Fitting In All Grain Brewing With A Young Family

[beernsurfing]

I have a 22 month old, a 4 year old, and a 5 year old. My wife also works from 4:30 pm to 7:30pm 3 nights a week.


I set my HLT to be ready at around 4pm. I also crush grains, and fill the HLT the day before.

4:30pm Mash in.

5:00pm Feed kids

5:30 pm Sparge into kettle, fire it up.

6:00 Boil just started, bath kids.

6:30 add 60 min hops, then read books.

7:00 Kids put in bed.

7:30 add late hops and turn off kettle burner.

7:40, cube beer.

Then i clean up the next day. Works great, and im not in bed too late. Works good for me because my garage is attached to the house, and the internal door comes into the kitchen, so its easy to pop in and check the kids.

[alix101]

I've got my brew time to around the 4 hour mark ... But if it only took 5 mins then I'd still get grief ... It's just the way women are , they would sooner have you sitting down watching eastenders miserable which I've now found is the perfect time to brew emmerdale , corra double and eastenders it's a win win they watch 3 hours of crap I get to brew and all while the little ones in bed ,

[WishboneBrewery]

I obviously have a very good wife... and neither of us watch any crap soaps!

[greenxpaddy]

Having a young family myself I have got a little canny with my brewing. I try to do as much prep before the actual brewday as possible so it doesn't seem like I am out of the way for so long.

Things like - milling or weighing out your grains and water treatment days before. Fill your HLT days before.

So on brew day you set off heating your water with the flick of a switch and then leave it to heat up whilst doing family things.

Put your hot water in to MT and let stabilise. While stabilising pop head back into family. They don't even know you've started....

Similarly dough in takes 5 minutes, then you have 90 minutes before they even think you have started brewing....

I fly sparge so that is time consuming and I'm probably out of action then for a good 2.5 hrs for sparge and boil ( I like to stir regularly and watch for boil over as my copper is filled to the brim. Once boil is over I set off the chiller and I know that takes 1hr so no need to hang around then. Filling FV is then only 20mins.

So that actual time spent in the garage is actually only about 3 hrs although the whole process takes about 7hrs. As has already been said you get clever and economical with your time. Things like sterilising your FV etc will be done whilst boil is running...

[Cuckoo Barmy]

If I'm organised (researched recipe, method, gathered supplies and prepped my equipment) I have done a brew in about 5 hours with a 60 min mash and boil. I leave my brew during various points of the process e.g. for most of mash and boil and a bit of time while sparging. So of that 5 hours I'm only really busy for about 3.5hours. One of my tricks is to have two boilers, so as I drain my mash or sparge water it goes straight into another boiler and starts heating. This means within about 5 minutes of me finishing my sparge I have my boil happily bubbling away.
I try to time my brew so that if I need to do something it coincideds with the mashing or boiling as it doesn't matter if I'm late getting back.
I also try to clean equipment as much as possible as I'm going along.
Having said all that while I remember that domestic difficulty my kids are now teenagers and my missus has three horses and easily spends all weekend on her hobby!

[bconnery]

Let me say in advance that I have an understanding wife so this isn't an issue for me per se, but there's a lot to be done with two small kids and losing all that time brewing is a bit of a luxury.
The trick I find is to prep as much as you can the night before as many have said, I crack the grain, and have it ready.
On brewday the timer is king. I use the timer for the boil etc. but also to remind me about when the sparge water should start being heated etc.
This way, I am there for the really time critical bits and can spend a lot of time doing other things in between.

The main one is washing, a brewday is a great way to get the weeks washing done, and gardening and other things that are downstairs near the brewery.
Suddenly the day doesn't seem so 'wasted' in terms of the household...

I also sometime do Friday/Saturday night brews, starting around the kids bedtime. A late night yes but pleasureable especially in summer. Brewing, drinking and other brewday activities.

[beernsurfing]

Oh i forgot the "mow brew"!!. I mash in, do the edges. Then sparge and get the keggle going, and mow the rest of the lawn. 2 birds, one stone!!. My wife's fine with my brewing, but if i work it around the family, everyone wins!