Nowadays for anealing, I hold the case in my fingers and run the necks into the flame of a MappGas torch in a darkened room, slowing turning the case in my fingers. It only takes a couple seconds per case including picking them up. As soon as they start into dull red, I drop them into a bucket of water. The reason for the fingers, is you'll never let the case get hot enough to anneal the sides and base.

The reason for the dark room, is if done in a well lighted room, by the time you see the red - it's usually become too hot and some of the zinc is burned from the case material.

This is a very fast method of annealing a lot of brass, much faster than any other method I've seen, used or heard of.

I then remove the brass from the water, shake the water out with a snap of the wrist and roll them in a towel, then let sit to dry in the shop (humidity of about 30%), or put out in the sun to dry in summer.