warra48
I've drunk all my homebrew and I'm still worried.
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 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.