where do you find time for brewing

tommiet

Just want to ask this question, where do you guys find time for brewing.?
I hear one guy brews every 4 weeks, I barely brew twice a year,
I've a family of 3, the youngest is 2, the older two do sports and stuff on the weekend, I'm up at 6 and home at 6, but with homework and house hold stuff, come a weekday evening its tele for a bit with the better half....
I'm not complaining, just want to ask you guys how do ye fit brewing into your week, we,re all different, brewing different ways and different types of brews.
So lets hear your different ways.. cheers

KAGY

Brewing (from kit) not a problem. Half an hour and job done. Complicated slightly by the fact that I use well water from my father in law's, but once I remember to get that on the way by, no problem.


Cleaning and bottling, now that's another story. That can take half a day

Padraig Mor

My (kit) brew 'days' take 2.5 - 3 hours between setting up, bottling, firing on a new brew, cleaning etc. Like the OP I've small kids so the only chance I get is late in the day. I usually start about 9pm-ish and finish 12-ish.

loyatemu

usually on a weekend evening when the kitchen is free - most recent brew was all grain so took about 4 hours, but an hour of that was the mash where I could go off and do other things, and another hour was the boil where I had to keep an eye on it but was mostly doing nothing.

Busy times are setting everything up at the start, and at the end where you have to sanitise stuff, chill and transfer the wort and then clean everything up.

Bottling takes a couple of hours, most of which is spent sanitising, cleaning up at the end and standing around wondering what your supposed to be doing next

poitinstill

im in the same boat 3 smallies 9months being the youngest. Ive been sticking to kit brews for the last while. I usually prepare by filling my fermemter the night before with bleach/vinegaer solution. fire all spoons themometer etc in. then its a case of kettles on, empty fermenter throw all the fermentables in and mix. For bottling i clean each bottle after use and recap have had no problems touch wood. ( I use either corny kegs when they are empty or cooper pet bottles ). currently have 2 bruphoria kits on the go.

mordeith

poitinstill wrote: »

im in the same boat 3 smallies 9months being the youngest. Ive been sticking to kit brews for the last while. I usually prepare by filling my fermemter the night before with bleach/vinegaer solution. fire all spoons themometer etc in. then its a case of kettles on, empty fermenter throw all the fermentables in and mix. For bottling i clean each bottle after use and recap have had no problems touch wood. ( I use either corny kegs when they are empty or cooper pet bottles ). currently have 2 bruphoria kits on the go.

Like above, I have two kids and don't get home from work till 6.30. I just use kits for beers though so it's a relatively quick time to sterilise fermentation vessel, boil up some water, get temp right, add yeast and boom.
When it's ready I have a Kinf Keg so again it's pretty quick to wash, sterilise and syphon in the brew.

blueshed

im doing BIAB atm, get everything organised on a friday evening like filling buffalo with water and milling grain.

Saturday morning i switch on the STC, takes 1 hour to hit strike temp.

in this time i cook brekkie for family,

my brew day takes a few hours, 60 minutes hitting strike temp, 90 minutes mashing, 30 minutes to reach boil temp, 90 minutes boil, 30 minutes cooling down then 30 minutes to clean up.

Hingo

I've started mashing/sparging on Friday evening, Boil etc Saturday morning, all wrapped up before 12pm. Does the job nicely, not too invasive on kitchen time..
The wort is ok for the few hours between sparging & boilg the following morning. Just keep a lid on it.

Bogwoppit

Hingo wrote: »

I've started mashing/sparging on Friday evening, Boil etc Saturday morning, all wrapped up before 12pm. Does the job nicely, not too invasive on kitchen time..
The wort is ok for the few hours between sparging & boilg the following morning. Just keep a lid on it.

I do the same myself if I'm brewing mid week.

loyatemu

Hingo wrote: »

I've started mashing/sparging on Friday evening, Boil etc Saturday morning, all wrapped up before 12pm. Does the job nicely, not too invasive on kitchen time..
The wort is ok for the few hours between sparging & boilg the following morning. Just keep a lid on it.

I looked into that before on other forums and a lot of people expressed concerns about souring of the wort overnight (the boil will kill any organism in the wort but they may have time to affect the flavour in the meantime) - I guess doing a mash out would minimise this risk.

the other issue is that having expended time and energy to get the wort to 70C+ I'd just find it too annoying to let it cool down then have to heat it up again...

