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Author Topic: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?  (Read 2475 times)

Offline richardt

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Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« on: July 28, 2010, 10:24:46 am »
Full day of work yesterday, but hurried home at 4 p.m. to get started brewing.

Wife had other plans for me and the family which involved a "quick" trip downtown and shelling out some dough for season tickets to the local NFL team.

By the time we got home and I got the brew gear ready, it was 7 p.m.  Was hoping for a quick brew day and be in bed by midnight or 1 a.m...

Didn't work out that way...  The LAUTER-FROM-HELL. 
Had to use the forehead strap light to see some of the things I was doing on the patio.

Got it all done and finally was in bed at 4:30 a.m.  I'm sure the neighbors loved hearing my banjo burner roaring at 3 a.m.

Got any similar stories?

Offline akr71

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2010, 10:33:03 am »
I've had a brewday or two that ran unreasonably long, but if my wife had brought me downtown to buy NFL season tickets I wouldn't have even remembered about brewday by the time I got home... and I'd still have a crazy excited grin on my face today.

Weighing the two together, I'd say you still had an awesome day  8)
Andy

Amherst, NS - Canada

Offline Janis

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2010, 10:34:53 am »
My longest brew day was when I was making a Samiclaus clone with my friends Rich and Faith.  We started at 10 a.m., had to do 2 mashes, then a 6 hour boil to get 10 gallons of 1.156 OG wort.  I was on the road back to my house by midnight.  That was an epic brew day.

Cheers,
   Janis

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Offline hopaddicted

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2010, 11:15:46 am »
I just woke up from brewing last night. I started at 9:30pm, I normally have everything weighed out the night before and crushed not this time... With a long mash (majority of mash was for 2 hours) and brewing in a new location the brewday wasn't over until 4:30am.

Not my lastest brewday though, I started two different AG batches at about 7:30pm with only one burner and went until 6:30-7am only a few weeks ago.

Alls well that ends well though, the two batches mentioned above are in kegs about to be tapped this weekend...
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Offline tom

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2010, 12:14:26 pm »
My longest and latest was a triple parti-gyle that ended about 3 am.
Brew on

Offline euge

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2010, 12:36:38 pm »
I've staggered out of the brewery to pitch my yeast at 5am plenty of times. Recently the twelve hot hours sapped my spirit, and I didn't brew again until all my beer ran out lol.

Usually it's about 7 hours to do a single 12 gallon batch but I tend to mash longer and boil longer. I'd like to get it down to 5 which is achievable. Preparation and being ready to go helps. Spontaneous brewing can make for a long session.

Extract? Hour and a half to 2 hours.
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Offline dbeechum

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2010, 12:46:08 pm »
Longest intentional brew day started at 9AM on a Saturday and concluded at 11AM on a Sunday. A 19 hour boil tends to take some time!

Longest unintentional brewday was on the Pilsner brew from hell. Double decoction with undermodified moravian malt and none of knew enough to realise we needed a beta glucanase rest. Started that day at ~8AM-9AM and walked out of the shop sometime just after 11PM.  Hated that day and we only ended up with half our intended yield which means I walked with no beer.
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Offline dirk_mclargehuge

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2010, 05:01:15 pm »
Longest brew day was a triple decoction I was helping someone do.  Fourteen stinking hours.  Never again.

Offline rabid_dingo

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2010, 06:36:15 pm »
My longest was probably 7 hrs. Usually is when I crank out a 10 gallon batch. I used to have plenty of late brew
sessions. I used to start after I got home from work at 10:30 pm. In bed by 4 am...But they were just late sessions.
Ruben * Colorado :)

Offline flapjack

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2010, 09:32:38 pm »
Our longest brew day so far was when we made a 5 gallon batch of Russian Imperial Stout and decided to make a small beer out of the spent grains. Our system was in its early stages, using an electric stove top which took forever to bring water to a boil and an ice water bath to cool the wort. The total brew time was about 13.5 hours. 
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Offline tygo

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2010, 10:36:33 pm »
My longest was earlier in the year when I did two five gallon batches of belgian strong golden ale back to back.  Started at 5:50 AM and wrapped up at about 2:30 PM or so.  I had the brew day planned out pretty well in advance and miraculously stayed pretty much on schedule.  Figured I would have been out there for longer.  Just bottled one of those ales tonight actually.
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Offline a10t2

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2010, 07:53:59 am »
I've done a few partigyles, which are probably eight hour days altogether. When I did a two hour mash and 4.5 hour boil on my double barleywine, that was about nine hours.

Monday was probably typical though. 60 min mash, 90 min boil, 5:39 from lighting the burner to putting everything away.
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Offline pweis909

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #12 on: July 29, 2010, 11:53:43 am »
I had a long one recently in which I did an APA and a Classic American Pilsner on the same day, two mashes, two boils.  I don't really recall when I started but I finished sometime around 2AM and made a mistake in the wee hours.  I wasn't paying attention to my boil on the 2nd batch, I guess, and I ended up with a lower volume and higher OG than intended.  Correcting this would have required a trip to the well and boiling more water.  It didn't seem worth it.  So my Pils became imperialized, with an OG of 1.080.

 

Offline BrewArk

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2010, 02:15:16 pm »
Great thread, had to share w/SWMBO to show how efficient I am. ;D
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Offline bfogt

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Re: Longest Brewday? Latest Brewday?
« Reply #14 on: July 31, 2010, 07:20:41 am »
I brewed a stout one morning while my wife was in Mexico and I was home with our two boys.  Started at 9am.  Stuck sparge from over crushed grain had my sparge take well into the afternoon.  My propane regulator sprung a leak prior to this batch and the replacement wasn't up to the job, so heating the water and eventually the boil took much longer than normal for a 10 gallon batch.  I was done with chilling, pitching and aerating at 7am.  The baby woke up at 7:30 and the next day began.  Good beer, though.