With 4 kids 8 years old and under I have taken to brewing at night. Anyone else enjoy the solitude of what I like to call “midnight brewing”? I love it… kettle boiling away right now with a brown porter. Will be pitching on a cake off a dark mild. NeoBrittania yeast.
I’ve done it a few times, but it’s not my usual M.O. I prefer brewing during the day.
I do my cleanup outside. Too dark, and too damned cold this time of year.
I’ve done some brewing later in the day with it ending around 11pm or so. That was during the summer so it was much warmer. Also, my youngest child is 14 so I don’t have to worry too much about being disturbed during my brew session. I can definitely see how brewing at night would offer some much desired solitude though. 
Happy Brewing,
Brandon
Let’s see… Kids in bed by 8:30. Brew by nine. Finish in 5 hours @ 2. Kids up at 6:30 - ouch!
No kids underfoot so I can brew when I want to but…I have started late in the day before. Was going to brew the following day and just got too damn excited and had to fire up the kettle!!! The biggest problem I see with brewing this late is I like to have a few beverages in the evening. I’ve learned that I need to be brewing beer or drinking it but not both at the same time!
I’m with cheba on that. I try to start early enough in the morning so I won’t be having a beer until it’s about ready for cleaning up the gear. By the time any particular evening rolls around (and especially on weekends) I will most likely have had an adult beverage or two which leads to stupid mistakes in the brewery.
I brewed a Baltic Porter yesterday and was finished and cleaned up by 2:30pm.
+1 for not brewing and drinking at the same time! Even if I only have 1 or 2 in the evening that’s just flirting with disaster for a midnight brewing session. I can only imagine myself getting sleepy and falling asleep mid boil only to wake up several hours later wondering what that odd burning smell is…
I haven’t brewed at that hour before but if it was my only opportunity, I would probably take advantage of it. My only concern would be my alertness considering the safety involved with brewing.
A cold home brew during clean up is fantastic!
I’ve done it a couple of times. It’s alright but I do prefer to brew during the day.
Generally I try to get everything set up during the day and then kick off the burner to start heating the strike water right after dinner. Mash in before the kid’s bath time, and then start the runoff right after. The timing usually works out okay and it keeps the brew “day” from running too far into the wee hours.
One of our club members, Craig Birkmaier, has hosted an event a couple of times that he called Night of the Barleywine. As the name would indicate, it was a brew party where they’d make a barleywine at night - at or near New Year’s Eve. Now Craig has gone pro & is the brewmaster at Swamp Head Brewery, here in Gainesville, FL. The details aren’t firmed up but he’s talking about making it an annual event at the brewery. He’ll brew up a large batch of wort, & everyone brings their kettles to boil & hop it as desired.
There’s a hotel very close by his brewery. They serve the Swamp Head beers & the manager loves the brewery. They’ll give us discounted room rates & we can party around the fire pit/barbecue in the pool area - and not have to drive home. In subsequent years, we can bring bottles of the last year(s) aged bwine to share around the fire. It should be pretty cool. He’s got to get buy-in from Swamp Head’s owner, but I’m sure he’ll go for it.
At one point I had to work 4 - midnight on occasion. Fire up the burners around 1:30. It was kind of quite and peaceful.
Lonnie Mac don’t brew at midnight anymore. Lonnie Mac learned that misquotes really like Lonnie Mac after dark!
Wow that sounds like a blast!
I don’t brew late at night. When I brew it’s usually 12 or 1pm and get done by 5 or 6. Then start drinkin’.
I made sure to use the ‘insert quote’ feature so I didn’t mosquito you! 
Ha! Nothing like Apple spellcheck my friend! It ALWAYS (almost) knows what you want to say… 
I usually brew starting a 5 or 6 in the morning and then take the family out to lunch while all the cleaned equipment is drying in the kitchen.
Yes, it has become a necessity with two children. Since I brew on the weekends because of work, I don’t really feel like telling them daddy has to take 3-5 hours out of the day, and can’t take them to the park or go for a bike ride, because his beer is more important. So, yeah, I wait until they rack out at night.
I’m in the same boat little kids - I’ve brewed all but one batch after 8 pm on Sunday night.
I’m an extract brewer so I usually get done around midnight - the solitude is nice.
Brewing seems to go well but bottling is a b*tch