Time Efficient Brewing (or How To Brew When You Have Kids)

[thylacine]

Hi all, I think I already know the answer to this one, but thought it was worth putting out there for those who know better to tell me that its stupid.

So, I've been BIAB'ing for about a year now, with only 5 brews under my belt, mainly due to the fact that September saw the arrival of my son, to add to the now 2yr old, daughter. As the title suggests, time to myself is now at a premium, and setting aside 5 hours for a brew is seeming more and more difficult, unless I want to hang out in the garage until midnight.

So I had the thought the other day, would it be possible (AND a good idea) to spit te brew day into two parts. Say, running the initial mash during the day, when timings are a little more lenient, leaving the wort there for a few hours, and then later on kicking up the temperature for the boil and hop additions?

My current plan would probably be to get the mash going in the early afternoon, then hoist the bag, maybe covering the urn with some cling-film to stop any crap getting in there.

Now, skip forward to after dinner, and kids baths, and kids beds, and kids being kids and not wanting to go to sleep, etc. I could fire up the urn again, get the boil underway, and actually guarantee I'll be around for when the hop additions need to take place, and whirlpooling etc. rather than chasing after Violet up the driveway, or prying crayons out of Lucas' fingers.

I rekon that not having to start from scratch after dinner, I could foreseeable be done and dusted by around 9 or 10 (thanks no-chill!) which is MUCH more appealing when I look back at those Canberra winter night-brews that I did the year just past.

my only concern is that this might inadvertently effect the wort somehow (maybe the lower temperatures, or oxidisation), however part of me assures me that its just like starting out with a can of extract, or a fresh wort kit for a brew...


Thoughts?

Overnight mashing...

http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=30815

 

[chesl73]

I've done overnight mashing before although do it slightly differently to the link - and I also BIAB which means you don't have to bother with sparging which helps.
My 2 cents split schedule would be:

Friday night: After the kids are in bed get everything measured and get organised and heat the kettle to strike temp and do the mash. At the end of the mash dump the grain and cover the kettle with the wort in it.
Saturday: Do the boil and depending on the time I either do a no chill - actually more of a 'slow chill' in which at flameout I cover the kettle with a sanitised tea towel/towel and put the lid on and let it cool overnight. Or you just go straight to chilling your wort and fermenting.
Sunday: If you've slow chilled, transfer to fermenter, pitch the yeast and you're done.

I've done slow-chill lots of times (all indoors though as I do smaller mini-BIABs) and I've never had a problem with contamination.

 

[BDC]

Great thread. Keen to hear any other suggestions or tricks picked up along the way.

One thing I've been told is to drop my OCD cleaning and sanitising routine for the urn because the boil will take care of any nasties. Anyone got an opinion on this?

With a challenging 18 month old and demanding SWMBO I often find myself starting when everyone is in bed and going to bed at 2am. The boy is up at 5.30... I love brew night but the next day is not so much fun.

 

[BDC]

I should have mentioned: I'm in the BIAB no-chill club... Although I recently added a mini-boil with crash chill to my routine (pre-ferment)

 

[razz]

OCD cleaning is over the top in this instance BDC, but if that is you then don't fuss about it. I would simply remove any pipe work and tap fitting and inspect it for build up of wort residue. This stuff will go mouldy/stinky if not cleaned out.

 

[BDC]

Thanks razz. That should skim a bit of time off my brew night.

 

[BDC]

Just realised that there is something I do to avoid getting the dreaded "all you ever do is brew" lecture. It might be of some value to someone.

Once I've decided on my recipe, whenever I've got 10 mins of down time I take a glance and see if there is anything I could measure out and pack away in advance for later use. eg hop additions, grains, any adjuncts or spices, even put a whirlfloc tab aside somewhere handy, although I've learnt to store these in a bag where they're not exposed directly to air - had one disintegrate one me last brew.

 

[BDC]

Most experienced brewers would probably have a bunch of subconscious shortcuts they make without even realising.

