So, it's winter and crappy outside. Makes me not want to brew, since I have to either use my stove-top or brave the crappy outside weather. Especially on the weekends, since nothing ever seems to get done during the week.

So I was thinkin of trying to sneak in a couple brews during the week, that way the weekends are free for all the various things that take up all my free time.

Well, weekday brewing takes long enough when the weather is nice and I can do it outside on my deck, but in the winter months, it take so much longer. Since I don't really feel like staying up that late, I was planning on splitting the all grain brews into two days.

I know that there are folks out there in internetbrewingland that wrap the mash tun up and mash overnight, but that still leaves the bulk of the brewing for one day. No thanks. Not to mention our friend lacto. I'll invite him to the party if my cousin wheat shows up, but otherwise, he's a jerk.

So my plan is to mash and sparge normally, but collect all the runnings in spare buckets and leave it outside until I'm ready for the boil. The chilly Illinois winter will take it down out both enzyme and lacto range, so no real need for mashout.

I'll probably also go with a no chill for most of the beers ( i like malty :-* ), so that'll cut down on the second day as well.

If I can find and implement enough motivation to keep this up once a week, I should be able to stock up on brews enough to last me through spring and hopefully get a few high gravity/long aging beers for fall.

That's the plan anyway. Anyone care to add some tips or ideas? Anything that might cut down on the timing or make it a little easier is more than welcome.