Length of Brew Day vs Complexity of Brew House

Dornbox

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I swear when I use to brew on a simple Sabco Burner and Keggle with an orange cooler mash tun I could knock out a batch in 5-6 hours (memory is foggy as that was a while ago and my brew house notes never mentioned much by way of time of day other than the start time). Years later I'm back at it with a really slick completely plumbed 3 vessel and pumps setup and I'm not sure i can come in much under 8 hours including clean up. While my brew day is easier than ever, it seems like the length of my brew day and cleanup are longer than ever as well. Not complaining mind you, just musing.

For giggles, how long are your brew days and what gear are you brewing on?
 
BIAB, 1 kettle, 3 gal (into fermenter) batches, 4-4-1/2 hours depending on mash/boil times. Finished once in about 3:50.
 
I swear when I use to brew on a simple Sabco Burner and Keggle with an orange cooler mash tun I could knock out a batch in 5-6 hours (memory is foggy as that was a while ago and my brew house notes never mentioned much by way of time of day other than the start time). Years later I'm back at it with a really slick completely plumbed 3 vessel and pumps setup and I'm not sure i can come in much under 8 hours including clean up. While my brew day is easier than ever, it seems like the length of my brew day and cleanup are longer than ever as well. Not complaining mind you, just musing.

For giggles, how long are your brew days and what gear are you brewing on?
5-6 hours. Occasionally I can knock out a batch in 4 hours but usually that means a 60 minute boil versus my regular 90 minute.
Using a Robobrew 35L. It'll be interesting to see if that changes when I switch to the 65L and 10 gallon batches. I'm sure I won't mind it much when I'm older but I have a family so the whole 5-6 hour thing sucks - I try and prep the night before now and wake up at 4-5 am on a weekend so I can be done by 10 or so.
 
5-6 hours. Occasionally I can knock out a batch in 4 hours but usually that means a 60 minute boil versus my regular 90 minute.
Using a Robobrew 35L. It'll be interesting to see if that changes when I switch to the 65L and 10 gallon batches. I'm sure I won't mind it much when I'm older but I have a family so the whole 5-6 hour thing sucks - I try and prep the night before now and wake up at 4-5 am on a weekend so I can be done by 10 or so.

I like the night before prep. I'm sure I can drop an hour there... or shift it anyway.

@Megary, does that include clean up!?!? My 8 hour day is when I'm back lurking on Brewer's Friend or going to bed. The BIAB systems do seem really slick.
 
I like the night before prep. I'm sure I can drop an hour there... or shift it anyway.

@Megary, does that include clean up!?!? My 8 hour day is when I'm back lurking on Brewer's Friend or going to bed. The BIAB systems do seem really slick.
Yeah, that’s with cleanup. But for BIAB, cleanup requires me to wash a pot and a siphon. 10 minutes?
 
I’m probably an outlier here. I have a rather short brew day. BIAB with an electric vessel.

Mill grains/ heat mash water - < 15 min
Mash - 45 minutes
Heat to boiling - 15 minutes
Boil - 30 minutes
Cool wort/cleanup - 15 minutes
Total around 2 hours.

I also usually keg the last batch and clean the fermenter during the mash.

Note that I always make 2.5 gallon batches.

I know that some people will argue with me about the shorter mash and boil times, but I’m able to achieve the desired flavors and quality with no issues.
 
I brew 2 gallon batches on my kitchen stove. Takes about 3.5 to 4 hours start to finish. I only mash for 45 minutes on average, been doing this for 15 years now and love the little time it saves. Bottling a small batch like this only takes about an hour. And now that I got a 1-gallon uKeg Go, packaging will go even faster.
 
5.5-11g batches on electric. Kettle, mash tun, hlt, plate chiller , single controller, single pump. Requires a lot of multitasking to hit 5.5 hrs.
Part1: prepare & heat strike water, weigh malts, Mill into the tun & underlet. set up herms& Run mash for 60 min. Sparge, fill kettle, cleanup. Usually 3hrs
Part 2: 60 min boil, whirlpool, chill, Into fermenter, . Cleanup. Heat 4 gallons to flush everything. 2.5 hrs
 
Just had a really "normal" brew day...
8am lug equipment + ingredients up out of the basement
9am strike h2o is warm => mash-in
10am drain -> sparge
11am full kettle up to boil, first hop addition
12pm flame-out
1-2pm-ish, done with clean-up.....sort of just happens "on the side" next to work-at-home...

PS, 25ish liters at a time, all grain, old school (not biab) but all electric.
 
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I haven't really tried to race through it, usually 6-8 hours. Includes time to crush grain, put wort into fermentor and clean up.

5 gallon biab with a herms/rims system
 
4 hours is average but been splitting brew day sorta lately and either leave in kettle to cool down or transfer now into fermentor.
I think a 3V system would be more cleaning too.
One kettle here BIAB single vessel.
 
I’m generally right around 5 hours, give or take about 20 minutes. Biggest factor being batch size, simply have about 20 minutes longer for bigger batches to heat up. I use a 3 vessel setup with a 65L DigiBoil kettle, mash tun made from a stainless kettle wrapped in reflectix and my old 60 quart kettle for sparge water(heated with the DigiBoil).
 
Usually 5 to 6 hours. Kinda depends on how much I have to clean up off the floor from dropped hoses , boilovers, spills and clutzyness. It's hard to clean the floor to where your shoes dont stick to it as you walk through.
 
Usually 5 to 6 hours. Kinda depends on how much I have to clean up off the floor from dropped hoses , boilovers, spills and clutzyness. It's hard to clean the floor to where your shoes dont stick to it as you walk through.
I started using a long, short plastic bin as a drip tray, set the pump on something inside of it. has done wonders to keep wort off of the floor and shorten clean up
 
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Usually 5 to 6 hours. Kinda depends on how much I have to clean up off the floor from dropped hoses , boilovers, spills and clutzyness. It's hard to clean the floor to where your shoes dont stick to it as you walk through.
You need a mop. :D:D
 
Usually 5 to 6 hours. Kinda depends on how much I have to clean up off the floor from dropped hoses , boilovers, spills and clutzyness. It's hard to clean the floor to where your shoes dont stick to it as you walk through.
I have a floor drain and a hose for that.
 
Millions of years later and it still takes 9 months to make a baby...8 hours plus fermentation in my 5 gallon case!

There's a Brulosophy podcast out there where they discuss methods of cutting down brew day length but it's still an exercise of left pocket -right pocket since you are just doing things ahead or later on after actually doing sparge and boil.

Like any labor of love, it's worth it!
 
4-5 hours personally, I have a 16 gallon kettle and a coleman cooler for my mash tun. 21L and 42L batches take roughly the same amount of time. I do a lot of other cleanup and puttering while waiting at the various stages.
 

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