Got a great idea for a speed-brewing comp. Everyone brews the same recipe and records their brewday and ferment. Make the chilling component not count so no-chillers stand a chance. I bet we'd catch a lot of cool ideas from each other!

 

[contrarian]

I think that the trick of brewing around a family is knowing your process well, when the critical moments in a brew day are and how to time them so they don't interfere with too many other things.

There's different time efficiencies with different systems but really with brewing, even though it takes 5 hours, there's probably only an hour or so where you really need to be hands on and doing something. So I think it's more how you fit the gaps in with the kids than anything else.

Also depends on their age. When my first kid was a baby it was easy to get up early in the morning and get a brew underway while my wife had a sleep in. Normally she wasn't worried about the rest of the brew after an extra couple of hours sleep!

It's a bit different now with 2 who are much more interested in being hands on with the process.. Eating grain in particular for some reason!

 

[Judanero]

If you're using an urn and have a STC, you can set it on a timer to turn on and have the STC bring and hold the water at mash in temp.

This can be waiting for you when you wake up so all you need is to dough in and insulate the urn, I aim for a 60-90 min mash but will often be dictated by when I know I'll have half an hour free to raise and rinse the bag- sometimes three hours later.

I have been first wort hopping as I lift the bag, and as soon as it has been drained I empty it and give the bag, mash paddle and oven rack the bag sits on a rinse.

I check on the wort after ~15 mins and it is usually at the boil or close to, once the boil starts I set my alarm for 45 mins time and go spend family time, once alarm goes off I go and measure my brew brite and yeast nutrient out and add that to the kettle.

At flameout I wrap my kettle in its insulation jacket (I have a 50sm ss ruler with a mark at 27L so I know I how much needs to be in kettle to fill cube and have 2L left for a starter- I top with boiling water if below this level )whirlpool for ~ 2 mins and but the lid back on.. I let it settle for about 20 mins-half hour (insulation jacket loses ~ 1 degree per 90 mins at mash temps so I know I'll still be in the right temp range) before I add cube additions and fill cube.

Any trub left gets drained into a bucket, my balvalve taken off (tri clover) and the boil ring scrubbed off using a scotch brite pad and water from the hose, quick rinse and kettle left uside down to drain.

This is my method pretty much every time I brew now with a nearly three year old and 13 month old, and there are only really a few times that I'm present during the brew- mash in, draining bag, flameout, cube fill/quick rinse.

I'm usually done in 3.5 hrs (depending on mash length) but only really spend about an hour or so in the garage total.

 

[The Judge]

There I was going for my tried and tested method of setup on night 1, mash on night 2, and boil on night 3. Usually night 2 and 3 finish up at 9:30ish. But tonight I've had my first stuck mash ever and it's blown night 2's schedule waaaay out. I've got sore cheeks from trying to suck the mash through, hot sweet sugary water all over my brew area, a sticky brauduino, and a trickle of wort finally happening after 2 hours of pain and watching my strike temp drop from 70 to 55

Mash starting now at 9:00pm and looks like the clean up is going to take me well into the night!

 

[Andy_27]

Two words... Day Care!!

May not work if you're not a shift worker though....

I have a 2 yr old and 4 yr old twins who are very interested and want to help and watch but lose interest quickly. Now its getting warmer, I just get them outside to play while I brew in the shed keeping half an eye on them and listening out for tears. They do love everything beer though. The twins went to day care last week and told the teacher "My dad only talks about breakfast, lunch and beer!" and I got my hop box out of the fridge a few days ago and the 2 year old said "Are they your hops dad?" Even lunch time isnt immune with the latest being 4 yr old: Dad whats vegemite made out of? Me: Um, yeast. 4 yr old: "Like beer! Beers made out of yeast!" The missus isnt too impressed, especially when its a fight to the death for who gets to go with dad to the beer shop....

Ahhh kids!

 

[niftinev]

wait till your kids grow up

then get them to do it