Two hour homebrew?

I've had an idea for awhile about how to brew more efficiently. Normally we steep the grains for a 1/2 hour or so, while the kitchen gets cleaned up and the fermenter gets filled with sanitizer. Then add the malt, boil for an hour and chill. Can I brew a five gallon extract w/specialty grain homebrew in two hours?


What if:
1. the kitchen was already clean/tidy?
2. dissolve the malt in the pot and get the boil started right away?
3. steep the grains in the wort while the chiller runs?







Schwartzbier, Jan 5, 2010


9:00 am Dissolve #6.8 d.m.e. in 3 gallons of H20


9:20 am Boil starts, get fermenter filled with sanitizer, start adding hops


10:10 am Wort chiller into pot


10:15 am Drain fermenter, rinse strainer, measuring cup, lid, airlock
10:20 am Add whirlfloc tablet


10:25 am Boil finished

11:00 am Wort chilled, topped off, pitched and in the cellar

Done in 2 hours. I realized that the grains weren't really in the pot very long while the chiller was running. So I poured the wort in the pot through my strainer first to get rid of the hops. Then I put the grain bag in the strainer and rinsed through the grains as I topped off the fermenter. There was a nice color in the wort coming out the strainer and I think I probably ran a gallon and a half of water through the grains.

All in all, this seems like it works. I had #2 of specialty grains. I'll be looking forward to seeing if I get all the color and roastiness I want in this schwartzbier.

Done!