Cutting Brew Time

[Uncle Joshua]

I brew the included recipe with a 90 minute mash and boil. I was wondering if cutting them back to 60 minutes would harm anything?

[Belter]

The general consensus is that no... it wouldn't do any harm at all.

Perhaps if you partially cover your boiler during the boil to keep the heat in then you may get some DMS issues. Otherwise you should be fine. Lots of people on here have switched to 60minutes. The last brew I did was 60Mins and there was no noticeable change.

[Redimpz]

You may remember that you passed me this recipe late last year, I only do a 60 min boil and it was all good, so I would advise giving it a try.

[boingy]

60/60 for me and all is mighty fine.

[Beer O'Clock]

90/60 for me and all is mighty fine............too.

[Chunk1234]

60/60 here too. No issues.

Other ways that I've managed to cut brewing time without impact to the finished product include:

1. Shorter brewlength: mash liqour heating, sparge liqour heating, wort up to boil and cooling all take less time.
2. Take the hit on efficiency and don't sparge. Mash and then top up with all remaning sparge liqour, run off. (Large mash tun needed).

[darkonnis]

I do 60/60 and partially cover my boiler. No DMS issues, the trick is to leave the lid ajar for atleast 15 minutes.
I've also done 60/20 with my mini boiler because its just too damned powerful and boils over very quickly after 20 minutes I'm bored of spraying it to keep the boil down. No DMS their either, works fine no matte rwhat you do really

[zgoda]

If you want to shorten the brewday you can start heating the copper as soon as you start collecting wort from sparge/filtration. I managed to save ~30 mins using this trick. 60 mins mash should be enough with modern malts and with good pH control, but I'd not shorten boil time below 70 mins, 60 mins is really a minimum to get proper hot break. The longer wort is boiling, the more proteins is denaturated.

[jmc]

60/60 here too. No issues.

Other ways that I've managed to cut brewing time without impact to the finished product include:

1. Shorter brewlength: mash liqour heating, sparge liqour heating, wort up to boil and cooling all take less time.
2. Take the hit on efficiency and don't sparge. Mash and then top up with all remaning sparge liqour, run off. (Large mash tun needed).

Sounds like this would be useful when time is short say for an evening brew.

Do you drain before adding sparge liquor or just add sparge liquor to existing mash liquor & run off all together?
What sort of efficiency do you reckon you get with this method.
Cheers John

[darkonnis]

In the beginning I did that, 60% efficiency there or there abouts. I just drained it off, topped up, give it a mix then run off (recycle until it goes clear) then straight into the boiler.

Dunno how chunks doing it though.

[techtone]

I always try to measure out my grain the day before. I don't know why but that and making sure everything is clean and out ready for use and checking the freezer has the hops I think it should and final adjustments to the recipe always seems to take longer than it should. A couple of times with evening brews, I have also used a timer to start heating the sparge water. (It's set to turn off again in case I get delayed and I have a thermostat) Beware with some plug in timers though as some are only designed to turn e.g. lights on and off and not switch 2 to 3 kw loads. Does mean though that pretty much as soon as I get home, I'm into the mash.

[alecwallace]

I use a few shortcuts that may help, and although some people seem frightened of them, save me loads of time. My last brewday on Easter Monday, I put the mash on, Sunday evening (watched TV whilst waiting for water to reach strike temp), added to mash tun and wrapped which took ten mins, and left this overnight. On Monday morning, I transferred to the boiler, and began the boil. After about 20-30 mins was at 100c. Did a 60 minute boil and transferred to fermenter for no chill method. I then cooled naturally during the day and added yeast on the evening.

I appreciate the brewday was 24 hours but individually it was small, manageable parts, that I fit in around my usual day and doesn't effect anything else. So far I have not had negative effects compared to traditional methods.

[Chunk1234]

60/60 here too. No issues.

Other ways that I've managed to cut brewing time without impact to the finished product include:

1. Shorter brewlength: mash liqour heating, sparge liqour heating, wort up to boil and cooling all take less time.
2. Take the hit on efficiency and don't sparge. Mash and then top up with all remaning sparge liqour, run off. (Large mash tun needed).

Sounds like this would be useful when time is short say for an evening brew.

Do you drain before adding sparge liquor or just add sparge liquor to existing mash liquor & run off all together?
What sort of efficiency do you reckon you get with this method.
Cheers John

Yeah, exactly. I brew a lot in the evening and it really helps to save time. I also want brewing to be fun - I'd rather pay a few extra quid in grain and look forward to brewing than put myself off by knowing a brew is going to take hours and hours.

I mash in as normal and then when the mash is finished I top up the tun with all the remaining liqour (no draining). The liqour that I add is at a high enough temperature to make the overall temperature enough to stop conversion. Basically a mash out but with all the liqour not part of it. I give it a good stir and then leave it 10-15mins for the bed to settle out. I then run off until the tun is empty. Job done. I usually get around 60% efficiency.

[InsideEdge]

I have been trying to think of ways to shorten a brew day as they can drag on a bit and be too intrusive on other plans.

Obviously if you get all your kit out and ready the night before and grain weighed etc then you are good to crack on when you wake up. It is suprising how much time can be lost faffing about. Avoid a Saturday lie in as well so you get started promptly!

The other thing I thought of (although not tried yet) is doing all water treatments the night before then putting your boiler on a timer. This would mean your water is up to temp when you wake up and so can start mashing very promptly.

[Chunk1234]

Another thing I do is that I don't re-circulate when I run off. Instead I just run off through a fine mesh and catch any stray bits of grain that way. Saves a bit more time.

95% of the beer I make is either dark or dry hopped and fermented with US05, so a clear beer is against the odds whether I re-circulate or not. That being said, I've not noticed any difference in flavour with this approach and enough conditioning time still results in a clear beer:



(Click to make big).

I take the same approach when running out of kettle to FV. Again, saves a bit of time.