Planning for a great brew day

[flars]

Continuing the discussion from Mistake with Sierra Mandre Pale ale:

@hd4mark

We are getting a little off topic but… I also start my brew day early so no sampling until everything is about done. I brew during the week so not too many people are around to distract me. We both were lucky enough to take early retirement.

Do have to plan ahead some depending on making a starter or not. On brew day I line up all the hop additions and anything else on a table. I put the hops in Solo cups with the addition times marked on them. A small digital timer sits next to them.

You can multi-task some stuff. While the HLT and MT are heating is a good time to crush the grains. While the kettle is getting up to a boil is a good time to sanitize fermenters and stuff. Do need to keep an eye on it of course.

For the newer brewer. Stay calm and have the instruction (if it is a kit) on hand. You can even stick Post Its to things to remind you what steps are next. It is easy to forget things so any little reminder is helpful. If everything is sanitary there aren’t many mistakes you can make that will ruin the beer to the point it’s not drinkable in the end. It may not come out to be what you intended but will be beer, good beer.

When I saw the “about off topic post” @hd4mark it gave me an idea about the creation of a new topic on how you schedule your brew day to be completely free of surprises and frustrations. I started putting some photos and documents together, but life is life. I ran into a delay. So this is as far as the new topic is going until after supper.

I wouldn’t mind if fellow brewers posted how you plan for the ultimate brew day before I get my stuff together.

[radagast]

If I’m using a liquid yeast, I typically start that Thursday or Friday night depending on if I’m brewing Saturday, or more typically Sunday afternoon. I brew in my garage so around 1:00 I typically get started getting the gear out and setting things up. I lay out all my ingredients on a table in my garage along with my scale and some tupperware bowls for measuring out hops, yeast nutrient, whirlfloc, thermopen, hydrometer and jar. All the hoses and the thief go straight into the bucket of sanitizer until they’re needed. Fill the kettle with the strike water and get it started getting up to temp. I crush my grains while the strike water gets to temp. My son LOVES to run the drill.

Mash in and typically play with kids or help get them down for naps. I developed a strict no beers until after hot break and clean up of mash tun and equipment is complete. I use ibrewmaster2 on my phone for recipes and timers and I have a bluetooth speaker out in the garage for tunes and timer notifications. Traditionally some variety of rock is essential for a good brewday at the BUG-O Brewery.

I have had friends over for brewday and there have been times that I’ve had a few more beers than I should and forgotten an addition or an ingredient entirely so I really try to limit myself to 1-2 tops until cleanup is completely done and the filled carboy is in place under the stairs. Besides, it is honestly really dumb to try to lift 5 gallons of boiling liquid to the top of a ladder while less than sober. I use a CFC so I use my Little Giant ladder as a gravity tower.

My main tips would be as follows:

1. Lay out everything you need ahead of time, ingredients, all equipment, sanitizer
2. Practice makes perfect, it took me a few batches to figure out my routine, now it’s second nature. Practice practice practice, you will enjoy the results.
3. Don’t drink (too much) while brewing, save it for after everything cleaned up and put away.
4. Tunes make brewday that much more enjoyable
5. Friends over can be a lot of fun but also a distraction, don’t try anything new if you are planning to have friends over for brewday, stick to something tried and true. Try the new stuff without any distractions.

Rad

[loopie_beer]

I work on recipes a chance couple to a few weeks ahead of brewing, that way any ingredients I need have time to be delivered.

Depending on my yeast (age) I will make a starter 2 days before (old yeast) to 12 hours before. I now am a huge proponent of the ‘shaken starter.’

The night before I weigh out the grain and crush it, finalize my salt additions and weigh them, and weigh out my hop additions. I will also bring everything else I need (water, BK, HLT, MT, paddle, etc) upstairs since I brew outside.

The next morning I get started early (sometimes as early as 5am depending on other circumstances). I have a 3 tier stand with a burner at every tier so water heats quick. I set up a table and lay out all additions in order.

