techniques used to produce sour beers.

Is the wild bacteria going to produce enough of a colony to produce enough lactic acid to affect the beer before its boiled in the morning? I've never made a sour beer, or mashed overnight, so this is all new to me. I do make kombucha, and I know it takes most of a day before it starts changing.

 

[peterj]

Is the wild bacteria going to produce enough of a colony to produce enough lactic acid to affect the beer before its boiled in the morning? I've never made a sour beer, or mashed overnight, so this is all new to me. I do make kombucha, and I know it takes most of a day before it starts changing.

Yeah you're right, it probably won't happen in the short time frame that most people do overnight mashing in. That's probably one reason it works for people. I think when people sour mash, they'll leave the mash for a matter of days.

 

[shoreman]

I did this looking for some sour notes on an old porter recipe and got nothing but better efficiency and slightly high gravity.

Most people will leave for days or chuck some fresh cracked grain in there a few hours in to get the bacteria rolling

 

[donovanlambright]

Rather than try to save time, I've begun boosting my homebrew supply by whipping up a no-boil hopped extract kit during my mash. That doubles my brewday output and the beer is pretty good as long as I do a good fermentation and avoid the yeast that comes with the kit. The only downside I see is that no-boil hopped kits are a pretty expensive way to make homebrew. And you have to make sure they are fresh.

 

[Larso]

How has this worked for you? It sits for 6-8 hours at 152 deg. respectivly, and in the morming you mash out with 170 dreg. and begin boil?

I would think sitting that long would create some off flavors, but thats my assumption and thats why I'm asking! :rockin:

I see I didnt know about biab, just looked it up, but same question, It sits for that long at 152-156 for hours? cool idea if it works. It would save me alot of time.

I've been doin this for about 8 brews. Works great with no off flavours but I'm starting to think its leading to lower FG and higher efficiency. Great with some styles but not so good with others. Eg I did an ipa that attenuated to a really low FG ( don't remember numbers!!). It was excellent, like a very hoppy lager. I more recently did a hefe but it lacks body and I think it's the overnight mashing. For more full bodied beers I'm going to continue to dough in on day1 but ill do mash out before I go to bed. For lighter bodied styles ill continue to mash overnight.
I read up a lot about this before I did it and only 1 other guy (on biabrewer.info) reported a similar experience. Others seemed to have no issue with it

 

[n240sxguy]

Rather than try to save time, I've begun boosting my homebrew supply by whipping up a no-boil hopped extract kit during my mash. That doubles my brewday output and the beer is pretty good as long as I do a good fermentation and avoid the yeast that comes with the kit. The only downside I see is that no-boil hopped kits are a pretty expensive way to make homebrew. And you have to make sure they are fresh.

Now that's a pretty slick idea. I could whip up a 5gal extract batch while I'm mashing my 10gal all grain. Why didn't I think I this! I could make 15-20 gallons in the same time I usually spend on 10.

 

[donshizzles]

I guess I'm of a different mindset but "saving time" on brew day just doesn't hold any appeal to me. I'm usually going 90 to nothing everyday as it is with work, kids, etc. so brew day is MY day to just relax and enjoy the process of making some killer beer.
Pretty much the extent of my pre-prep is conditioning my grains the night before.

 

[brewkinger]

I guess I'm of a different mindset but "saving time" on brew day just doesn't hold any appeal to me. I'm usually going 90 to nothing everyday as it is with work, kids, etc. so brew day is MY day to just relax and enjoy the process of making some killer beer.
Pretty much the extent of my pre-prep is conditioning my grains the night before.

This.

Although I admit that I do some thing ahead of time for prep.
I fill my 5 gal kettle.
Get all my equipment ready and sometimes give stuff a quick rinse or wash if applicable.
Make sure I have enough propane (this is a MUST!)
Other than that, my brew day is MY brew day.
The only reason I have rushed in the past couple of batches is to prep for my next challenge of double batch brew day.
Probably my favorite part of the day is the early mornings where the smell of coffee and the hiss of the burner gets exponentially better when I sit back and crush my grains and add that scent to the air.

Slainte!

 

[donshizzles]

This.

Although I admit that I do some thing ahead of time for prep.
I fill my 5 gal kettle.
Get all my equipment ready and sometimes give stuff a quick rinse or wash if applicable.
Make sure I have enough propane (this is a MUST!)
Other than that, my brew day is MY brew day.
The only reason I have rushed in the past couple of batches is to prep for my next challenge of double batch brew day.
Probably my favorite part of the day is the early mornings where the smell of coffee and the hiss of the burner gets exponentially better when I sit back and crush my grains and add that scent to the air.

Slainte!

Exactly! I love that early morning smell of coffee, ocean air and crushed grains. I can sit back in my lounge chair in the converted garage, door open, burner humming and enjoy a nice view of the beach completely blissed out. Nothing beats it....other than flying an Airbus at work

 

[Peppers16]

Brew in a bag.
And a propane burner is definitely on my shopping list since reaching boil on a stove takes most of my day at the moment.

I've not tried it myself but on Basic Brewing they were talking about how awesome 'no-chill' is, with folks brewing multiple batches in one day, and pitching them weeks to months later as and when they had the time/fermenter space. Sounds pretty cool.

