Brewing on a Weeknight

[z-bob]

Anybody brew during the week when you get home from work? What are your best tips for getting it done and still getting to bed at a reasonable time?

I tried night brewing last night for the first time. 3 gallon batch (overshot and ended up about 3.5 gallons but still hit my target OG ) boiled on the kitchen stove.

I figured out I should have found and washed all my equipment, measured all the ingredients, and milled the grain the night before. That would have saved at least an hour.

I usually mash for an hour, but I did an iodine test at 45 minute and it was done, so that saved 15 minutes. Next time I'll start testing at 30 minutes.

 

[PADave]

I can't imagine trying to brew after work, and have to go to work the next day. I don't even like cooking dinner when I get home.

 

[oceanic_brew]

I'm a carpenter and have quite a demanding job physically and sometimes mentally. As I guess many do and know many don't.

I do the mash (including mash-out) the first night followed by washing everything I can. The next night I do the boil.

I do no-chill which saves even more time and equipment. My no-chill container is a corny keg which stays on my back deck until it drops to pitching temp, after that I use co2 to force it out of a Pepsi tap into an SS vessel. Aerated nicely!

If I need to get it all in one evening I just make sure everything is weighed out the night before, it's immensely helpful to have the water measured out so that as soon as you get home you can get it heated while prepping anything else.

 

[z-bob]

I can't imagine trying to brew after work, and have to go to work the next day. I don't even like cooking dinner when I get home.

I generally agree with you. But I have packets of yeast expiring while I'm waiting for a brew day to open up, and getting depressed about it. So I'm looking for an alternative solution (besides making wine and cider; I've done a lot more of that this year) I think brewing 3 gallon batches on a weeknight might work as long as I do styles that don't need a super-long boil. Save the exotic recipes for the couple of times a year I have a free Saturday.

Also, I should have started before 9:00PM last night. *yawn*

 

[Transamguy77]

I have done it, not to often, usually I would do it on a Friday in case things went wrong then I didn't have to worry about work the next day.

When I did I prepped everything the night before and set up my rig and filled the mash tun with water, then when I would get home (around 6) I would start heating up the water and be mashing in 30ish mins, then continue with the sparge and boil and be done by 9-9:30 then depending on how attentive I could be I'd clean as I go or just clean up the next night.

So it would be a 2 to 3 day process but sometimes it was more manageable that way to get some brewing in.

 

[z-bob]

@oceanic_brew When you mash one night and boil the next, don't you have to worry about the wort souring in the meantime? Seems like lacto- bacteria could go crazy in 24 hours.

I wasn't attentive enough with my strike water last night and got it too hot (full boil) and I wasted some time getting it cool enough to mash. (added a little ice, poured it back and forth between large heavy kettles, rinsing the empty kettle with cold water between pours) Electric HLT seemed to be taking a long time to come up to temperature, then it shot up while I wasn't watching.

Starting at 9:00 with no prep work done ahead of time and several time-consuming mistakes, I was in bed a little after 02:00 with the beer pitched and a little bit of clean-up done.

 

[JohnSand]

When I have to do a short brew day, there are several options. Extract+grains, or partial mash are both quick. I start the extract boil while mashing or steeping in another vessel, or just steep up to 170. The separate wort can be a late addition. BIAB with a 30 minute mash and a 30 minute boil is also quick. I love all grain brewing, but I hate running out of beer.

 

[oceanic_brew]

@oceanic_brew When you mash one night and boil the next, don't you have to worry about the wort souring in the meantime? Seems like lacto- bacteria could go crazy in 24 hours.

I wasn't attentive enough with my strike water last night and got it too hot (full boil) and I wasted some time getting it cool enough to mash. (added a little ice, poured it back and forth between large heavy kettles, rinsing the empty kettle with cold water between pours) Electric HLT seemed to be taking a long time to come up to temperature, then it shot up while I wasn't watching.

Starting at 9:00 with no prep work done ahead of time and several time-consuming mistakes, I was in bed a little after 02:00 with the beer pitched and a little bit of clean-up done.

Not if you kill them all with a 180 degree wort.

