16 replies to this topic

[orudis]

Here's how I maintain a pretty serious brewing hobby with three young kids: I lengthen the mash drastically, basically breaking up the brew day in order to start the mash at night at night on a Friday or sat night after the kids are in bed, or, more rarely, in the morning before going to work, and then finishing up after the kids are in bed. Simply a way to get some brewing in without taking time away from the family. After studying the issue and experiencing the results, there are no issues with off- flavors due to bacteria or over-attenuation. Here it is a little after nine and I am getting ready to add some flavor hops to a pilsner. Anyone else have tips or techniqes for shortening the brewday, or other modifications of the extended mash concept?

[Howie]

Timely thread. I could DEFINITELY use some pointers on how to manage kids and brewing while still keeping the wife (relatively) happy.

[ncbeerbrewer]

While I don't do any extended mashes I have managed to brew 36 5 gallon batches to date for 2009 so I think I can offer some advice with brewing and kids and the wife as well. I have two kids boy/girl twins that are 3 now. When they were infants and would go to bed at 7pm I would mash in right after that and be on my way to brewing a beer. This would be reserved for only Fri/Sat nights since the rest are worknights for me. I kept that schedule for a year a half or so to be honest. Now I still keep the same philosophy but since mine now are in bed around 8-830 I will mash in so that I vorlauf and sparge just after they are in bed and I do my mashes for 75 minutes for each beer. I am an outside in the garage propane cooker type brewer and I keep my wife happy by coming inside during the mash, during the boil, during cool down and while I wait to pitch my yeast. Now I can brew a batch in about 4.5-5 hours so yes at times I am doing yeast pitch at 1am-2am but its never bothered me especially on the weekend. I can say this and I quote my wife in saying it too, she is happy that my hobby only takes me to the garage so she happily obliges when I say I am brewing fri or sat night or both for that matter. This is the way I have kept this obsession of mine bubbling away and kept the wife happy too. This is the advice I offer but I hope it helps some of you brew more and often. Cheers.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

I have no kids yet so I can't help in that respect but here are "time savers" that I do (not all of them actually save time but might just break up the work):1. measure water out way ahead of time (bonus: chlorine evaporates as well)2. measure and crush grains while you heat strike water3. while mashing make sure everything that you need sanitized is getting sanitized4. while bringing the wort up to a boil clean everything you can5. while boiling if you still aren't done cleaning keep cleaning6. while chilling clean any other small items that needed to be cleaned7. after pitching the yeast clean the remaining items immediately (it's easier now than later)

[Howie]

While I don't do any extended mashes I have managed to brew 36 5 gallon batches to date for 2009 so I think I can offer some advice with brewing and kids and the wife as well. I have two kids boy/girl twins that are 3 now. When they were infants and would go to bed at 7pm I would mash in right after that and be on my way to brewing a beer. This would be reserved for only Fri/Sat nights since the rest are worknights for me. I kept that schedule for a year a half or so to be honest. Now I still keep the same philosophy but since mine now are in bed around 8-830 I will mash in so that I vorlauf and sparge just after they are in bed and I do my mashes for 75 minutes for each beer. I am an outside in the garage propane cooker type brewer and I keep my wife happy by coming inside during the mash, during the boil, during cool down and while I wait to pitch my yeast. Now I can brew a batch in about 4.5-5 hours so yes at times I am doing yeast pitch at 1am-2am but its never bothered me especially on the weekend. I can say this and I quote my wife in saying it too, she is happy that my hobby only takes me to the garage so she happily obliges when I say I am brewing fri or sat night or both for that matter. This is the way I have kept this obsession of mine bubbling away and kept the wife happy too. This is the advice I offer but I hope it helps some of you brew more and often. Cheers.

Your plan seems pretty similar to what I have in mind. My kids go to bed too late. I need to reign that in a bit, I think. My toddler doesn't go to bed until 9:00-ish (we like him to sleep in later) and no one knows when the newborn will finally go to sleep!!Still, I need to figure something out. I love this hobby and haven't done it in 18 months or so. It's tough for me to even find time to break away just to get stuff ready to brew. I was hoping to brew last week before we left for the holiday. I had just started getting everything pulled out and ready when my wife gave me the look and asked me "how much longer are you going to be?" At that point, I just started packing my stuff back away.

[ncbeerbrewer]

Your plan seems pretty similar to what I have in mind. My kids go to bed too late. I need to reign that in a bit, I think. My toddler doesn't go to bed until 9:00-ish (we like him to sleep in later) and no one knows when the newborn will finally go to sleep!!Still, I need to figure something out. I love this hobby and haven't done it in 18 months or so. It's tough for me to even find time to break away just to get stuff ready to brew. I was hoping to brew last week before we left for the holiday. I had just started getting everything pulled out and ready when my wife gave me the look and asked me "how much longer are you going to be?" At that point, I just started packing my stuff back away.

