The 4hr Brew - How Is It Done?

[Frag_Dog]

I've seen people post that they managed 4hr brew days. The quickest I seem to be able to brew in is about 6.5hrs. I'm not including filling and starting the HLT warming up.

The only thing I can think of is that I can't start the kettle burner for the first runnings due to the camping mat insullation I have around the MLT starting to melt down. I do a 90min mash and 90min boil.

So what sort of schedule do you guys who get a 4hr brewday follow?

 

[Ross]

If time is important to you, a 60 min mash & boil will get you an hour back straight away. Get yourself some iodine to check your mash conversion & you'll probably find you can get the mash down to 30 minutes.

Cheers Ross

 

[QldKev]

6.5hr excluding the HLT warming up. wow

As Ross said, try a 60min mash / 60min boil. No need with a 90min boil unless you are going a light lager, and depending on the grain you may not even need to do that.

Can you seperate / use a heat gaurd between the mash tun and kettle so you can get the heat on earlier?
How long does the kettle take to hit the boil, can you throw more heat at it?
Are you chlling, maybe no chill will save a bit more time?

Have a read on my website of a brew day I had, a 100L BIAB batch from mash in time to clean up / heading back into the house was only 3.5hr.

I would try and get a local brewer to come around for a brew day and watch your process.

QldKev

 

[greggo]

Hi all.
Ross would you be able to explain the iodine test.
cheers greggo.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

My first brew day was about 4.5 to 5hrs thats setting up to packing everything away. So the next day I went for 2 brews in 1 day. I brew 22L batches each time. I think having a 32 tip mongolian burner saves me hrs because it heats the HLT(50L) up in about 20 - 30mins. I also only need to mash for 60min to be sure. Although there is a good experiment in the latest Brew your own magazine on mash times. Most of my recipes are only a 1hr boil. Im going to get one of those plate chillers off Ross when im home next because it takes me 30mins to cool my wort at the moment as appose to the time it takes to pump the wort from kettle to fermenter which would be less than 5 mins. I managed to get the 2 brews done and from set up to packing away It was about 10hrs, I think I can get that down to 8 but im not all that fussed because I really enjoy doing it and I get 5 weeks off work when im home
Cheers
Gav

 

[Bribie G]

First weekend in October there's a systems war day happening at Craftbrewer as part of the Home Brew Convention. Spitting distance from you, if you pop in we'll show you how B)

 

[Nick JD]

Hi all.
Ross would you be able to explain the iodine test.
cheers greggo.

Iodine turns black in contact with starch.

It doesn't in contact with sugars.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Iodine_test

It's interesting to to subsequent testing during your mash. If you're in a hurry, and mashing hot - do a test every 10 minutes starting at 20 minutes. You'll be surprised how short the mash needs to be at 69C for conversion.

 

[argon]

I think my brew day is a touch over 4 hours for a double batch from dough in to cubing (excluding grain prep and auto HLT). Obviously chilling would add to this... but never done it, so don't know by how much.

I find i the time to be saved is in the sparging and lautering phase. Here's what i do which takes about 30-40 mins from end of mash to first hop addition (it's much quicker doing single batches... probably save another 10mins);

- I don't do a Mashout. I vorlauf then drain the mash tun at the end 60min mash (as Ross says you can save time if you know conversion has occured.. read here about iodine test)
- Rambo burner now on full to bring first runnings into kettle
- Batch sparge round 1 with near boiling water, to bring the grain bed up to 76C. Wait 10min. Vorlauf and drain tun as fast as possible. (i have a 2mm perf false bottom).
- By the time the first sparge is in the kettle the wort is pretty close to boiling and have to dial back the burner
- Batch sparge round 2, to keep grain bed at 76C, wait 10, Voraluf and drain tun as fast as possible.
- By the time batch sparge round 2 is complete... it's only another 5mins before i have 50+ litres at the boil.

Another place to save some time is when draining the kettle. I now have a hop stopper on the kettle, which stops all hop debris and most hot break from exiting the kettle. Therefore i don't need to whirlpool before draining (i do, to ease the load on the blocker, but probably don't need to). So get a decent hop blocker and perhaps use hop flowers as a break filter and you could drain the kettle almost immediately after flameout... saving yet another 20-30 mins.

