Homebrewers know that our hobby is, like fishing, largely one of waiting. Between waiting for water to heat, standing around while the wort boils, and twiddling one’s thumbs as the yeast does its thing, patience is all but required of those who brew.
With the right approach, though, you can tick a few things off your list even as you wait. Here are five ways to wait less and do more on brew day.
1. Make the water wait for you. Heating water is among brewing’s most time consuming processes. Water’s high specific heat (the amount of energy required to raise the temperature) means that you have to add heat for a long time to hit strike temperature, sparge temperature, or a rolling boil. The first thing I do on brew day is start the burner so that the water heats while I measure and crush grain, whip up a batch of sanitizer, and prepare the day’s mise en place of hops and water additions. I also periodically check the water temperature as I go about my business so that I neither have to wait longer than necessary nor severely overshoot the target temperature.