Your brewing regime and managing beer stock levels

[Stevieboy]

I have 4 King Keg pressure barrels that I use in turn. It takes 6-8 weeks to empty a 5 gallon batch and my Barrelater holds 2 barrels, one being drunk the other conditioning. The third barrel gets filled when the second goes in the Barrelater and usually starts conditioning before the first barrel is empty so gets put on garage floor while waiting for a space in the Barrelater so the fourth brew can be started. After that I brew when the fermentation fridge is empty after fermentation, carbonation and a week of conditioning. Complicated? I hope so

Don't ask Buffers for simple answer! He calls pencils "Graphite Infused Technical Drawing Implements"!!

 

[MrRook]

I brew a three gallon batch once a month which fits my having a beer with supper.

 

[An Ankoù]

I've also become less tolerant of holding beers that I'm not happy with, if it's no good then I'd rather tip it away and make space for the next thing in the fermenter.

How true. It's very easy to end up with half a dozen or ten bottles of something mediocre that you've been hoping will improve with age and after a couple of years you've got 50 bottles of shi'ite. Best to make an executive decision and bite the bullet; unless it's a carbonation issue, Bottles generally do carbonate up after a while, even if it's a year. (Even if you forget to put the priming sugar in)

 

[Stevieboy]

How true. It's very easy to end up with half a dozen or ten bottles of something mediocre that you've been hoping will improve with age and after a couple of years you've got 50 bottles of shi'ite. Best to make an executive decision and bite the bullet; unless it's a carbonation issue, Bottles generally do carbonate up after a while, even if it's a year. (Even if you forget to put the priming sugar in)

Binned my whole last brew - some treacle porter thing - ghastly. 40 chuffing pints!

EDIT - It was Festival Bonfire Toffee Stout.

 

[Slid]

Binned my whole last brew - some treacle porter thing - ghastly. 40 chuffing pints!

Hmm, a little treacle goes a very long way!
My disasters have been predominantly due to chlorophenols - they just never go away!!

 

[Buffers brewery]

Don't ask Buffers for simple answer! He calls pencils "Graphite Infused Technical Drawing Implements"!!

And?

 

[Jim Brewster]

I brew all grain, a gallon once a fortnight so for me brewing is more for the process and learning than for supplying my drinking requirements. I have very little space for brewing and storage and just have to fit the brewing around that. I would have to scale up a lot to get a buffer. I did a big batch of wherry kit once but I was not overly keen on it. The turnaround is much faster will all grain than kits.

 

[Sadfield]

I find the challenge isn't so much managing volumes, rather predicting what I fancy drinking in 4 weeks time.

 

[Haversham]

I have 4 King Keg pressure barrels that I use in turn. It takes 6-8 weeks to empty a 5 gallon batch and my Barrelater holds 2 barrels, one being drunk the other conditioning. The third barrel gets filled when the second goes in the Barrelater and usually starts conditioning before the first barrel is empty so gets put on garage floor while waiting for a space in the Barrelater so the fourth brew can be started. After that I brew when the fermentation fridge is empty after fermentation, carbonation and a week of conditioning. Complicated? I hope so

I’m hesitant to ask as I’ve already amassed more gear than expected. But what the heck is a barrelater? :)

 

[Lee69]

I’m hesitant to ask as I’ve already amassed more gear than expected. But what the heck is a barrelater? :)

You need to read through some of @Buffers brewery threads to find out. A warning though, you'll fall into a rabbit hole.

 

[Buffers brewery]

I’m hesitant to ask as I’ve already amassed more gear than expected. But what the heck is a barrelater? :)

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/my-barrelator-build.90418/

 

[Haversham]

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/my-barrelator-build.90418/

Ok good, that’s a relief. I mean, very impressive an'all but it’s not a direction I want to go down at this stage so I can spare the credit card for another day. But well done on putting it together.

 

[taxidiver]

Hi Everyone. I'm a new brewer with just two kits fermented so far and both a long way from drinking stage (I'm prepared to be very patient). But it's got me thinking about how best to manage my brewing regime so that I'll always have something drinkable i.e. as one or two brews are reaching their best, there should ideally be another one or two already conditioning, ready to replace or supplement them. I like to have one or two days of no alcohol each week but on average I'd say I drink about 10-15 pints a week at home depending on various factors. If my brewing is a success I may end up consuming a bit more at home.

It got me wondering how others plan their brewing. Is it just a sudden 'OMG I'm running low, better get something going'? Or are you a meticulous planner, with a spreadsheet to tell you exactly when you should be brewing again? And does activity change with the seasons? Perhaps you ferment less in the summer when temperatures are harder to control. Thanks for sharing your approach.

