Least distruptive brewing

[-Bezza-]

Like a few others around here I have a couple of young kids at home and finding it a little tricky to brew as much as I would like given the time commitment it takes - 5 hours out of the day can be quite a lot. I was wondering what tips there might be to minimise the disruption?

Personally, taking 15 mins out here and there but being around for the most part is fine. I can also schedule 1.5-2 hours out of the day with relative ease for boiling and cooling.

Bits I do:

• Clean the FV and other equipment in advance. Starsan on the day, which is already pre-mixed.
• Measure out grains and hops in advance. Hops into separate tupperware with lids.
  
• Prepare and treat the water in advance. Set the Grainfather for a delayed start to get water to strike temperature ready for doughing in.
• Start before the family are up
• Do the clean up much later in the day (when the kids have gone to bed) rather than immediately after brewing.

Bits I'm wondering about:

• Overnight mashing. I understand that this can result in a drier beer but given the Grainfather can have programmable steps, wondering if there's a particular temp point that the mash can be held at, or even overall schedule that will keep better balance?
• Cold steeping before mash. Or in other words, can you dough in cold and then used the GF timer functions to do a more normal mash. e.g. set the first mash step to 15C for 6 hours, then go into the normal mash schedule. Would that have a massive impact on the beer?

Any other tricks I'm missing?

 

[kelper]

Train the kids to clean and tidy for you. A three-year old can handle a Dyson so can do some of your chores. Find a child minder who works for beer. (I'm not a parent!)

 

[Brewed_Force]

You could try cooling the wort overnight in a cube, that way you could do your boil later in the evening, after the kids are in bed.

 

[-Bezza-]

You could try cooling the wort overnight in a cube, that way you could do your boil later in the evening, after the kids are in bed.

Yep, that's a good one!

 

[SteveH]

I'm in the same situation and mostly brew in the evening once kids are in bed - can make for a bit of a late night though.

If possible I try to get the mash on while the kids are having dinner, then start the sparge/boil after they are in bed which allows for a somewhat more reasonable finish time.

 

[MickDundee]

I'm in the same situation and mostly brew in the evening once kids are in bed - can make for a bit of a late night though.

If possible I try to get the mash on while the kids are having dinner, then start the sparge/boil after they are in bed which allows for a somewhat more reasonable finish time.

This is what I do.

I’m lucky that my tap water comes out at 62C if I run it for a bit (combo boiler so no issues using the hot tap) so I can get the mash on within 10mins of filling the boiler. I can usually get finished around 9:30-10 and still spend some time with the wife.

 

[-Bezza-]

I might try a late-night brew next time around (morning brew planned for Saturday as the missus is taking the kids to a birthday party so not an issue). Can then ask what is preferred and go from there.

Sadly I have tanked hot water but that's not so much of an issue as getting the water into the GF and delayed heating programmed in takes no time at all. And yeah, dough in before bathtime with perhaps a 2-hour mash isn't a bad idea at all.

 

[An Ankoù]

I don't know how it works with Grainfather, but i often do an overnight mash. Don't worry if the mash is a lot cooler than you would expect in the morning, and give it a good stir and let the bed resettle while you're warming up you sparge water in case the bed has settled too tightly.
I don't keep maintain the mash temperature overnight so it will eventually drop below the lower limit for diastatic activity and I've never noticed that the beer is any drier. That's to say the FG comes out within a point of what I would expect from a 90 minute mash. Give it a try.

 

[Leon103]

In the same situation and most of things I do are covered. I use BIAB and have Bluetooth inkbird so I don't need to keep much of an eye on mash and cooling etc which helps as I am spending less time away from the kids.
Cleaning afterwards is done once they are in bed.

 

[-Bezza-]

I don't know how it works with Grainfather, but i often do an overnight mash. Don't worry if the mash is a lot cooler than you would expect in the morning, and give it a good stir and let the bed resettle while you're warming up you sparge water in case the bed has settled too tightly.
I don't keep maintain the mash temperature overnight so it will eventually drop below the lower limit for diastatic activity and I've never noticed that the beer is any drier. That's to say the FG comes out within a point of what I would expect from a 90 minute mash. Give it a try.

