Wrapped up a partial mash an hour or so ago. Brewed up a 70 /-. Started up the mini-mash in a pot on the stove before the kid’s bathtime and then tossed it in the oven at the lowest setting. Once everyone was settled in and asleep I heated up the rest of the water and used that to rinse the grain bag then added the mini-mash wort and the extract into the kettle. Did a full boil, chilled, pitched and cleaned up in about 4 hours.
One of the more relaxing brew “days” I’ve had in awhile. Elapsed time was only about 2 hours less than my normal brew day but I did a lot of sitting on my ass and reading the forums and other stuff during that time as opposed to scurrying around with various tasks like I usually do during an all grain brew day.
Might do that again sometime. We’ll see how the brew turns out I guess.
I did something similar recently. AG, but a stovetop partial boil. Total time including cleanup was 3:40. It’s amazing how low-maintenance a brew day can be once you have everything sorted out. I remember my first few brewing sessions as 8 hour debacles.
I pitched the yeast, cleaned the kettle, put everything away, then checked my watch. “1:30?! What do I do the rest of the day?”
I’m set now to do these easily with my little 8qt mash-tun. A far cry from the 70qt and the 9 hour brew day.
I keep extract around and sometimes just throw it all together on a whim. I’m done in about 2.5 hours and the beer is always excellent. Don’t even bother to take any gravity readings.
The last beer I made was an IPA that was a stove top partial mash using my oven’s warm setting. It was the first partial mash I did. Calculated my OG at 1.064, and ended up with 1.060. Definately going to do this again, and I am now considering making a small mash tun.
My only complaint about from my shortened weeknight brew session isn’t about the beer I was brewing at all. It’s about the amount of damage I did to my keg of strong golden ale. This morning I’m questioning the wisdom of having a 10% beer with a nice dry finish on tap
Owwww. Just a couple of those and I’d wake up sitting on the couch or computer chair. My first GS was really a tripel and weighed in at 8%. It was a real show-stopper.
I’m currently reading Radical Brewing and just read the chapter on Belgians. Mosher has a great quote in there in his intro to the style:
[quote]You know the ones. Friendly little lawnmower beers, crisp and fruity, a light spicy tang on the finish, just gotta have one more. Then you find yourself on the floor, the Devil looking down at you, and she’s leering menacingly as the pitchfork is coming down, hard. Welcome to the style, sucker!
[/quote]
