The 4hr Brew - How Is It Done?

[warra48]

My 3V system, with immersion chilling, gives me about a 6 hour brew day to complition, including clean up. I don't think I could shorten that to any significant degree, except by changing my system to a BIAB and no chilling. I don't want to mash or boil for less than an hour each.That's no problem for me, as I'm retired. However, I try to make things as simple as I can on brew day.
I fill the HLT the day prior, weigh and mill the grains, and weigh out the water salts additions. I'll usually fire up the HLT on brew day at about 6:00am, so I'm all done by lunchtime.
As mentioned by others, there are long stretches when you don't really need to be there. I have time to have breakfast with mrs warra, and to do other things like loading/unloading the dishwasher, vacuuming, lawn mowing etc etc. That keeps the home front happy!
The most time consuming things are starting the drain and sparge, then waiting for the kettle to come to the boil, and the immersion chilling.

In my view the total time spent is largely a function of the system you choose to use. It's a choice you will need to make for yourself. Want to spend less time? Then go for BIAB and/or no chilling.

 

[Frag_Dog]

I'm just trying to cut down the length of the brew day a bit. I usually do stuff during the mash and brining to boil stages, so that isn't an issue.It's the overall length of the brew day I want to cut down.

Going to start with a 60min Mash, build a heat shield for the MLT, and build a sparge arm so I don't have to as intently watch the sparge / recirc.

It's not a huge issue at the moment, but starting at 6pm and not finishing 'till after midnight is wearing a bit thin.

 

[Superoo]

Love the Chalk link, thanks Argon,

My brewday is about 3-1/2 to 4 hrs including cleanup
Might be able to shorten it a bit more if I do the chalk tests, as I only do low alc beers.

I get all my grain milled etc while the Urn is heating up.

I do electric BIAB and no chill, and love the results.

cheers,
chris

 

[Nick JD]

I good way to shorten your brew day is to use malts that have been converted into liquid or dried form with the extraction already done.

You can also get these in an already bittered form - this will further speed up your brew day.

I suggest also speeding up your fermenting by doing that at 30C.



Being in a hurry is a waste of time.

 

[Fourstar]

This was my brewday on sunday from dough in to cube filled and sealed, a tad over 4 hours

8:40 - Turn on HLT
9:30 - Doughed in, stirred and mash temps hit.
10:30 Begin Recirculation and sparge. (no mashout, mash temps)
11:00 begin 2nd sparge (mashout @ 73deg) after recirculation and turn on burner
11:40 Full boil begins and cleaned mashtun in the mentime, packed up HLT.
12:40 Flame out, move and hose outside of kettle (5 mins) and let rest for 10 mins
12:55 Whirlpool
13:10 Fill Cubes
13:30 Cubes Sealed and on their side
13:45 Kettle Cleaned and drying along with the rest of the cleaned equipment ready to be packed away.

Total brewday time = 5:05 mins

 

[argon]

I good way to shorten your brew day is to use malts that have been converted into liquid or dried form with the extraction already done.

You can also get these in an already bittered form - this will further speed up your brew day.

I suggest also speeding up your fermenting by doing that at 30C.



Being in a hurry is a waste of time.

takes me 5mins to drive to the bottlo and grab my brews...lotsa time saved

 

[Phoney]

I've managed to cut my brew days down so much that I no longer waste my precious weekends on brewing. Here's how:

Night before

Crack grain, measure out water, add chemical additions, set urn thermostat to 70C, set a timer to turn the urn on at 4pm & pull out anything else you will need.

Next day

5:30pm: Come home from work, adjust water to strike temperatures using a jug & a kettle or cold water.
6pm: I've doughed in amd I've got 60min to make dinner + do a few other chores.
7pm: ramp up to mashout, raise the bag then bring up to boil.
9pm: End of boil, turn it off & let it sit for 5.
9:30pm: Ive whirlpooled, chilled into the fermenter and pitched the yeast.
10pm: I'm all cleaned up and packed away. Ready to retreat to the couch.


It isnt much fun in winter being outside till 10pm splashing water all over myself, but in the warmer months it's a breeze.