 

[PADave]

I generally agree with you. But I have packets of yeast expiring while I'm waiting for a brew day to open up, and getting depressed about it. So I'm looking for an alternative solution (besides making wine and cider; I've done a lot more of that this year) I think brewing 3 gallon batches on a weeknight might work as long as I do styles that don't need a super-long boil. Save the exotic recipes for the couple of times a year I have a free Saturday.

Also, I should have started before 9:00PM last night. *yawn*

If they are liquid, why not just make up starters and harvest the yeast from them to save? If dry, just pitch extra.

 

[z-bob]

When I have to do a short brew day, there are several options. Extract+grains, or partial mash are both quick. I start the extract boil while mashing or steeping in another vessel, or just steep up to 170. The separate wort can be a late addition. BIAB with a 30 minute mash and a 30 minute boil is also quick. I love all grain brewing, but I hate running out of beer.

I did BIAB with a full-volume mash (no sparging) for 45 minutes, and a 30 minute boil. I was pleased that my 2 year old malt converted quickly and easily (although I wouldn't trust it with a lot of adjuncts, it would probably handle a little just fine) It probably was finished mashing at 30 minutes.

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

I do once a week.

Mashed in by 645
Sparge at 745
Boil starts usually around 830
Boil over at 930, chill until 10pm
Done and cleaned up by 11 usually, I clean while it's chilling. I brew every week so I have it down pretty much to a science.

 

[z-bob]

I just realized, when I was trying to cool that boiling water down to 160-something to mash in, I could have used my immersion chiller and got it there in seconds. :facepalm: It would have been safer too.

I'll do another one next week. It should go a lot smoother because I won't be so out of practice.

 

[jonny24]

I do weeknights for a lot of my brews. If my recipe is set then it something like home at 5:30, done and cleaned up by 12.

This week a lot of things didn't go according to plan, so I ended up killing the boil at 12. Luckily it's winter now, so I just left it out there to cool overnight and transferred and pitched in the morning.

 

[railwalker]

It takes forever for my sparge to drain, so my wort collection takes some time. I collect about half in the boil pot and the rest in a couple smaller pots, bring them up to 180 deg (like Oceanic mentioned) and leave the covers on for a propane boil the next day. It adds time overall to reheat, but the wort seems fine.

 

[oceanic_brew]

The only thing that sucks about doing the mash one night and boil the next is that if something comes up and you can't boil you will could get an infection.

I neglected a centennial blonde mash for about three days. I was very surprised that it ended up being drinkable. The wort had a pellicle starting. It smelled like vomit being boiled.

I brought to a show my band played in Moncton New Brunswick and all the bands devoured it.

I didn't get any "wow this is Homebrew" comments though gahaha

 

[Homercidal]

My steps for a faster brewday:

Prepare/measure water, grain, hops, directions, equipment the day before
Relax and enjoy the process
Proper pH and temperature can decrease the mash conversion time. If you are confident you are in the zone, then a 30 minute mash may be possible.
Boil less than 1 hour. If you are brewing a hoppy beer, use a lot of late hops and calculate bitterness using late hop/steep hops instead. Boil for 30 minutes instead of 60. (Decide for yourself if DMS is an issue if you try this)
Prepare for each step ahead of time.
Clean as you go. There is usually plenty of time during mash/boil to rinse or wash stuff, put stuff away, and prepare the next step.
Relax and enjoy the process
Take notes as you go. Things like volumes, gravities, times. So you can duplicate your recipe next time, or find and fix any issues that may arise.

I did a 2.5 gallon batch the other day using a short boil/no-chill process. Took me 2.5 hours including creating a recipe and calculating water additions. I could have shortened it a bit more if I were prepared ahead of time, and used my chiller (Which I didn't feel like digging out at the time and wanted to experiment again with no-chill.)

Word is still out on how the batch turns out (I forgot to taste when kegging), but I can safely say I have done a few 5 gallon batches in about 4-4.5 hours before. Being prepared ahead of time and cleaning as you go can really cut down the brew time.

 

[jekeane]

It is all about pre-planning to me. If you have everything ready to go it helps immensely.

2 nights before: weight salts, hops, kettle additions, and grains.
Night before: mill grain, fill kettles (i have a fixed brew space), Wash and sanitize fermentor.

I find that getting everything done in advance allows me to clean brewing equipment while mashing/boiling. It also allows me to help with dinner or the kids which in turn lets me brew more.

One other note is I only do straight forward mash and addition brews on weeknights. I avoid hop stands, extended boils etc...

 

[z-bob]

I think a 30 minute mash would have been fine the other night, even tho' my malt was 2 years old. (I have about 2 pounds of that sack left) The rest of my malt is less than a year old, but it's all imported pilsner malt. I haven't tried it yet. Is pilsner malt likely to be a problem with short boils? (a Brülosopher article I read recently suggests the DMS risk is overdone.) The maltser says it's well-modified, if that makes a difference.

I'm planning to brew various Belgian, German, and French ales with it. Don't know that I'm ready to tackle a continental lager yet; I don't have the temperature control for it.

 

[Homercidal]

Is pilsner malt likely to be a problem with short boils? (a Brülosopher article I read recently suggests the DMS risk is overdone.)

That's a good question. It's one of the reasons I wanted to do a short mash short boil. There is evidence that the DMS fear is overrated.

Then again, (nothing against Brulosophy) different people have different taste sensitivities. There may be a minority of people who readily notes DMS flaws. Perhaps the brewers of the past simply perfected their process to take these people into account? Maybe what's fine for "The Average Person" isn't really that good for the fewer "Exceptional Tasters" that are out there.

I don't think I would take shortcuts in most Lager brews because of the small margin of error. Plus, SMS and DMS sound like something that can be measured in the lab, even if it's perception is in doubt. Why not spend a bit more time and effort to eliminate the potential for a problem from DMS?

Or maybe you brew it quicker and see how it tastes to you? You may be perfectly fine drinking a short boil lager.

 

[dye4me]

Me and a buddy are running a 1bbl batch of biremunchers blonde today after work. We started filling the HWT 2 days ago, cleaned set up and ground the grains last night, been running the wood stove non stop for 2 days to keep everything room temp. Ill probably leave work today at 1 and my buddy will probably be there by 2:30. now the most important part of weekday brewing and definitely my least favourite……. No beer until the last hop addition. Wanna knock an hour and a half off your brew day? Don't drink a drop until until the end of the boil, it reduced our brew day to 5.5 hours from 7.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Lay it all out before you start, clean as you go, and be thinking about the next step in the process.

In any case, prepare for a long day the next day, because you will still get to bed late, but it will be rewarding in its own way; puttering around the house after everyone else is in bed is what men do, and we do it well.

 

[Invertalon]

I have done it once, it wasn't bad at all. Set all my equipment out the night before and such... Started ~4:30pm and wrapped up and cleaned by 9:30-10pm.

 

[JohnSand]

Everybody has a different process. Just now looking through my log I see that a 5 gallon BIAB, 60 minute mash, 60 minute boil takes me about four hours start to finish. I'm sure that I could do 2.5gal 30/30 in three hours.

 

[hagar]

No beer until the last hop addition. Wanna knock an hour and a half off your brew day? Don't drink a drop until until the end of the boil, it reduced our brew day to 5.5 hours from 7.

Amen, brother.

Just like in the big kitchens, where 75% of the work required for a successful night is done before the first customer comes through the door, and not a beer is swilled before the last one leaves, both prepwork and sobriety are essential to an smooth, quick, and trouble free brew session.
Once that's done, however...

All that having been said, I really prefer to kick back, relax, and enjoy the whole thing when I'm brewing. For that reason I've never done it on a week night. I've prepared for an upcoming weekend brewday, or bottled up a batch, or transfered to secondaries, but never brewed. I'm lucky enough to be able to save brewing for when I can enjoy it.

 

[friarsmith]

I'm fortunate to be able to work from home, so I often "multi-task" a brew day with my paying gig on days when no conference calls are on my calendar. I set up a folding table in my garage for my laptop computer and crunch numbers just like I would in my home office. During a 6hr brew day, I can usually focus on work at least 4 hours, so I put in some make-up time that evening. I brewed 3 weekday beers last week since I'm not planning to brew in January... and got a ton accomplished at the same time for my employer.

 

[mattdee1]

Maybe not so much in the winter when it’s freakin’ freezing outside at night, but in the warmer months, weekday after-work brewing is pretty much my standard practice now. I’d never be able to keep a pipeline flowing if I were restricted to available 5-hour slots on weekends.

If I really hustle, I can usually get the strike water heating up by 6:30-6:45, and I’m in bed a little after 11, with yeast pitched and full clean up done. The first few times I tried a weeknight brew, I was up until around 12:30, which is around that threshold where the next day starts to really suck.

The fast-tracked timing is achieved by doing small things to chip away at the duration a few minutes at a time:

- Having all ingredients on hand and ready to go: grains (usually milled at LHBS for convenience), hops, yeast/starter, jugs of RO water
- All water calculations done and brew day notebook tab started beforehand (luckily I can do this while on lunch at work and it syncs to my home devices)
- Jet-engine heating power of Blichmann propane burner to hit strike temperature quickly
- Shorten mash from customary 60-90min to 40-45min
- Batch sparge as follows: gather first runnings into spare bucket, fill tun with calculated volume of sparge water from kettle, kettle is now free so start heating the first runnings, drain second runnings directly into kettle, full batch usually reaches boil temperature within minutes of 2nd runnings finishing
- Shorten boil from customary 60-90min to 45min
- Clean up as much as possible during boil, leaving out only stuff that is still needed
- After boil, use immersion chiller to get wort down to 85F or so, then move the bucket(s) to fermentation freezer to chill rest of the way
- Finish clean up
- By the time cleanup is done, wort is usually cool enough to pitch yeast
- Shut the garage door, go to bed

This makes for a pretty busy brew session; there can’t be more than 10 minutes where I’m not working on something. There is still time for 2-4 beers over the course of the brew session, and I don’t see how it impacts my timing at all. Then again, all of my beers are 12oz bottles in the 4-5.5% ABV range so that probably helps keep things on the rails.

 

[idkwhatimbrewing]

I have a grainfather which is the only reason I can do this but I prepare the water in the morning before work, set the temperature controller to the proper temperature and plug it in to a belkin wemo switch which I can remotely turn on from my phone. I turn it on an hour or so before I plan on going home so I can mash in the second I walk in the door. I haven't done this yet but I have also considered stopping by home a few hours before I get off work and mash in and go back to work so my mash is done when I get home for the day.

 

[Braufessor]

I have done this quite a few times over the past couple years. Actually, found that I really like it a lot. The absolute #1 key in my opinion is to be completely ready to roll the night before...... set up, water in the kettle, water additions done, grain crushed, yeast starter made, brew area clean and organized, etc.

I walk in the door from work and the first thing I do is turn on the flame for the kettle. Then I go change, take the dogs out, etc. By the time I have that stuff done, I am about ready to mash in. During the mash and boil, I get anything else I need ready to go - fermenter, hops, etc. I clean things and put them away as I go. Eat something simple along the way like pizza.

Also helps to pick a simple beer for these brews.... I am brewing a blonde ale tonight after work as a matter of fact. 60 minute boil, no hop stand, the second I turn off the flame I am chilling it as fast as I can. (Lagers with longer boils or IPA's with long hop stands after flame out add unnecessary time to week night brewing.

If I am organized and prepared, I can start brewing at 4 and be done at 8..... I often pick a night like Monday night or Thursday night where I would be watching a football game or something anyway.

*I do have the added convenience of not having kids at home and I also have a brewing space in my basement - which makes set up/clean up exponentially easier and faster.

 

[JimEb]

I've done it once and never again. I have a semi-automated brew stand, but even then it takes time. Started around 5pm, finished around 9. Didn't have time to do as complete cleanup as I usually do. Ended up finishing the clean up the next day. It's doable, just not enjoyable.

 

[Homercidal]

Plan to brew a lager tonight. I have grain measured. I have hops measured. Will pick up water on the way home. Likely start at 4:00. Hope to be done by 9. I haven't even calculated water volumes manually yet. Probably a stupid idea to do it tonight, but rest of week looks pretty busy.

 

[popsicleian]

I do it occasionally--the keys for me are to prepare the water beforehand, have all ingredients on hand, limit batch size to 3 gallons (makes a huge difference in time to strike temp and time to boil), and do no-chill.

 

[JohnSand]

If you brew when you can, you can drink when you want.