An interesting question, which I hadn't really thought about before. I have just been into my garage and had a count up. I have shelving space for 171 two litre bottles plus another 48 in boxes under the shelves, so 219 in total. I brew kits, starting when my last shelf is about half full and carry on brewing until the shelves are full again.

 

[soupdragon]

I simply have a notebook with details of all my brews in and mark off each time I have a pint. I have two kegs so about half way through one batch I get another beer on. By the time it's ready to go in the keg I will have recently finished the keg. I swap over to my second keg and repeat........

Cheers Tom

 

[KentishMan]

Like a few people have said.
it’s about the space you have.
I like variety, and some stronger beers ageing for longer etc so I try and keep as many bottles and kegs filled as possible.
I use the same plan so others do, and as soon as I have enough spare bottles and kegs available, I brew another batch.

 

[Haversham]

Like a few people have said.
it’s about the space you have.
I like variety, and some stronger beers ageing for longer etc so I try and keep as many bottles and kegs filled as possible.
I use the same plan so others do, and as soon as I have enough spare bottles and kegs available, I brew another batch.

I have some space and (maybe more important) a spouse who’s willing to tolerate this new hobby. I have one King Keg (newly occupied) and about 60 bottles, 24 of them free + 3 unused FVs. I think I’ll have to get another barrel to ensure a sort of rolling level of stock, as well as continuing to build up my bottle collection.

 

[sifty]

I bottle 85% of the time. I get every other Friday off so sometimes brew every two weeks. When I start tripping over the crates in the garage I invite thirsty friends over, or take a few crates to their place.
Seems to work...

 

[Jimboscott]

Hi Everyone. I'm a new brewer with just two kits fermented so far and both a long way from drinking stage (I'm prepared to be very patient). But it's got me thinking about how best to manage my brewing regime so that I'll always have something drinkable i.e. as one or two brews are reaching their best, there should ideally be another one or two already conditioning, ready to replace or supplement them. I like to have one or two days of no alcohol each week but on average I'd say I drink about 10-15 pints a week at home depending on various factors. If my brewing is a success I may end up consuming a bit more at home.

It got me wondering how others plan their brewing. Is it just a sudden 'OMG I'm running low, better get something going'? Or are you a meticulous planner, with a spreadsheet to tell you exactly when you should be brewing again? And does activity change with the seasons? Perhaps you ferment less in the summer when temperatures are harder to control. Thanks for sharing your approach.

 

[Jimboscott]

I'm in a similar situation to you, having just started back after about 10 years off (kids, work, life etc).

I've been a bit frivolous though, I've got 3 fermentation buckets and have accumulated:
2 x 10l cornys
10x2l plastic bottles
4x5l mini kegs with a partstar tap

All essentially giving me enough to have 3 brews on the go (have just bottled my first batch, have a GF ale nearing end of fermenting for the cornys and will condition my 3rd in the mini kegs but it went on today so a while to go yet).

My plan is to effectively build out to having 12 mini kegs so I've got plenty 'on the bench' as it were and then basically just brew again as one of them runs out - and having the option of transferring from the mini kegs to the cornys if I want something with more carbonation. I reckon this approach will
A) keep me in stock aplenty
B) reduce the number of brews I have to do to 1-2 a month after this initial push of 5/6 brews
C) give some of the beers plenty of time to mature as I'm impatient and know full well I'll start some of them before they're at their best.

I'll let you know how I get on!

 

[Graz]

I try to keep a decent stock but sometimes life gets in the way and levels drop. Things changed a bit when I built my keg fridge / kegerator and somehow ended up with six corny kegs The fridge holds three and the general idea is to have a brew ready to replace any space left by an empty keg from the fridge so I try to keep the three that aren't in the fridge filled. I do tend to have three beverages that I am drinking at any given time but I try to avoid the situation where all three get finished at the same time, at the moment I have a Belgian Pale, a Mango Pale and a cider on tap. Tend to get through about 14 pints a week, keg holds about 32-33 so really need to be making a brew every ~3 weeks to keep a critical mass (once I've got there in the first place).

The "useful" thing with cornys is they only hold 19L and most of the kits I brew are 22-23L so I end up with 6-8 bottles to put aside from each brew. It does add a little bit of hassle to the kegging process having to fill a few bottles but does mean that I always have some bottled stock to fall back on if I get behind on brewing. Do treat myself to some shop bought craft beer and so on sometimes too which reduces the load a bit.