Single Batch Brew Day


Author: Marshall Schott


I’d say upwards of half of my brew days are spent making a single 10 gallon batch, the impetus of which is usually either a split batch exBEERiment or I’m making beer for someone else (I like to keep a keg of whatever I give away). I look forward to these brew days because they tend to be a tad simpler and takes less time than my double-batch brew days. I always mill my grain and collect all my water volumes the night before brewing, this takes only about 15 minutes and a couple beers. I can knock a 10 gallon batch out in 4 to 4.5 hours on my system.

Here’s what a typical single-batch brew day looks like:

  • Heat strike water to ~10˚F above target strike temp
  • Transfer all strike water to MLT to pre-heat for 3 minutes, pour bucket of sparge water in kettle
  • Mash-in, stir to reach mash temp, set timer for 60 minutes
  • 40 minutes after mash-in, start heating sparge water to 180°F
  • Once mash is complete, vorlauf, collect first runnings in a bucket, and pour sweet wort into kettle
  • Add sparge water to MLT, stir, and let settle for about 5 minutes
  • Collect second runnings in bucket, pour into kettle, start boil
  • Clean MLT and other unneeded equipment while wort is boiling
  • When boil is complete, chill to pitching temp, transfer wort to carboy
  • Place carboy in fermentation chamber, clean kettles, put everything away
  • Pitch yeast and wait…

I’m usually finished right around the time my family is waking up, something I think everyone appreciates.



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42 thoughts on “Single Batch Brew Day”

    1. The latter, for better or worse. I wake up at 4am for work 4 days per week, so when I brew it’s not that difficult to get up that early. My son usually wakes up around 630am and comes out to “help,” my oldest daughter is usually up within the next hour and rides her bike, then my wife and youngest daughter typically wake up around 830am. I mill all my grain and collect all my water the night before. It works for me 🙂

  1. When you collecting your water, are you leaving it open to the air just to let chlorine come out of it? I am having some issues and I believe my water is likely the culprit and am considering either buying distilled water and adding minerals using Bru’n water or finding some other alternative. With your recipes, do you treat water differently according to the style?

    On another note, do you purchase 50 lb bags of grain at a time and store them in 5 gallon buckets? Is there a benefit to this if you live reasonably close to a brew store?

    1. Hey! The chlorine levels in my municipal water are nearly undetectable, plus I run all my brewing liquor through a carbon filter. After collecting the night before, I usually throw the cover on just to keep bugs out… but I’ve left it open with no ill effect.

      I buy all my grains (and hops) in bulk because it saves me tons of money… but I brew a lot. A 50 lbs sack of 2-row costs me about $37, or $0.74/lb, while my LHBS charges $1.59/lb. I keep 225-325 lbs on hand. Base malts are a tad more expensive, as I only buy them in 10-25 lbs increments during sales.

  2. Great article, thanks! When you transfer the runnings into your kettle, do you just pour it in from the bucket? Ive read some things about hot side aeration that makes me nervous. Sounds like I shouldnt be worried about that.
    One more ques- When you are draining the MLT, do you drain fast or slow?

  3. I have put together a similar setup as yours, as far as mashing goes. How would you change your brew day for a bigger beer (strong dark Belgium) 5 gallon batch. And what efficiency would you anticipate?

  4. What is the white electric cord in your fermentation chamber for? It looks like it goes into a paint can. Also in the pics, it looks like there is a small air freshener of some sort?

  5. I love your blog! I just finished another brew day yesterday and I am getting frustrated. My mash efficiencies are great, but my brewhouse efficiency is 55% or so because I am wasting so much wort. For example in my system I lose 0.5gal to cooling, I’m leaving 1.5gal in the kettle because (wrongly now I believe) I want clear wort in the fermenter. And my boil off rate is 1.6 gal per hour. I’m a mess:

    So do you even bother with things like beersmith and efficiencies?

    What is your batch size? And how much do you leave to the kettle?

    Thanks for your help.

  6. Great article, love the website.
    Do you sometimes perform a mash out too? And is 180F sparge water hot enough for the wet grist to reach 168F or does it not really matter? Also I can’t decide on a no sparge, mash out and batch sparge or a double batch sparge. Which is best for efficiency and fermentability?
    Thanks!!

    1. I always heat my sparge water to ~180˚F and I’ve yet to have a problem, so I’m inclined to say it doesn’t matter. A mash out consists of raising the temp of the mash prior to running of, which I never do. If you’re looking for best efficiency, I’d suggest double batch sparge, though my no sparge and regular batch sparge methods are within 4% eff of each other.

  7. Hey there – Recently stumbled on your site and am really liking the content and your approach to brewing. I’ve read through several of your process posts, but I have a couple of questions that I am curious about. Hope you can clarify if you get a chance!

    1) Once you pitch your yeast, do you aerate the wort? What’s your preferred method for this?
    2) Out of curiosity, what temperature differential do you use on your fermentation chamber temp controller?

    Thanks!

      1. I use the same wort sprayer. The common misconception is that you plug your hose and forget about it. I’ve found that I need to constantly pump my auto siphon during transfer, but it works great.