During the boil I clean my MT and HLT. Music is a MUST during the boil. During the chill I will make sure the conical I’m using is prepped and I’ll get my O2 wand sanitized. I also put everything outside in its respective place (hose, put the table away, etc).

After transferring the beer to the conical I recirculate PBW through the CFC loop. During this time I’m taking gravity readings and reorganizing my equipment.

After I rinse the PBW out of the BK and CFC I then, have a HomeBrew.

[uberculture]

Here’s me…

1-2 weeks before brew day:
Choose a style, do some research, consult notes, try commercial versions, read articles/books, etc

1 week out: finalize recipe, check inventory, put together shopping list

1-2 days: Drive to NB for whatever I don’t have on hand. Maybe do a starter (sometimes, I just repitch or use w packets. Sine I shop at NB I get pretty fresh yeast). Buy distilled water.

Day of: Nobody in the house (again, I need the wife to leave). Early as possible. Strike water in two pots on stove, grind grains, wash out mash cooler, weigh out Water additions (calculated in the previous week). Once water is a little above target, dump in cooler to preheat, then start slowly heating sparge water. Wait for water to settle to strike temp, mash in.

That gives me an hour to clean up and put away the grain mill, weigh sparge water salts, weigh and label hop additions, set up the turkey fryer in the garage, and pull the yeast from the fridge. Take the dogs out, then snack (I forget to eat sometimes. That sucks. Would you run a marathon or bike for five hours on no food?)

After the hour, check sparge water temp, vorlauf, and run off into my kettle. Add Fermcap (7.5 gallon turkey fryer, so boil off protection). Grab a bit of wort for a ceremonial Hot Scotchy (best part of the brewday- try one, if you never have). Sparge, then haul my full kettle down to the garage. Haul cooler with spent grain to the garage. Haul hop additions, yeast nutrient, whirlfloc, IC, etc. Light burner.

While kettle gets up to temp, dump grains, get into compost. Hose down cooler, put away. Set up lawn chair, phone with some tunes. Watch kettle like a hawk to avoid boilover. Once boil starts, my additions are all at 60 or after 15, so I have a lot of time. Maybe 1 beer during that time. At flameout, set up the IC, let it run.

While cooling, clean, sanitize fermentor, bucket, strainer, etc. Pour cooled wort through strainer to bucket, take gravity reading, then pour into sanitized fermentor. Seal up and put aside. Hose off kettle, IC, bucket, etc. Put everything away. Pitch yeast, then deep wash everything. Take nap.

[uncdeo]

@uberculture

That gives me an hour to clean up and put away the grain mill, weigh sparge water salts, weigh and label hop additions, set up the turkey fryer in the garage, and pull the yeast from the fridge. Take the dogs out, then snack (I forget to eat sometimes. That sucks. Would you run a marathon or bike for five hours on no food

Once I get into a project I don’t eat until it’s over…but I will drink during a brew since I only do 3G batches…and that’s easy to carry the kettle downstairs

[jimrmaine]

I print out my recipe from my online creator(Brewtoad), and write in the liquor prep, and each step of my brew schedule with blanks for the numbers that I enter during the process. Set up everything and prep liquor the night before so I can jump right in, early morning. I usually start heating the strike water, then go upstairs and make the coffee and toast a bagel. When coffee is done, the water usually is and I mash in. Generally start at 6:00am and am finished by noon. This past Saturday I did 2 batches back-to-back and finished the cleanup at 1:00pm. I had a step-by-step schedule written down so I could start work on batch#2 during batch#1. It was a well deserved post-brew beer (actually two, ok three)

[brew_cat]

I like to start early and don’t try to squeeze it in. As far as setting up that becomes routine. I write out my recipe on a note pad which I jot down stuff during the brewing. As far as friends one or two is the most I can handle unless they are brewers. Nice for watching the boil when I need to do something. Yes we drink while brewing, them more thsn me, but I don’t recommend it.