 

[TasChris]

My 3V system, with immersion chilling, gives me about a 6 hour brew day to complition, including clean up. I don't think I could shorten that to any significant degree, except by changing my system to a BIAB and no chilling. I don't want to mash or boil for less than an hour each.That's no problem for me, as I'm retired. However, I try to make things as simple as I can on brew day.
I fill the HLT the day prior, weigh and mill the grains, and weigh out the water salts additions. I'll usually fire up the HLT on brew day at about 6:00am, so I'm all done by lunchtime.
As mentioned by others, there are long stretches when you don't really need to be there. I have time to have breakfast with mrs warra, and to do other things like loading/unloading the dishwasher, vacuuming, lawn mowing etc etc. That keeps the home front happy!
The most time consuming things are starting the drain and sparge, then waiting for the kettle to come to the boil, and the immersion chilling.

In my view the total time spent is largely a function of the system you choose to use. It's a choice you will need to make for yourself. Want to spend less time? Then go for BIAB and/or no chilling.

I'm pretty much the same as Warra, the system may be running for 6 hrs but of that time at least 2+ hours I am doing other things.
I normally do 2 brews back to back so during the first I am setting up the second and during the second I have begun to pack up, this saves a bit of time so two batches takes me about 10 hours
Any way I like the process of brewing so its a nice relaxing time, some tunes on, a beer or three, out in the shed with the door closed... might look at slowing the process down!!

Cheers
Chris

 

[jasonharley]

Last Saturday, I did a Crown Lager AG Clone


1230 h started water

1300 h Mash for 1 hr including mash out for 15 mins

1400 h Vorlaufing ( 3 sparges)

1530 h Start the boil

1700 h siphon to a cube (hot)


I boil for 60min but I have a 40L concealed element crown urn which takes a while to crank up to 100 deg (I have found that you can rapidly reach boil from 85deg onward by rapid whirlpooling ...... don't splash but a gentle applied but strong whirlpool stir)


In between tasks, I potter around and apart from daydreaming about owning 10 tap beer font with gycol lines running through all parts of the 5 Eyes Castle, I do odds jobs like cleaning the beer lines, clean cornies etc etc to kill many birds with one stone..... if i wanted to I reckon I could get it under 4 hrs if I bought 2000W immersion element ... the key is heating water at right vols and temps for use later on in the process.



The 5 Eyes Productivity Commission

 

[np1962]

Reading a few comments from the OP makes me believe there is plenty of scope for shortening his Brewday.
Cut both mash and boil to 60minutes, as has been said there is no need to be doing these for 90 minutes each.
Another point I picked up on is it appears the OP fly sparges, you can save a hell of a lot of time by batch sparging.
If you are really looking for a four hour brew then you will need to make all of these changes.
Cheers
Nige

 

[Nick JD]

takes me 5mins to drive to the bottlo and grab my brews...lotsa time saved

I wish they let me just grab them. Last time I tried that they called the police.

Good thing I had my friend's numberplate screwed on the Ute.

 

[bobsaget]

Whats this no chilling business? Are people talking no chilling as in cooling the wort after the boil?? I thought that was pretty much mandatory.
Sorry if I am way off the mark with this newbie question but if its not required it would cut down my brew day time a bit.

 

[Phoney]

Here ya go bob

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=56

 

[Bizier]

I agree on the batch sparge thing, especially if you recirculate for a bit. You can get great runoff clarity pretty quickly. Make sure you have plenty of sparge water ready and go for it. This is why 4 vessel systems exist. Lautering is a huge time sink.
I also agree on the iodine test, and suggest stirring well at least once mid-mash to ensure you have consistent conversion.

 

[mje1980]

I crush grains and fill HLT the day before. That saves lots of time on brewday. I do 60 mash 90 boil and can be finished in under 4 hours. Clean up isnt too long, and i clean the mash tun while boiling. The keggle is 10 mins to clean. I no chill so that helps. If im pressed for time, or need to ddo ther things, i'll leave the clean up for the next day.