  8. Hey there – Thanks again for all of the information on your site.. You’ve really made my brew day more efficient! I do have a few additional questions about your process that I couldn’t find that I’m curious to hear if you have any efficiency tricks for…I’m considering moving from bucket to carboy for my primary which is where some of these are stemming from:

    1) What’s your process for getting the final wort into your carboy? Do you siphon it in, or use a funnel, or other?

    2) While your wort is in your chamber, but before yeast pitching, do you cover it with a sanitized foil top as I’ve seen you use elsewhere?

    3) How do you go about pitching your yeast? Sanitized funnel? Or other?

    4) Finally, for your various gravity readings during fermentation, do you use a normal thief to extract the beer?

    Thanks!

    1. Great to hear, thanks for the support! While I don’t think carboys contribute to better beer, I do find them slightly more convenient to use (many disagree). With that in mind…

      1. I use a sterile siphon starter with no funnel or anything else. It’s awesome!

      2. Every single time, at least for the first 24-48 hours, because I’m lazy and it has never caused any problems.

      3. I just pour it directly into the carboy from the flask… sometimes I spill a little bit, usually I don’t.

      4. I use a stainless steel baster, works great and can’t get scratched.

      Cheers!

      1. Thanks for your responses! On #1 I didn’t realize you could use that sterile siphon to put wort into the carboy – I thought it only worked to move wort out of the carboy?

      2. Jeez, I’m sorry, I misread the question. I have a valve on the bottom of my kettle that I attached a sanitized hose to for transferring wort to carboys.

  9. Hello,
    I have a question. All of brewers if I know ( included I) to keep constan the mash temperature brewing with pumps, herms, three ball valves pid’s, etc. ( a lot of things to clean and store). I’m thinking about buying a cooler.
    How many degrees do you lost in winter in a normal 60 min mash?

    Thanks,

  10. Thanks for your quick response, I also bew in my garage.
    When I live the medium and the maximum temperature are 9.8 ºC and 2.2ºC respectively in december. I suppose you live in a warmer region than mine and I could lose more temperature….

    A 30 min mash? Since I read your blog I have many things to think about. Thanks for that

    Cheers!!!

  11. Marshall –

    I am moving from BIAB to a 20 gal mash tun / 20 gal kettle for 10-15 gal batches, and want to avoid getting a third vessel, if possible.

    Question – when you collect your first runnings in a bucket, do you then sparge from kettle 1, and THEN dump your sweet wort from the bucket into kettle 1… or do you heat up sparge water in kettle 1, collect first runnings in a bucket and dump into kettle 2, then dump sparge water from kettle 1 in your MLT?

    1. I don’t really sparge in the traditional sense, but I think the first way you laid it out is accurate:

      1. Heat strike water in kettle then transfer to MLT for mash
      2. During mash, add “sparge” water to same kettle, start heating with 30 min left in mash
      3. When mash is complete, collect sweet wort in bucket
      4. Add sparge water from same kettle to MLT with grains
      5. Pour sweet wort from bucket to same kettle
      6. Collect second runnings in bucket then add to same kettle

      Given your batch size, you’ll require 2-3 bucket to collect all of the sweet wort, but I don’t think that ought to be a big issue.

  12. I have a very similar set up to yours but use the 52qt xtreme cooler since I only do 5 gallons at a time.

    I noticed you don’t bother to add a mash out addition to try to get close to 170 during your first round of vorlauf’ing. I contemplated skipping this step as well. I’m trying to get my efficiency a little higher and more consistent. I’m currently around 70-75% mash eff.

    What mash efficiencies do you typically see for about a 1.060 gravity beer?

    Thanks

    Adam

  13. Really enjoyed reading through your approach. It got me thinking of an additional way to speed up brew day. Upon collection of the first running is there any downsides to getting it on the burner heating for the boil while you are collecting the second run? Sounds like you collect it in a bucket and could then just dump it into the kettle that is already heating up.

  14. Howdy. Thanks for the quick and simple write up of your processes. Ever thought about recording a brew day on video and posting to YouTube?

    Keep up the great work

  15. Marhall,

    I see a vorlauf step prior to draining your first runnings. Then, you mention adding sparge water, stirring, letting sit, and draining it. I would imagine you vorlauf before draining your second runnings as well, right?

    1. Marshall Schott

      These days, using a Brew Bag, I don’t. When I was using just the braid, yes, I would vorlauf maybe a quart or so.

  16. Marshall, I’ve noticed you use phosphoric acid in your water profile. Can you tell me what % (as in purity) you use and why phosphoric over other options.
    Thank you,
    Billy

    1. Sorry Marshall, I just read your water chemistry xbmts and looks like all my questions were answered there. Thanks anyway, great web site and outstanding info. Brulosophy has improved my brewing 10 fold.
      Thanks for that,
      Billy

  17. I want to start transferring my wort from MLT to bucket to kettle just the way that you describe here. Do I need to be careful about the type of material that the bucket is made of since the wort will be hot? Does it just need to be food grade plastic?
    Thanks,
    Don

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