Shortening the brew day

[beermaker]

Hi All

Looking for some advice - looking to do my second brew since returning to craft brewing and after "discussion" with the other half I'm looking for ways to shorten the brew day. At the moment my setup is a three tier gravity all grain system with one pump, one propane burner and a counterflow chiller. It takes about 6 hours to do an 8 gallon brew which I think is great but my missus doesn't! I'm after ways to shorten the time to brew or ways to spread the brew day. I don't want to move away from all grain and I don't want to invest in another burner or put any big financial investment into the brewery. I have two more stainless steel cellar pumps which I can utilise and I have an open mind to different approaches. I've heard about mashing in the day before and boiling the next day which could be a useful way forward if I learn more about it. Any advice greatly appreciated as I want to keep brewing without the earache!

Cheers in advance!
Phil

 

[fbsf]

I try to do an overnight mash - it helps efficiency and you can set a timer on your HLT (if it's electric, obv) so it's roughly at the right temperature when you wake up. You have to have a well-insulated mashtun though - duvets are the order of the day (or night)!

That way the next day consists of only sparge/boil/cool. Should be doable in about 3-4hrs... You could even cool naturally in a sealed container (or cube it as the americans do) and leave pitching until the day after that - more time elapsed but a lot less time spent at the kit.

So mash overnight Friday, Sparge and Boil Saturday AM (up at 7, done by 10) and pitch on Sunday morning once the wort has cooled.

 

[artyb]

get a bit of net curtain

and do a biab... :thumb:
with a overnite mash... :hmm:

 

[calumscott]

Overnight BIAB mash... :hmm: about an hour and a half to set up, heat and dough in. Easy enough on a Friday night...
Morning boil... :hmm: pull bag, sparge if required, get the boil done. Couple of hours, two and a half maybe. Saturday morning, done by 10:00...
Nochill cube cool... :hmm: Drop into cube, screw on lid, chuck in garden, ten mins, another half hour to clear down. 11:00 Sat.
Rack, aerate and pitch... :hmm: quarter of an hour. Done before breakfast (yeah, like I eat breakfast..!) on Sunday.

It's a no impact brew-weekend...

I like it!!! But I brew on the hob. I think I could do it though for a single 5 gallon length. Heat to strike temp, lift off hob (only 40kg so not too bad) and onto styrofoam block on the floor, dough in, wrap up...

...this will be dead easy when I buy a dedicated burner though!!

Extrapolating - this would make for an easy double brewday. Mash friday night, finish saturday early and into cube, full brew rest of Saturday, Sunday morning just aerating and pitching... :hmm:

 

[graysalchemy]

I do overnight mashes. If you can set your HLt on a timer as well that will save an hour as well. You could easily have a brew in the Fv by lunch time as long as you spend probably 1 1/2 the night before setting up and getting the mash on.

:thumb:

 

[beermaker]

Cheers folks! Some good ideas there :thumb:

Liking the sound of the overnight mash, just a few questions: Does it affect the body of the beer? I imagine with the extended mashing period that the enzymes in the mash will have more time to work (good for efficiency) but with the unavoidable cooling even with insulation, that the beta enzymes will come into play and make the resulting wort more fermentable but thinner? or am I worrying about nothing?

having read some stuff on the internet (so it's obviously right! ) there is a practice of mashing the day before as normal, then running into the copper and sparging as normal before heating up the wort to pasteurise it. The boil is then conducted the next day. Any thoughts on this? It sounds like reasonable practice but I can't help feeling it's a bit of a waste of gas if it can stay safely in the mash tun.

As for my HLT, at present it is unheated - I heat the sparge liquor in the copper and then pump it up to the HLT. However, I'm starting to think that modifying the HLT with a couple of kettle elements and a timer could be beneficial if this is the way forward for the famous Rosecroft Brewery!

Cheers!
Phil

 

[boozy_shoes]

Get a new other half.......or brew something she'll like so she can see the plus sides of it.

 

[Kev888]

You probably do most of them, but here are just a few tweaks that have helped my brew days take up less of a full day:

• My electric HLT comes on by timer early in the morning and is controlled by a thermostat, so its ready whenever I am[/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• I get up quite early on brew-day, which doesn't shorten it as such but at least means it cuts less into the afternoon[/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• The mash tun, water treatment and all ingredients are prepared the night before, ready to mash first thing[/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• I use a paddle in a slow battery-powered drill to dough in (though don't overdo it or you can get a lot of floury stuff)[/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• I have boiling and cold water ready to use, which avoids delays if the mash temperature needs adjusting[/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• I converted from gravity to pumped sparging, and that seems slightly quicker, though perhaps a tad less efficient[/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• The boiler gets switched on as soon as there's enough wort in it[/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• The MT and all the other pre-boil stuff gets cleaned whilst the boil is on so theres mostly just the boiler/trub to clean afterwards [/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• The FV would be cleaned beforehand and just gets sanitised quickly with starsan before use[/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• I no longer soak-clean any pre-boil stuff; mostly its quickly squirted clean with a hose out on the yard[/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• I recirculate boiling wort through the post-boil pump and tubing to quickly sanitise it. [/*:m:n9a1zm3r]
• A plate chiller or big CFC can be much faster than an IC, but if you have an IC then stirring the wort gently whilst cooling will help a lot [/*:m:n9a1zm3r]

I haven't tried overnight mashing, but I have tried boiling the following day. It certainly works to cut down brew day itself but in total I found it took noticably more time and energy to re-heat from scratch again. Though I do 80L/100L batches and can only run one element at a time so its probably worse for me than it would be for you.