I understand what you mean. I am sorry to hear if your wife gives you grief to brew. I believe in this though too, as a parent you both need away and free time. I spend most of mine brewing so she should be able to at least give you that especially if the kids are asleep. Cheers and good luck.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

I had just started getting everything pulled out and ready when my wife gave me the look and asked me "how much longer are you going to be?" At that point, I just started packing my stuff back away.

Let her know (days ahead of time if necessary) that you'll be brewing and then she can't complain. You have to make time. She should be happy you picked a hobby that keeps you at home.

[ncbeerbrewer]

Let her know (days ahead of time if necessary) that you'll be brewing and then she can't complain. You have to make time. She should be happy you picked a hobby that keeps you at home.

Good advice for sure. I try to get my ingredients ready days ahead and my wife appreciates a few days notice if I brew. And yes mine loves that it only takes me to the garage.

[Stout_fan]

What do you mean this is not a recipe thread.DANG!!!The little buggers won't keep off of my lawn!

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

What do you mean this is not a recipe thread.DANG!!!The little buggers won't keep off of my lawn!

I was originally thinking we were adding in baby goats.

[Howie]

Let her know (days ahead of time if necessary) that you'll be brewing and then she can't complain. You have to make time. She should be happy you picked a hobby that keeps you at home.

She's generally pretty supportive of the hobby. I did let her know in advance that I wanted to brew, but it was also a bad day for me to choose since we were trying to get ready to go out of town.The whole "two kids" thing is still pretty new to us, and she's still getting adjusted.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

She's generally pretty supportive of the hobby. I did let her know in advance that I wanted to brew, but it was also a bad day for me to choose since we were trying to get ready to go out of town.The whole "two kids" thing is still pretty new to us, and she's still getting adjusted.

NOW the truth comes out! Wait until Mrs. Howie finds out about this! You'll be in big trouble!

[Spoon]

I too am trying to squeeze some brew time in. In the deep south this time of the year is the most favorable to brewing but I have so little time to devote to it unfortunately. I am planning on doing some brewing but as stated above, doing it in steps. I will scale out all of my grains, crush, one day. The next, I will clean and sanitize all brew gear, bottles/kegs, and get measure my strike water and ready it on the burner on another day. Mash, sparge, boil, pitch and clean on the last.That is the plan anyway. I'd love to have the time to knock it out in one day. But moving up to 12 gallon batches I can do 2xs the quanity in the same time for my favorite styles, so breaking up the brew day will help me get some beer made.

[chadm75]

I posed this very question earlier in the year on the green board as my wife and I were expecting our first little one. So I have some good experience with keeping up with your brewing schedule while managing a five month old. I do a lot of what is said above. I brew on the weekends, usually a Fri/Sat night so I grind my grains a couple nights before. I also get my yeast starter going a couple nights before. I heat my strike water after dinner so as I'm mashing, the bath is underway and we're getting ready for bed. After the little one is down for the night, I crack my first beer and get started with the sparge/vorlauf...and continue on as normal. The wife usually doesn't care what I do as long as a majority of my brewing is done after the little one is down and asleep. I think the key to just to spread your process out and keep your priorities straight . And let's face it, by the end of the week our wives/girlfriends/F buddies are happy to have us out of the house for a few hours so we can tend to our hobby!

[harryfrog]

I have an 8 month old and use the following schedule:Sat night, measure, weigh, get water ready.6:45am sun morn, turn water on (outside - propane burner) bring kid into mom to feed7:20 mash in, come inside, start making breakfast for wife7:20-8:20 run outside for a minute to stir, come back in and play with kid8:20, vorlauf, start run-off9:00, kid goes down for nap, start boili'm pretty much done by the time the baby wakes up from her morning nap.The other thing that helped is I used to play a lot of golf. now she's stoked that I'm home for 5 hours instead of out playing, plus I get way less drunk brewing beer than playing golf...

[Big Nake]

Most of the brewers I know with small kids will brew on the weekends very early in the morning. I have a unique situation because I work at home so I can schedule batches for when my schedule is lighter or maybe after a day when I worked until 10pm or something. My kids are older now (9, 11 and 14) but I've been brewing for 10 years so I went through it when they were young. The weekends were pretty much off-limits because my kids have been very active since they were small (soccer, baseball, softball, basketball, football, Tae Kwon Do, music, etc) and the weekends were sometimes more hectic than the weekdays. My wife is completely content with me brewing, but she doesn't really appreciate the smell or the mess and she also doesn't appreciate the way I monopolize the kitchen so I always brew early on weekday mornings and I'm done by about 10am. I always filter and measure out my water the day before and my recipe, grains, hops and yeast are ready to go, generally. I have never done an overnight mash or left runnings overnight and boiled them the next day. Cheers & good luck.

[Stout_fan]

I was originally thinking we were adding in baby goats.

Oh well, In which case I'm looking for a Vegetarian Extract version....