How long was your first time

[themadhippy]

Brew days the easy bit,nice relaxed 5-6 hours(unless i flood the bathroom),the ball ache is the bottling

[subfaction]

the ball ache is the bottling

man I hear that!

[Capped]

Brew days the easy bit,nice relaxed 5-6 hours(unless i flood the bathroom),the ball ache is the bottling

I've flooded the bathroom and tripped the house lights relay (or whatever it is) twice in two months. I do believe my brain is succumbing to the onset of old age and too many rare herbs and pharmaceuticals from the past. Bottling's OK; put some tunes on and summon the correct state of mind and take it easy.

[DerbyshireNick]

My only problem is with young kids SWMBO is counting every second I am out in the garage

[wetpoke]

I've got a 2 year old and no garage so I hear you Nick - the kitchen suddenly becomes the most exciting place for him to be! Like earlier posters I start as early as I can be bothered to get up now.

My first brew took 8 hours, with an assistant brewer and plenty planning. Getting the mash temp right was the worst, but the results made it all worth it. By my 6th (most recent) I had it down to 5 1/2, mainly due to my incredibly long winded sparging process. Totally agree with Capped, if you get something decent on the ipod bottling becomes a pleasure - still get bottlers back the morning after though.

[simco999]

About 8 hours the first time - lots of spillages and cursing. The result was ok - nothing special.

Now I tend to do split brewdays mid-week. Mash night 1 for 3 hours in total - night 2 boil etc about 2 hours.

I no-chill overnight and pitch the yeast the evening after.

Seems to work ok for me. Thats angered the brewing gods!!!

[spannerhands]

First time was about 10 hours, much time wasted. Turned out to be a really good beer though!

I'm with the overnight mash approach. An hour to get the mash on before bed. Then up earlyish and finish by 11am or midday the next day. Somehow it seems more relaxed and enjoyable too.

[simco999]

Indeed - I'm all for the easy life - split brew days are the way forward for me.

[rval]

God, my first time, last year was a mess. My Mash tun worked fine in testing but got all clogged up after about 2 seconds of starting the spraging so ended up with 3 syphon tubes in the mash tun getting the wart out. Took about 2 hours and all the time trying to keep the temp up, ran out of pre boiled water so had to boil the kettle a number of times! Oh and the mess it made it was well into 9 or 10 hours but the time I had finished.

But my god, when I first opened a bottle and drank I was over the moon, everyone that tried it said it was very good so well worth it.

Now without the over engineering of different bits removed(I mash in two brew buckets with a simple syphon tap that is well insulated) I can be all done in around 4 to 5 hours depending on mash and boil times.

Things will get so much easier as time goes on, you will be knowing them out in a few hours and have so much confidence that you can just leave the brew to its own devises for large parts

[Grimmy]

You'll probably be surprised how quickly the confidence will come. As others have pointed out, make detailed notes of every step so that next time, you know what to do better, what not to bother with and how long your kit takes to get up to temp for example. First AG took me about 7 hours after lots of lurking on here and reading 3 books. I've only done 3 AG's (each about 7 hours) but on the third one I was relaxed enough to change the wifes brake pads at the same time (no - that's not code!). Currently planning AG#4 with the introduction of water treatment and a temperature controlled fermentation cabinet. Has anyone mentioned this hobby is addictive?!?!? Enjoy the journey!

Dave

[orlando]

I only started brewing on 23rd December 2011 and so can still remember the terible PMT (Er, thats pre mash tension by the way) I had right up to the end. It was amusing to read the posts above and recognise so many of the things that happened to others that also happened to me. Principal among them was timing, I too ran around like a headless chicken thinking everything had to be precisely timed and measured or disaster would befall me the brew would be ruined and civilisation come to a halt.

I have mentioned in previous posts the number of things that went wrong (with pictures too , no pride me) so won't bore you with them now. I've done 8 AG's and the PMT no longer affects me and what used to be 6 + hours is now down to a more relaxed and gentle 5. Someone mentioned note taking and I now have a brew day sheet I devised that is still a work in progress but provides me with all the measurements and timings of all that I do. This is then used to update my brewing software for fine tuning my equipment profile and acting as an aide memoire for when I write up the notes. The exercise has been incredibly useful in helping me to get clearer in my mind what I need to concentrate on and when during the brew. The main lesson to take away though is even if it goes wrong you learn something and it actually is as much a part of the fun as everything else. Relax, change/upgrade one thing at a time so you understand the impact and you will waste less time and money. One thing I would recommend is getting an STC 1000 to control HLT and a fridge/fermenter, the difference is worth it but no rush.

As Descartes might have said "I brew therfore I am".