Blending beer, big beers maturation & kk capacity

[Newtons Shed]

Hi folks,

I'm currently looking to rebuild the brewery and be increasing brew length from 25l to 50l however I currently only 25l plastic wine fermenters to ferment the beer in. I don't really want to have to buy some sort of 50l fermenter just yet.. I also at first plan to start testing the new herms kit on smaller 25l batches anyway before doing new full batch sizes and I also plan to split the brews anyway either boil with different hops (split the mash between hlt and boiler) and/or different yeast ie comparrison brew; same brew with a full 50l lenght, split into 2 25l fv one with say dried yeast the other with liquid.

I was thinking if/when I do a full 50l brew and split into 2 fvs (perhaps even with different hop or yeast profiles) if I wanted to, could I just add/blend them in to one barrel once they've finished fermenting? Breweries did use to do this but I'm worried it's a skill knowing what to blend with what, obviously if they're the same then it won't matter but if different hops or yeast would mixing the 2 be a case of suck it and see as wouldn't be able to work out what the end blended beer would be like and changes as conditions. Does anyone regularly blend their beers? Just to be clear, in the main the grain bill would be the same, I'm just splitting the total end volume ie collect runnings into boiler after sparge ect (do you need to sparge with herms?) and then split from here before boiling with different hops, so will always be similar beer anyway.

If so will a king keg be ok? Usually a 25l will only half fill one kk and GW says the rotory kegs hold a dubble brew, which would reduce the uliage ie air space but wasn't sure if the kegs needed that head space which would fill up with co2 from the beer and give more down pressure?

I'm also tempted to once I have nailed the new proces do a big beer like imperial russian stout or Thomas Hardy at abv 10%+ where you need to barrel for 12 month plus before racking into bottles for 3 years+ as this would tie my small cornie fleet up (only have 3 + 3 or 4 KK) would a kk be suitable? I was worried about gas leaks and air getting in leaving it for that lenght of time.

Thanks
Andy

 

[wilsoa1111]

sounds like u want to look into partigyle- its actually pretty simple and for the big beers, just bottle them, think how expensive a corny or kk is to keep full for a whole year vs 24bottles at £8 (i use the PET better bottles and v chuffed so far)

 

[wilsoa1111]

with partigyle can really work in some differences esp if doing seperate boils ( are clever ways of working steepable grains into the mash) and boils could be done half drained than more hops etc added

 

[Brewedout]

King kegs would be filled almost to the brim with 27 litres. I put that much in mine with no issues. Personally I would keep a strong beer like RIS in a keg for 12 months before bottling. Kk would be fine just check pressure now and then (also good to see how flavour changes with time).