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You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> Brewing Forum --> Brewing Discussion --> Sitrep - fast brew day

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Necropaw
Charter Member
Central WI
608 Posts


1.042~1.045 is a damn good range, imo. I love being able to have 6 beers in a night and not be suffering the next day at work.

On Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 8:18 AM, testingapril <[email protected]> wrote:
Ray, I didn't get mashed in until 1:30 due to my heating issues and collecting water. If I had my water collected that would save a lot of time. If I can figure out how to automagically heat my strike water, then I could mash in at 0:15 instead of 1:30, saving HUGE time. With that, I could probably get under 3 hours.

And yeah, mashing that much water was perilous. I had numerous splash-overs while stirring, but it was manageable. With all that water, and a comically large whisk, there is basically zero risk of dough balls.

Now I'm just trying to think of other beers I could do like this. This was a 1.042 beer, so that's literally the top end of what I can do with a full volume mash and still get 10 gals.

Although, I wonder what I could do if I just took an efficiency hit and increased the grain and used top up water...alternately I could cold sparge.





Posted 34 days ago.

testingapril
Charter Member
Atlanta, GA
595 Posts


Yep. Session beers are my jam.




Posted 34 days ago.

rayfound
Charter Member
Riverside, CA
313 Posts


Dude, water collection is my biggest annoyance. I just take every water-carrying container I own and truck home RO water. Our water is soooo hard (400ppm carbonate) that I am afraid to brew with it.

I want to buy an RO system, but most are either really too low of a capacity for what I need, or more expensive than I want.




Posted 34 days ago.

brulosopher
Charter Member
Fresno, CA
167 Posts


I thought I responded to this yesterday, but I must not have. I did a super fast brew day last weekend, spur of the moment 1.75 gal BIAB APA, took just about than 1.25 hours start to finish-- 15 min mash, 15 min boil, water bath to chill (this took another hour or so).




Posted 34 days ago.

Matt
Charter Member
Normal, IL
341 Posts


Honestly, RO water is so cheap here I can't imagine a good system really offsetting the cost of buying it from the store.





Posted 34 days ago.

rayfound
Charter Member
Riverside, CA
313 Posts


The RO water thing isn't for $$ savings. It is so I don't have to take trips to the store to get 30-40 gallons of water at a time.




Posted 34 days ago.

brulosopher
Charter Member
Fresno, CA
167 Posts


With as much as I brew, using RO would be very costly compared to using my tap, which thankfully is almost RO.




Posted 34 days ago.

CentralCalBrewer
Fresno, CA
89 Posts


I really need to get a water report. I wonder how different our water sources are.




Posted 34 days ago.

Necropaw
Charter Member
Central WI
608 Posts


Pretty sure RO isnt cheap here, and at the very least i'd have to drive 5-6 miles for it. Considering i drive a small car, i dont know how i'd even make it work. I could haul 6.5 gal relatively easy (assuming they'd let me use a better bottle) and put it behind the passenger seat, but i'd need stuff that seals really well so i could put it in the trunk for more water.

I'd like an RO system, but meh. I dunno.

Again, i need to get a water report, but it doesnt really pay when we'll probably be moving (or ill get my own place). My water apparently works well enough for hoppy beers with a bit of adjustment, so honestly im kinda hard pressed to give a shit. Thats by far what i brew the most of.


Oh yeah. I was going to ask this yesterday. What do you guys use to measure out your water volumes? Im a horrible person and use fermenting buckets, but i know the volumes are off on them (though i swear i end up with too much water to start with, but not enough out of my mash tun. i think i need to adjust my absorbtion numbers, or im boiling way too hard...idk...)




Posted 34 days ago.

Matt
Charter Member
Normal, IL
341 Posts


Ohhhh right, those big brulosophy split batches. Good point.





Posted 34 days ago.

testingapril
Charter Member
Atlanta, GA
595 Posts


I have a sight glass on my kettle and HLT for measuring water/wort

My filtered tap water is close to RO, which is great. Marshall and I live about 2000 miles from each other and have almost identical water, which is interesting.

I'm scheming in my head how I can use a brewPi to auto-heat my water. I may need a solenoid valve for my water source too. That would be optimal.




Posted 34 days ago.

KidMoxie
Charter Member
San Elijo Hills, CA
405 Posts


I just saw a notice on my water bill that I could be getting desalinated water as early as this month. "Free" RO water directly to my house!





Posted 34 days ago.

gruuk
Queens, NY
36 Posts


Whoa. I brew small batches (all under 3 gallons) and my fastest AG brew day ever is 4:30, including setup and cleanup. Seeing what your able to do time-wise with a huge batch makes me think I need to streamline my process quite a bit more.




Posted 34 days ago.

testingapril
Charter Member
Atlanta, GA
595 Posts


Yeah, Brulosopher first inspired me to try to streamline. He's got his process quite streamlined and quick. I think he's still faster than I am, but he's got more BTU's to work with.

I'm not obsessed with speeding up my brew day, but I am interested in figuring out how to squeeze a brew day into a time frame that really shouldn't work. Yesterday we got home from church at 2pm and had to be back at church at 6 and by delaying a few minutes of cleanup I was able to make that happen, which was pretty cool.




Posted 34 days ago.

Necropaw
Charter Member
Central WI
608 Posts


My big desire for quicker brew days comes from wanting to be able to brew after work, at least in the summer. I want to go fishing and stuff on the weekend, so being able to fit a brewday in from 6-10PM is pretty awesome.

I think yesterdays was somewhere around 4:15~4:30, and that was with a full 60 minute mash and 60 minute boil.

Nothing beats doing pale ales with a 20 minute boil and BIAB, though. That shit as fast as fuck.


Speaking of mash length, where do you guys get iodine strong enough to do starch conversion tests? I looked at walmart a year or so ago and the best i could find was a 6-10% solution, and the few times ive tried it ive had a HELL of a time trying to determine if i changed color or not. maybe im just not used to using it in a liquid, though (i remember doing starch tests in school, and it was beyond obvious).




Posted 34 days ago.

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