The GF is PID controlled with programmable steps (temp and time). I think you can do 10 separate steps. So you can keep things going at mash temp all night, or program in various steps. I need to do some more reading on mash chemistry as I'm sure there is something sensible you could do here. Even if the overnight mash does come out a bit drier, that might be compensated by lactose or something, or even oats.

 

[strange-steve]

Overnight mashing is a great time saver, I've done it a few times now in the GF. You'll probably find the OG slightly higher due to better mash efficiency, and slightly lower FG. You could offset the FG by mashing a degree higher, but the difference probably wouldn't be really noticable.

 

[HarryFlatters]

Overnight mashing is a great time saver

I've got a plastic Peco mash tun/boiler and I do full volume BIAB - If I did an overnight mash, the wort would be stone cold by the time I got to it the next day - would this cause any problems?

 

[Duxuk]

I overnight mash. 20 minutes or so to get the mash on and you save up to 90 minutes on brewday. I do a mini sparge of my modified BIAB but it doesn't really add to the time. Cooling does take some time but I think it's necessary for IPA styles.

 

[Justin Dean]

Of course you can programme the gf to heat water at any time so delay it suit yourself and it will be ready at that time. then go in set mash, leave it. Set up auto sarge and you can leave it or just go full boil and not sparge.

 

[strange-steve]

I've got a plastic Peco mash tun/boiler and I do full volume BIAB - If I did an overnight mash, the wort would be stone cold by the time I got to it the next day - would this cause any problems?

I'm not sure what impact it would have in practice but there's certainly the potential for serious issues. The biggest problem is that when the temperature drops below 50° then you're starting to get into ideal bacteria temperature ranges.

A little lactic acid you might get away with depending on the beer style, but isovaleric or butyric acid you really don't want

Edit: you might find that if you wrap it up well in some insulation and/or a duvet it won't lose as much heat as you think.

 

[-Bezza-]

Of course you can programme the gf to heat water at any time so delay it suit yourself and it will be ready at that time. then go in set mash, leave it. Set up auto sarge and you can leave it or just go full boil and not sparge.

The question I had on this is can you dough in cold and then heat to mash temp ready for the morning, with the grain in the grain basket?

Edit: Although if it doesn't have a pronounced effect on the beer and results in greater efficiency, I'm tempted to just do an overnight mash.

 

[MyQul]

- As others have said, over night mashing. But you can also do a shorter mash 30 or 40 mins. I've done lots of these in conjunction with:

- 30 min boil. I've done loads of these and cant tell the difference between a 30min and a 60 min boil. I usually do a 60 min boil as I often think commercial breweries do 60min boils and I'm sure they'd go to 30 min to save millions on power costs but I just cant tell the difference so usually do 30 min on 5L brews and 60 min on my 10L brews

- Partial mashing brew. It takes longer to heat up/cool down a full length brew so if you say do a 10L brew then make it up to 23L using some DME or LME in the FV you can save some time there

 

[HarryFlatters]

you might find that if you wrap it up well in some insulation and/or a duvet it won't lose as much heat as you think.

I've fashioned the world's most rudimentary kettle jacket from the foil insulation that you put behind radiators and I'm sure that I could find towels and a blanket. Given that I'm in Scotland, temperatures are getting down to single figures overnight so I'm not confident that I'll manage to keep the wort at a sensible temp.

Could I set up my Inkbird to keep the kettle at over 50°c overnight or would this do weird things to my wort?

 

[strange-steve]

Could I set up my Inkbird to keep the kettle at over 50°c overnight or would this do weird things to my wort?

Yeah you could set it for mash temperature, that's what I do in the grainfather.

 

[RichK]

I just try & fit it in around other daytime activities. Eg put mash on then go out shopping. Boil when we get back or after lunch. I'll leave it to cool naturally if we go out for the afternoon (or even evening) then into fermenter later on (sometimes very late at night). Leave tidying up to be done later (or next day) if necessary - though I'm now in the garage so that's easier. I'll also try & do any preparation the night before, so I have everything set up ready to go.

If time really was a problem. I'd possibly just stick to doing a kit. Did that recently when running low & I knew time would be a serious problem.