Hingo

loyatemu wrote: »

I looked into that before on other forums and a lot of people expressed concerns about souring of the wort overnight (the boil will kill any organism in the wort but they may have time to affect the flavour in the meantime) - I guess doing a mash out would minimise this risk.

Once you sparge of the grains, it should be ok for a while..(up to 12 hrs I've went anyway) I haven't noticed anything sour with my beer, nor have any of the guys at NHC meetups..

loyatemu wrote: »

the other issue is that having expended time and energy to get the wort to 70C+ I'd just find it too annoying to let it cool down then have to heat it up again...

Yeah, that's a downside alright, If you have any way to insulate your kettle (wrap it with a towel even) to minimize this, not so bad.

If you have the time, all in one day is the ideal approach, but if you don't then this is what I've found to help.

mickotoole

I have 2 small kids but generally I give my wife a few weeks notice that I want to brew and she takes herself and the kids out for a few hours. I usually start at 06.30 or 07.00 so I'm finished early enough to spend some time with the family afterwards.

Black_Knight

It's all about planning. 2 weeks ago I had all my grains ready to go. Started around midday and took about 3 hours to measure out, steep, boil, cool, transfer to fermenter and clean up. As mentioned, alot of this time is just spend waiting, so I usually watch a match while that's going on:

• Steaping
• Boiling

2 weeks ago I knew i'd need to bottle this weekend so I actually planned a bottling and brewing this weekend (Long weekend helped). I rinse every bottle I own straight after pouring, so every bottle is already clean. If they've been idle a while I give them a rinse out the night before and let them drain overnight (Did this Friday night). 25 bottles of stout carbonating now for the next 2+ weeks.

Sunday was a hungover day, so I pushed off brewing until Monday. Fermenter was freshly washed and sealed on Saturday so that saved on sanitation (I really hope so anyways). Same process again, of 3 hours brewing, though no match to watch this time.

• Handy, babysitting phase
• Boil up the kettle to sanitise
• Measure out grains while kettle is boiling
• Steap grains for 30-45 minutes - just need to keep an eye on the temperature here
• Bring to a rolling boil and add ingredients - monitor every now and again so its still a rolling boil
• Throw in hops at specified times
• Busy phase
• Cool it quickly
• Transfer to fermenter
• Add yeast and seal it up
• Clean clean clean

12 liters of red ale bubbled away last night, and in weekends time i'll bottle it. Potentially i'll start a Christmas brew version of the red ale in 2 weeks, but that'll depend on how many bottles i've left.

Its time consuming, but its not an intense 3 hours.

Donadea Leo

I m there with you op, small kids and brewing aren't a great combination. Mine love to help which isn't very helpful so i find myself trying to make up jobs for them to do to keep them away from what actually needs to be done. I ve managed about three brew days this year and am thinking i might take a day off work to do another.
Like most people i enjoy the brewing process but bottling is a right pain as it always takes longer than i want. I have bought some cornies and when i ve a bit of space for a fridge plan on going down that route.
i had been thinking it ll get easier when the kids get a bit bigger but i forgot about the sport and activities they ll be doing.

never mind the dangers of infection, kids pose an even greater risk to your beer, i.e. The lack of time to brew.

Khannie

Family of four. Haven't brewed in ages and I miss it. Between the brew and the bottling it's just too much at the moment.

tommiet

I managed to get a brew done on Saturday....

It all started Friday evening, got the household stuff done, I started sanitising and cleaning and getting water ready for brewing, got up Saturday morning at 6 and got to it... managed to get my times right for dropping kids to stuff, so it all worked out... its possible... early start but worth it...

dashcamdanny

I like to all grain brew twice a month. 2 fermenter fridges rarely have any downtime.

I manage to do it while minding the baby on my days off.

It can be done. Its vital to have your grains, hops and water ready to go the night before as I can feed and play with the baby during the mash.

All work done under a gazebo on the patio so the toddler can be stopped for getting near the hot equipment. .

I try and time the sparge for around 2pm as its nap time for babs... Give me a chance to concentrate of volumes.
DVD or Netflicks with Peppa Pig on demand is as important as measuring out your hops..

I find alcohol(in moderation) great for dealing with stressful kids. And brew and bottle day is the only time the kitchen gets a proper clean

BeardySi

dashcamdanny wrote: »

... And brew and bottle day is the only time the kitchen gets a proper clean

Glad I'm not the only one!