 

[Dazza88]

Doing biab, I find a 90 min mash improves efficiency. If I was you I would try a 60 mash and boil.

 

[Spork]

Today's brew stretched to about 6 1/2 hours. There were several reasons: I didn't know my grains would be arriving today, so nothing was set up in advance. I did a 90 minute mash. (Went out bought lunch and some beers while this was going on). I had all sorts of problems hoisting the bag and securing it. This necessitated remounting my tie-off cleat onto the house wall, which meant getting my drill, finding some brick plugs, finding a small masonry bit... I made a "bit" of a mess with my aborted hoisting / tying / squeezing effort, so clean up was lengthy. That time is from "oh wow, my package with my stuff from CB has arrived" - to cubing. I'm chilling as I type this, the old cube in laundry sink method. It will take a while, but only takes 5-10 minutes of actual "work", so I haven't included it in my 6 1/2 hrs.
In future: I will be milling my own grains, (mill arrived yesterday ) and hope to get enough of my own stockpile (of grains and hops) that I will be able to get everything milled and ready the night before brewday, or at least get everything set up and ready
That being the case, the urn will be filled with the requisite volume of water, the thermostat set to 70ish, and a timer used so it is already hot when I get up.
I hope to improve my thermal insulation on the urn. Just using a thin silver sunshade at present, plan on adding a camping mat or similar. This should reduce time between mashing out and boiling.
Will be adding a 2nd pulley to my hoist, to halve the effort of raising the bag. Have already remounted the tie off to a more secure place. This will hopefully reduce the spillage / slopping / mess and hence the cleanup.
Apart from that, I had a great day. The outmeal stout smelled divine when I mashed in, the wort in the cube is the clearest I've done yet (I think the new bag and hopsock have way finer mesh than my old ones) and I came very close to %80 efficiency - a big improvement on my 1st full size BIAB a week ago. Thats without any kind of sparging.

 

[paulie]

Last Saturday, I did a Crown Lager AG Clone


1230 h started water

1300 h Mash for 1 hr including mash out for 15 mins

1400 h Vorlaufing ( 3 sparges)

1530 h Start the boil

1700 h siphon to a cube (hot)


I boil for 60min but I have a 40L concealed element crown urn which takes a while to crank up to 100 deg (I have found that you can rapidly reach boil from 85deg onward by rapid whirlpooling ...... don't splash but a gentle applied but strong whirlpool stir)


In between tasks, I potter around and apart from daydreaming about owning 10 tap beer font with gycol lines running through all parts of the 5 Eyes Castle, I do odds jobs like cleaning the beer lines, clean cornies etc etc to kill many birds with one stone..... if i wanted to I reckon I could get it under 4 hrs if I bought 2000W immersion element ... the key is heating water at right vols and temps for use later on in the process.



The 5 Eyes Productivity Commission

I could do a crown lager clone quicker than that

1 - rinse bottles - 5 mins
2 - P*ss into bottles - 5 mins
3 - cap bottles - 5 mins

CROWN LAGER CLONE !

Total time only 15 mins :lol:

 

[Spork]

I could do a crown lager clone quicker than that

1 - rinse bottles - 5 mins
2 - P*ss into bottles - 5 mins
3 - cap bottles - 5 mins

CROWN LAGER CLONE !

Total time only 15 mins :lol:

Yeah, but you didn't take into account the time it takes to drink the VB and have your kidneys convert it to piss Crown Lager...

 

[darrenp]

I love the term "Brew Day" and try to live up to it.

Everything methodicaly planned out but not rushed for me. A mate or two to share the experience with, footy on the radio, a few snags on the barbie for the mash, a brew plate for the boil with some camembert, olives, dips and dry biscuits and of course a sampling of previous batches all done by 6 on a Saturday so can wash up on the Sunday.

I can certainly apreciate that some people want to get it all over and done with as quickly as possible especially those using stove top set ups but when you can kick back out in the shed for the day after a hard week at work what more can you ask for.

By the way please, please don't tell my missus it can all be done in less than 4.5 hours. :icon_cheers: