I think I'm pretty close to @barry.hastings ... brew day for me is pretty much all day
My batches are 17.5-18 gallons to the fermentor. I keg and brew on same day. Kegging and cleaning the fermentor gets done during down time during the brewing process. I don't believe the kegging and cleaning add time to the critical path but keeps me from seeing any real relaxation / down time during mash and boil.
I heat with low pressure household natural gas and cool with groundwater.
Typical process looks like
1 hr to collect, treat and heat mash water, weigh and grind grains and dough in
2 hr mash (beta rest, temp ramp to alpha rest, alpha rest, temp ramp to mash out, mash out)
1 hr sparge/lauter
0.5 hr to reach rolling boil
1 hr boil
0.5 hr whirlpool
1 hr to chill (counterflow chiller into fermentor)
1 hr to clean kettle and put away majority of gear
adds up to 8 hours which seems about right...if I start at 10am I'm done by 6pm
At this point I'll probably take a break for dinner while wort chills to pitching temperature, then dump the cold break, pitch my yeast and oxygenate.
I've done some LODO lagers lately that started with 2 hour Yeast Oxygen Scavenging step but these didn't mash or lauter as long or have the whirlpool step so overall took about same amount of time.
My batches are 17.5-18 gallons to the fermentor. I keg and brew on same day. Kegging and cleaning the fermentor gets done during down time during the brewing process. I don't believe the kegging and cleaning add time to the critical path but keeps me from seeing any real relaxation / down time during mash and boil.
I heat with low pressure household natural gas and cool with groundwater.
Typical process looks like
1 hr to collect, treat and heat mash water, weigh and grind grains and dough in
2 hr mash (beta rest, temp ramp to alpha rest, alpha rest, temp ramp to mash out, mash out)
1 hr sparge/lauter
0.5 hr to reach rolling boil
1 hr boil
0.5 hr whirlpool
1 hr to chill (counterflow chiller into fermentor)
1 hr to clean kettle and put away majority of gear
adds up to 8 hours which seems about right...if I start at 10am I'm done by 6pm
At this point I'll probably take a break for dinner while wort chills to pitching temperature, then dump the cold break, pitch my yeast and oxygenate.
I've done some LODO lagers lately that started with 2 hour Yeast Oxygen Scavenging step but these didn't mash or lauter as long or have the whirlpool step so overall took about same amount of time.