 

[NorwegianAle]

I can see this thread is old, but just for the fun of it, and to kill some boring time at work:

I use a BIAB system, and use hot water from the fausset. (water quality is really great, never had a problem doing so, although i know People would Object to this...) I only collect the Equipment I need to start mashing: Mashtun, grains and a bag.
-Preparations/Time until i start mashing: 15min.
-mashing: i usually mash for 60min, though i've read some Places People cut this time as well.
During this time i preheat sparge water. (i could also skip sparging, and do a mash full volume)
-sparging 10 min.
-heating to a boil 10 min (i use an induction heater on the side to heat parts of the wort, to increase my efficiency on the boiler)
-boil 60 min
-chilling (plate chiller) 15-20 min, Depends on ground water temp.
-cleaning 20 minutes.
I try to prepare and clean the most that i can while mashing, boiling and chilling.
This should add up to no more than 3,5 hours. The grains have been crushed beforehand offcourse.

I Guess the big time saver in my setup is the BIAB. I saw a great video on youtube from basic brewing making a speedy brew, which also has some great tricks.

Cheers

 

[yewtah-brewha]

I can see this thread is old, but just for the fun of it, and to kill some boring time at work:

I use a BIAB system, and use hot water from the fausset. (water quality is really great, never had a problem doing so, although i know People would Object to this...) I only collect the Equipment I need to start mashing: Mashtun, grains and a bag.
-Preparations/Time until i start mashing: 15min.
-mashing: i usually mash for 60min, though i've read some Places People cut this time as well.
During this time i preheat sparge water. (i could also skip sparging, and do a mash full volume)
-sparging 10 min.
-heating to a boil 10 min (i use an induction heater on the side to heat parts of the wort, to increase my efficiency on the boiler)
-boil 60 min
-chilling (plate chiller) 15-20 min, Depends on ground water temp.
-cleaning 20 minutes.
I try to prepare and clean the most that i can while mashing, boiling and chilling.
This should add up to no more than 3,5 hours. The grains have been crushed beforehand offcourse.

I Guess the big time saver in my setup is the BIAB. I saw a great video on youtube from basic brewing making a speedy brew, which also has some great tricks.

Cheers

Doesnt BIAB eliminate mashtun, and sparge? I guess theres more than one way to do it, but I thought you put the grain in the bag submerge in 100 degree water in boil pot, heat to 148-154 let it sit for 1 hour, then heat to 170 for the final rest(5 min) and then just lift the bag out letting all the water drain off, 3 minutes and done. start to boil for 90 minutes.

 

[NorwegianAle]

My equipment is an electric boiler with a stainless steel tube inside with a false bottom, making it a mashtun and a boil kettle all in one. You can lift the tube and make it stand on top of the kettle during sparge. So i guess by definition my system is biab. I use a bag in addition because my corona mill mills too fine... i guess i made plenty of room for misunderstanding when i spoke of it as a mash tun....sorry! In my opinion this system is kind of a mix . My supplier calls this "beer brew 30". You could see for yourself. I might be wrong :-S

 

[metric]

+1 for no-sparge, my single biggest time saver. Heat up 1 batch of water, and use same pot for the boil.

Second biggest time saver is going electric. Water and wort are more efficiently heated within the kettle as opposed to from the outside. Same heating element used for heating water, heating my RIMS and for in the boil.

Third time saver is re-circulating immersion chiller. Speeds up the chilling process so that I can get that wort into the fermenter quicker. I do however practice 'no chill' during cold weather and let the wort chill overnight. That makes for a very short brew day!

Although today I did a quick extract batch, was nice to go from start to finish in only 2 1/2hrs!

Also, add me to the list of hot water heater users
Although my heater runs on gas and is only a couple years old, plus I carbon filter.

Metric

No sparge or batch sparge-partial boil all grain is where it's at if you want to save time.

Put 2 gallons of spring water in freezer - you only have to chill 3 gallons (5 gallon batch) or 6 gallons (10 gallon batch) down to about 130 degrees - add to plastic fermenters filled with super cold spring water and pitch yeast.

This is how I brew all my house beers - got the idea from randy mosher and have used it ever since.

Rarely go over 3 hours on brew day.

 

[wilserbrewer]

+1 for no-sparge, my single biggest time saver. Heat up 1 batch of water,

I like....but it is even faster for me to only partial full volume, say 60%, then heat the remaining water during the mash to say 185, add that then run off. Of course it depends on how much power you have, but mashing short of full volume can mean mashing sooner.....

 

[metric]

Nice, I like that idea. I've actually been doing that with my single temp batches, however since I've set up a RIMS I've been playing around with different mash temps. Also, since I'm starting out with 110F+ temp water from my hot water tank, it doesn't take me long to heat up a full volume of mash water anyway, so time saving isn't that significant for my setup.

M

I like....but it is even faster for me to only partial full volume, say 60%, then heat the remaining water during the mash to say 185, add that then run off. Of course it depends on how much power you have, but mashing short of full volume can mean mashing sooner.....

 

[mgortel]

Not drinking.......but that ain't happening!

 

[paguy]

Don't drink while brewing, only slows me down.....

 

[adamtbest]

Last brew I mashed overnight. But i have an induction cooker setup. I made a potato beer.
Www.brewout.com

 

[Balloonknot]

So, you use to spend 2-3 hours cleaning your HLT, MLT and Kettle BEFORE you started brewing? Sometimes I might clean my kettle the next day, but most of my stuff is cleaned and stored before the boil is over. If you clean after use, there's no reason to do it again before starting your next brewday.

I clean after brew days but I again clean before as well. I've found that although I thought I was super maid with my cleaning after a brew day, my brewware was not to my standard of clean when I was ready to brew again. in one case, I got mold in my lauter tube for my mashtun! Super painful trying to get hardened dried mold out... Boiling water did the trick...