 

[Homercidal]

Brewed 6 gallons or so of Munich Helles last night. Got home about 4:00, finished calculating water, then milled grains and got started. Had to make/eat dinner in there somewhere and family outvoted me to watch a second episode of Brooklyn 99, so it went longer than I hoped, what with the 90 minute mash and 90 minute boil.

Got to bed about 11:00 after pitching yeast and washing everything up. Still not a bad brewday considering that I often go to bed about that time anyway.

I think a Bo Pils is on my agenda for next time. I will have to find some suitable hops for that one, but then I'm all set. I'd like to ferment both batches together.

 

[murphyslaw]

This always seemed crazy to me, but seeing what you guys have said here was encouraging. I tried this for the first time Wednesday night.

I usually don't get home until 7 or so. But I've got 3.5 year old twins at home and my wife has to work late maybe 4-6 times a month. I leave early those days to get the kids and usually get home around 5. I figured I'd give it a try on one of those days.

My criteria for success included not only getting to bed at a reasonable hour but also not completely neglecting the children. Also, I did not want to neglect other routine nightly chores, like picking up mess or doing the dishes. I also kept my plan a secret to see if I could do it without SWMBO even knowing. Not nefariously, just because that would mean it was really unobtrusive.

I weighed, measured, and organized the night before. I did not crush my grain, because there was a decent chance I would have to abort for one reason or another. Next time, I would crush in advance, too.

5:08 - Fired up HLT; Sent kids outside to play; Milled grain; set up chiller; played with kids.
5:38 - Mash in and messed around with ice to hit the right temp; Fed and bathed children.
7ish - Let kids watch a TV show; Start sparging; wash dishes and tidy up house while MLT drains;
--super slow sparge. I use a corona mill and though I usually condition my malt, I didn't this time. Cereal Killer arrives today!
8 - heat BK
815pm - throw in 60 min addition; read to kids; put kids to bed; transfer previous beer from fermenter to keg; tidied up more.
915 pm - start cooling.
9:30 - Pitch; start clean up; wife comes home around this time.
10:08 - head to bed earlier than usual.

Even though my wife was home before I was done cleaning, she just thought I was putzing around with various beer related things, as I tend to do after the kids go to bed. In the morning I told her I brewed a beer and she was very surprised.

Getting everything sorted out the night before makes all the difference. It left me without any real tasks to accomplish during the mash or boil, which left me plenty of time to give attention to the kids. Had I crushed my grains in advance, it would have been even better. The only negative was that I plopped the kids in front of the TV a bit longer than I would have liked. But again, a quicker sparge would have fixed that. If they misbehaved things could have gone haywire, but I staved that off by setting up an ice cream reward for good behavior right away. It also occurred to me that if I ran out of propane I would have been SOL. I wasn't going to take the kids on a 7pm propane run.

It really couldn't have worked out better. I might start doing this regularly to free up my weekends. That's particularly important now that golf season is coming around.

 

[WestMichBrewer]

I agree that getting as much prepared the night before is key. It doesn't seem like there is that much to do, but if you can get home and kick off heating your strike water first thing, that's going to save you a lot of time right there.
I usually just let my wort finish cooling and stabilizing at pitch temp overnight then pitch in the morning too.
Maybe you can cheat on some of the cleanup and get that done the next day.

 

[str1p3s]

I brewed for the very first time on a weeknight (coming up on two years ago). It was a miserable stupid mistake. In bed at 2am, wide awake thinking about everything that went wrong.

 

[GJOCONNELL]

Tried this once it was a bad idea....I was cooling wort down @ midnight my wife was NOT AMUSED.....

 

[OdeCloner]

Yes! 30min mashes and 30 min boils can really help cut the time down as well. Adjust your recipe accordingly. I've been doing these for a few months now with fantastic results. I combine this with BIAB and I can go end-to-end in just over 2hrs.

 

[elbinwyp]

Yes! 30min mashes and 30 min boils can really help cut the time down as well. Adjust your recipe accordingly. I've been doing these for a few months now with fantastic results. I combine this with BIAB and I can go end-to-end in just over 2hrs.

Ditto. I did a 10 gallon batch in 2.5 hours. Got the main things cleaned and the rest soaking.

 

[xCSx]

i can't do it, my process takes ~ 5 hrs... need to stop mashing on my weak stove!