Hope some of that may be useful.

Cheers
Kev

 

[beermaker]

Some sound advice, cheers! You're right Kev, I do some of those already but also picked up some sound tips too, cheers!

Thinking I'm going to modify the HLT to electric heating with a timer and thermostat. Mash in the night before, insulate the tun, fill up and set the HLT and leave it until the next morning. Get up early next morning, run off and sparge, fire up the propane burner when there's a couple of gallons in the copper. Add hops, dig out mash tun and wash down whilst boiling. Finish boil, whirlpool to separate hot break, pump out to FV via heat exchanger and pitch yeast. Dig out copper, wash boiler and flush/sanitise pump and heat exchanger with hot effluent from heat exchanger stored in HLT. Shut everything up, put kettle on, have a cuppa. Job done by midday! :

Will try it next brew day and see how it goes....

 

[guyb]

I was looking at ways to shorten my brew day, and I sometimes mash on an evening, and then boil the following day.

One thing I would say is whilst I understand you are trying to keep her indoors happy, make sure you don't lose the fun out of it (and it doesn't just become a chore) - I did that a couple of times (trying to juggle work, kids, wife etc) and had a rubbish day, to the point where I wished I'd waited till I had more time (the beer came out fine, but it was stressful and made a couple of errors - easy enough to correct).

Now I tend to do it in a single day but give everyone plenty of notice :thumb:

 

[graysalchemy]

Liking the sound of the overnight mash, just a few questions: Does it affect the body of the beer? I imagine with the extended mashing period that the enzymes in the mash will have more time to work (good for efficiency) but with the unavoidable cooling even with insulation, that the beta enzymes will come into play and make the resulting wort more fermentable but thinner? or am I worrying about nothing?

No it doesn't as because once the sugars are converted then that is it. This will usually happen in the first 2 hrs in which case it should be in temp as long as the mash tun is insulated. Some american sites say that there is a risk of the wort spoiling as the temp drops below 50c when bacteria could effectively gr.ow and cause off flavours. I have doen about 3 overnight mashes and had no problem at all. The only problem I have had is increased efficiency in one case i got about an extra 12 points. :lol: :lol:

 

[RobWalker]

+1 on an overnight mash. My small brewdays take a few hours with them sometimes!

 

[bobsbeer]

It takes about 6 hours to do an 8 gallon brew which I think is great but my missus doesn't!

Any advice greatly appreciated as I want to keep brewing without the earache!

Plus 1 for the other advice. My way is to make her some wine. Then I can say I need beer for me. :thumb: Shes happy and I'm happy. Matrimonial happiness and I get to fill the kitchen every now and again with great looking beer making stuff and make a mess. Without the constant nagging. :clap: Well very reduced nagging anyway and that seems to be aimed at my 25kg bag of Maris Otter clogging the hallway. :grin: I just tell her I'm making barley wine. :grin:

 

[jonewer]

I did a split brewday because I work shifts so coming home from an early I mashed and sparged. Then boiled an cooled the next morning.

Avoids taking up a whole day while She gets annoyed!

 

[beermaker]

I understand what you mean Guy about keeping the enjoyment. The prob is that we have three kids, one of whom is only a year and a half and the missus's beef is that I'm a**ing about in the shed all day whilst she's got all three! she doesn't really mind me brewing but she does grumble and I want to avoid the inevitable discord this could lead to!

will try the split brew day (cheers for the reassurance graysalchemy!) the mash tun is very good at holding temperature, although an extra blanket won't hurt. Will be interesting to see how it goes, especially with the increased efficiency - may even make brewing cheaper as will need less malt!

I would bribe the missus with wine but she's not a big drinker really mind, she quite likes malibu so might try my hand at liqueurs! I tried wine once but made such a mess up of it that I've never tried it since. Suppose I could give it another go when the elderflowers come out in the spring or have a go at one of those wine kits.

Cheers all for helping me avoid marital strife! (not that we're married yet, but this info may help me make it to our wedding in october!)

 

[beermaker]

One quick question - what thermostats are people using to control the temperature in the HLT? My HLT is an old 5 gallon plastic fermenter with a tank connector and 15mm 1/4 turn ball valve. Going to fit two tesco kettle elements for heating but after a recommendation for a thermostat to control the temperature until I get my butt out of bed!

Cheers!
Phil

 

[coldlager]

What about smaller batches more regularly? BIAB 2 gallon batch would take less than larger batches as less water to heat/cool/transfer etc

My first BIAB was a small batch and only took a few hours, 3-4. With practice i reckon you could get this down to 3 hrs so long as you weight up, sanitise and then wash up, clear up etc as you go.