I'm pretty confident with the above, as a single batch, i could turn out a 3.5 - 4 hour batch into a cube.

 

[raven19]

Electric HLT on the timer & precrush the grain.

If organised I can do a brew in 3hrs, 60min mash, 60min boil, No Chill cubed wort straight from the kettle.

 

[Frag_Dog]

Thanks for the replys. I've thought about cutting the mash down to 60mins. All I've ever done is 90min boils so I'll keep them for the moment.

I might do a timeline for my next brew and try and keep track of where all the time goes.

I should have my HERMS running by the time I next brew, so I'll see if that makes the situation better or worse.

That system war sounds like a good idea. I'll have to start working on getting a leave pass from the SWMBO.... <_<

 

[mxd]

for my triple batches, batch sparge, no chill, 60 min Mash and Boil, is a no stress 4.5 hrs from mash in to cleaned and packed up.

 

[hsb]

I've always done 90 minute mash and a 90 minute boil, they are the real killers on brewday. I'm, like many, juggling precious weekend time against kids/family/housekeeping (and study) obligations so 6 hours is a tough ask at the best of times. 3 hours on those two, easy to lose another 2-3 hours to prep/hitting strike temp/in between moments/clean up.

Thanks for the link to the iodine test argon, that looks great. As simple as a piece of chalk? I will definitely try that next time I mash and consider coming down to a 60 minute mash.
The 90 minute boil is going to be harder to shake, have always done one. I can accept it isn't necessary unless using particular malts, just going to take a while to change the habit

 

[stux]

4 hours from mashin to laying the cubes on the side, with 90/90 mash/boils

Preweigh and crush grains
Fill biab kettle with solar HW
Italian burner on medium pressure
No chill

Do next stage prep during mash and boil

 

[Pollux]

Remember, you don't have to be there to babysit it those entire 6 hours.........

I usually set the HLT on a timer, and crush the grain the day before. 5am the HLT turns on, by 6:30 it is well and truly heated. Mash in, refill HLT with sparge water, and go back up to the apartment.


Then I return 90 minutes later, drain/sparge, get the boiler going and while it's doing it's thing I clean up the mashtun/pump.

After flameout all I have to do is fill the cubes, wash the kettle and I'm all done.

 

[stillscottish]

As Pollux said, you don't need to stand over it every minute.

Some of my brewdays stretch out to 10 hrs.
Once the mash is set, go to the shops or do housework etc.
A leisurely sparge while i do other shit.
Usually the kettle will want to be coming to the boil while I'm preparing/ eating dinner so I switch it off till I'm done eating.
Fire up again after the news and get it finished.

I'm not saying I brew around the demands of SWMBO but it makes for a happier life :lol:

As a shift worker, most of the domestic duties fall to me so it suits me to integrate everything and just take my time.

Cheers

Campbell

 

[rich_lamb]

My schedule was almost exactly the same as Argon's, only I was only sitting about 5 min for each batch sparge, and I was using a gravel filter rather than a hop-stopper. Same effect.
That was with no-chill though, and now I'm back to chilling add 30 minutes.

Don't know why you'd be doing 90 minute mash and boil times if you don't need to, and clearly time is an issue for you...

 

[Bribie G]

With BIAB and a lagged urn, a 90 min mash is no skin off my nose anyway, and I've even popped down to Morayfield and done things and got back 2 hours later and everything is good. Also with no sparging step the bag can continue draining while the wort is coming to the boil. Like most brewing methods it's long periods of inactivity punctuated by brief bursts of hell-on-wheels

Talking of long mashes, one way of getting more time with the family is to mash in late at night, do an overnight mash and do the boil in the morning, get finished before 9am.

 

[Gar]

I need to find a cleanup slave... That's the only bit that gets me

I'm thinking of converting to no-chilling to speed things up a bit but I like my 25L batches, anybody know if there are some 25L cubes around?

 

[manticle]

Willow make one. Available at K-mart (and possibly elsewhere)

 

[Gar]

Cool I'll check it out :beer: