I’m one of those extract guys who looks over at the “big kids” doing all grain and want to play. ;D
I was curious what the average brew day length is for you guys, from beginning prep to process to final cleanup.
I’m looking at doing something simple like a mash in a bag on the stove top. I’ve seen that some people have a fancy set up and can do it really fast, and others just take their time, but what would be an average (if there is one) length of time. My schedule is limited but maybe not too much.
I first want to say that when I looked at all grain brewing from an extract brewers perspective, I too thought it impossible. But since I did my first all grain, I haven’t looked back. It really isn’t that much more difficult but does add probably about 3 hours. The thing an all grain brewer is doing that an extract brewer isn’t is pulling out the sweet wort from the grains rather than using extract. I like just buying a mash/lauter tun. You can mash easily right now by just putting in 10 lbs. of grain and hot water into a cooler to get a mash temp b/w 150-155F. Let it sit for 1 hour. Then you need a lauter tun with holes on the bottom for the grains to settle out. You’ll pour hot water (168-170F) over the grains, slowly for an hour. Wha-la! You’ve got your wort! I lauter out about 6.5 gallons and boil in a 7 gallon pot so I don’t have to add water at the end. Once you get this process done, you’ll find tons of new toys to add to make your beer better and better. But I promise you, once you do all grain, your first beer will be so much better than all your extract versions (although not to insult anyone; I personally have never made a better extract beer).
Overall you’ll be adding about 2 1/2 - 3 hours to your brew day (1 hour mash, 1 hour sparge/lauter and 1/2 - 1 hour of getting liquids to temps).
2 of the many suppliers where you can buy cooler mash/lauter tuns for under $150.
You can cut that down to 15 min. by batch sparging.
It takes me about 4 1/2 hours for my average single infusion batch from the time I run water to the time I finish cleanup. Depending iin the beer, sometimes I’ll extend the mash or boil for an extra 1/2 hour beyond that. I have a situation where I have most of my stuff set up all the time, so I don’t have to deal with getting it out and setting it up. You can see my equipment and method at www.dennybrew.com .
The first time I did an all grain brew, it took me over 8 hours. I have since refined my methods, and can do it in 5-6 hours. Time well spent, if you ask me.
For me, the quickest would be just over four hours and the lengthiest about six, depending on the mash schedule and the boil time. I get some prep work done the day before, setting up the equipment and milling the malt. Having more than one burner helps speed thing up, I think.
I’ve got it down to about 4 hours on brew day, but I do most of the prep work the day before. I’ll mill the grains, prepare my water, and get all my equipment out the night before brewing. Then I set up an electric bucket heater in my HLT and put it on a timer so the water is at, or close to, strike temp when I wake up in the morning. I’m guessing that if I skipped the day before prep, my brew day would be closer to 5 hours.
Is batch sparging simply pulling out all the wort at once, adding all your sparge water, mixing and pulling out the wort again? Or do you add sparge water in steps? Do you guys find that this is just as effective as fly sparging?
Your first description is correct. It’s at least as effective as fly sparging and in some cases even moreso. I average about 85% efficiency with batch sparging. See www.dennybrew.com for details.
I would whole-heartedly recommend anyone new to mashing to first try batch sparging before deciding whether to try fly sparging. It is far faster and easier, and it typically requires less equipment. The margin of error is also far bigger with batch sparging, so little beginner errors are not so damning on the final product.
I always do some prep, so if you were to add up all the time it would probably be around 6 hours. That takes into account my recipe formulation, buying my ingredients, making a starter, and generally getting the equipment out and ready. On brew day from moment I touch the first pot for cleaning to the moment I’ve cleaned everything is on average 4 hours (almost to the minute). I’ve refined my process pretty well so that while I’m cleaning I have the strike water heating, while I’m mashing I’m cleaning for the next step, etc.
5 - 6 hours for me from when I first start getting equipment out to when I’ve finished cleaning and putting things away. I do 5gal batches and batch sparge.
A lot of that time is spent waiting - waiting for water to heat, waiting for the mash to mash, etc. I’ve found now that I’m very familiar with the process that I can do other things during brewing. Just set a timer/get a digital thermometer with an alarm so you don’t forget about it. (This does not apply to the boil, I wouldn’t leave that alone). So the extra time is not such a big deal.
+1. Sunday morning, I go get bagels and coffee to go, grab the ice on the way home, start sometime between 10 and 11, and I’m done cleaning up by 5ish.
I don’t want to take over this strand with Batch sparging questions but Denny and Skylar, why do I fly sparge? Denny, I read your webpage and it seems too good to be true. I can’t wait to experiment with a batch sparge beer. So what benefits does fly sparging have and what about beers in the 1.060-1.100 range? Can you batch sparge there?
Other than a small efficiency gain (always less than 5%) there’s no benefit to fly sparging. You can batch sparge any mash. The higher the gravity, the thicker the infusion needs to be, assuming you’re trying to get equal runnings.