Length of a 7bbl brew session?

[Matt B]

What is a decent estimate on the length of time it takes to brew a 7 bbl batch Going from grain to clean up?

[GlacierBrewing]

You should anticipate around 6-7 hours. I've brewed five-gallon, 8bbl, 10bbl, 18bbl, and 50bbl. They all took around the same time. I have about an hour and a half sani/cleanup on my heat exchanger tacked onto the end of the day.

[Matt B]

How much time does it take to do a double batch in a day? Is it twice as long or is it shorter since the equipment is already up and running from the 1st batch?

[beertje46]

Like most things, it depends on your set-up. If you use a standard Mash/Lauter tun and Kettle/whirlpool it should take you double if you are very organized. Your hot and cold liquor tanks would need to be double size or have the capacity to heat and cool all the water for two batches.

[pbutlert]

We do single brews in 7-8 hrs., but a double goes by in 12 hours. This is with 2 brewers; the second brewer mashing in halfway thru the first boil, vorlauf during the kettle clean-out, and go. Our cleaned kettle is empty for a couple mins., max. We have a 10 bbl. brewhouse, with mostly double or triple batch fermenters. You will need a big HLT- ours is 1000 gals., and we can put some water back into it during first brew cool-in. Can't comment on a cold liquor tank size, here the ground water never gets above 55 degrees even in summer.

[tsewong73]

At my old brewery, we ran three brews a day on a 10 bbl system. Each brew took about 6 hours, but similar to PBUTLERT's post, the end of the second batch usually fell an hour or so short of doubling the 6 hours.

The first brewer milled the grain for the second brewer during conversion rest, then the second brewer mashed out and hosed out the mash tun when the first brewer finished sparge and began boiling his wort. By the time the second brewer finished mashing in and got into the protein rest, the first brewer's wort was done boiling. Because the steam was required for the boil, the second brewer couldn't simply fill the mash tun and heat the liquor up to mash-in temp, so hot liquor was transferred in and mixed with cold liquor. Most of the hot liquor from the bottom half of the combi-tank was used up in the first brewer's sparge, so a separate hot liquor tank was a must. After the first brewer's whirlpool and transfer to a fermenter, the second brewer hosed out the kettle and rinsed out the trub. The whole process was repeated for the third brewer.

At any rate, each brewing process took around 6 hours with about a 1 hour overlap. A single brewer can do both brews, but that overlapping hour will be a busy one.