The biggest reason I always hear for not brewing is not having enough time. Here are some tips for saving time in brewing or at least reducing the amount of time you have to devote to any one session. Trying to find a clear 8 hour period to do a full, start to finish, 5 US gallon batch can be difficult even for the most organized among us. We can try to reduce the total amount of time we need to brew or we can split it up so there is less time needed for the main job. Beer making is composed of a whole lot of tasks, so saving a few minutes here and a few minutes there can really add up to saving a whole lot of time on the total process. Efficiency is critical. Like any other sport, the more you practice the more efficient you become in your art form. The more you brew the quicker and easier it becomes.

Divide and Conquer

One way to resolve the time problem is to split it up into two days. Weigh and grind your grains a day or two before you brew. That can save you 30-45 minutes on the day you brew. Measure out your water nto your brew pot, do salt adjustments and have it on the stove. That will save about 5 minutes. Have all your equipment laid out the night before you brew. Again that will save about 5-10 minutes. Getting organized the night before can save you almost an hour of time on brew day.
Other ways to split up time is multitasking on brew day. Two big blocks of time where there is nothing you can do directly to speed things up are mashing and boiling. Use these down times to do other hings. For example, a big time saver is to always be cleaning as you go. Always clean out your mash tun as soon as you have the pot of wort on the stove -don’t wait until the brew is done to clean. Also, don’t wait until you have a full kettle before you get it boiling. As soon as you have a few gallons of wort in the kettle, put it on the stove and get it going.

Total Time Savers

The easiest way to save total time is to simply brew smaller batches. Yes, you get less beer per time invested but you also invest less time per batch. The choice between having no beer or a few bottles of beer is pretty obvious to me. Some people feel that there is not much time savings between a 3 and 5 gallon batch, but from a lot of experience brewing both, I can assure you there is. It’s the many little steps principle. It takes less time to weigh out the grains, it takes less time to grind the grains, it takes less time to heat the mash water, it takes less time to go through the temperature steps, it takes less time to transfer the mash, it takes less time to sparge, it takes less time to boil, it takes less time to cool, it takes less time to hop back and rack into the fermenter. Later on it takes less time to siphon the beer, it takes less time to organize and clean the bottles, and it takes less time to bottle and cap ‘em. It all adds up to saving yourself about 1.5 hours of time on brew day. I often find it easier to brew more often, with less time on any one day, than to find large blocks of time for a big batch. I also prefer to have a smaller amount of a large variety of beers in my house than a large amount of a small variety of beers.

Another way to save time is to invest in a propane burner. These guys can boil a pot of water in a few minutes and really save a lot of time throughout the mashing and boiling stages.

And, don’t be so proud as to not brew an extract beer. Again the choice between not having brew in the house and brewing extract is pretty obvious. You needn’t think that extract beers are beneath your standards. Just try a few brews made by Boyd! Extract brewing is by far the best way to save time and Boyd tells me that is the single biggest reason he sticks to extract brewing. Not having to mash and sparge will easily save you 1.5-2 hours on brewing day.

Finally, at bottling you can save a lot of time and hassle by not bottling at all! Invest in a good kegging system. It’s a lot faster to clean out one keg and rack the beer into it than to clean out, sterilize and siphon beer into 30-50 bottles. An added time bonus - the beer is ready to consume in less time!