Your brewing regime and managing beer stock levels

[Haversham]

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.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

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.

I wish I had a system for making sure my stock levels don't get too low, but sadly, I only realise it's too late when I get to the end of a keg. Unfortunately I just don't get as many brews done as I would like/need. Thats said, this is why kits are great too as they don't take a lot of time to get in the fermenter.
It's good to hear you're being patient!

 

[jof]

It pretty much depends on how much you drink.
Usually I get through 2 pints every other night - 1 pint a day average, so I need to do a batch every 5/6 weeks.
Obviously if you drink more, or all your mates come round to drink your beer, you will need to adjust your plans.

I try to have a minimum stock of 40 bottles to cover the time needed to make the next batch.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The approach you take will depend to a large extent on the space and equipment you have. I have space and kit available so no real constraints and I brew almost constantly.

I would say you could start another brew once your fermenter becomes available, or maybe a week later. The beer can stay in the fermenter until a keg/barrel becomes available. If you’re nervous about the beer sitting on the trub another bucket to use as a secondary fermenter/conditioning bucket wouldn’t be expensive.

 

[Clint]

I've been off for 12 days...my stocks have taken a hammering. I probably at the least need to brew once a month. But then I do run dangerously low.
If you drank 10 bottles per week,so 40 a month then going on a basic 2x2x2 week brew cycle you'd need a rolling 60 bottle stock. This in reality isn't near enough as some take longer than 6 weeks to brew and condition so doubling it would be better or trebling it incase you miss a brewday.

 

[An Ankoù]

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.

I enjoy the brewing as much as, if not more than, the drinking (and I do love a pint) and so I brew much more than I can drink. So I have the opposite problem, how to get rid of the stuff. I made the mistake at one stage of brewing stronger beers, which keep and improve with age. But then it's just a pile of beer that you can't really do a session with. I've never got less than several hundred litres bottled up and ready to go.
So: I think I'd still brew even if I couldn't drink any more. And, anyone wanting to help me shift a few gallons would recieve a warm welcome.

 

[SMP Brewery]

I enjoy the brewing as much as, if not more than, the drinking (and I do love a pint) and so I brew much more than I can drink. So I have the opposite problem, how to get rid of the stuff. I made the mistake at one stage of brewing stronger beers, which keep and improve with age. But then it's just a pile of beer that you can't really do a session with. I've never got less than several hundred litres bottled up and ready to go.
So: I think I'd still brew even if I couldn't drink any more. And, anyone wanting to help me shift a few gallons would recieve a warm welcome.

Checks first ferry to St Malo.

 

[Old Fart At Play]

I bottle my beer. I keep the bottles in crates, 20 bottles to a crate. When I have 2 empty crates I put a brew on.

 

[Stevieboy]

When I'm brewing I have a 3 barrel system - 1 drinking, 1 conditioning and 1 brewing

 

[Agentgonzo]

I'm like @An Ankoù - I enjoy the brewing and tend to brew more than I drink (I try to drink not more than one pint a night and not every night (except weekends) so give a fair bit away to friends and family.

I know it's time to brew when my empty bottle shelf is full as that means there are about 40 bottles ready to be filled leaving 60 still full ready to be drunk. With a 30 day grain-to-glass cycle, I'll still have plenty drinkable as the next batch is fermenting/conditioning

 

[An Ankoù]

I bottle my beer. I keep the bottles in crates, 20 bottles to a crate. When I have 2 empty crates I put a brew on.

A great plan, but having converted The Wise One from wine to beer, I'm gradually getting her round to homemade beers. Her objection being either: it's too bitter or: I can taste the water (a 10%-er is her ideal). A happy compromise is this one at 7,2% and, although I've brewed a couple of successful clones, at around €2 for a 75cl bottle, it's not really worth my while. This means I now have several hundred of these elegant, sturdy bottles which I either cork or fit a swing top. Happily, my good lady now swears by my Kiwi Czech lager (Czech lager with NZ hops) and I don't need to accumulate any more bottles. They're far too good to through away.

 

[Haversham]

I bottle my beer. I keep the bottles in crates, 20 bottles to a crate. When I have 2 empty crates I put a brew on.

I like simplicity of that system even though I’m a spreadsheet man by nature.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I bottle my beer. I keep the bottles in crates, 20 bottles to a crate. When I have 2 empty crates I put a brew on.

Kanban

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

I just try to brew every Sunday. I consume half what I brew so generally have around 300 bottles in stock as a buffer for when I miss a brewday.
That's another reason for me preferring bottles over kegs. I'd currently need 18 kegs to house the varieties of beer I've got in bottles.

 

[DocAnna]

Your approach to stock control, supply and demand will for the most part depend upon your time available to brew, and how much is brewing for it's own sake and how much for your own consumption. This may change over time, I started brewing kits and my family and I would drink what was made, with very little given away. These days I suspect our family's total consumption is much less than 50% of what I make, and I'd really like to make more than I do. The limiting factor eventually becomes packaging - bottling, canning, kegging, pressure barrels, bags in boxes or your container of choice. 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.

Several of the answers we've given above refer to the buffer of stock and brewing when that stock dips. So I'm recommending you consider how much you and friends or family will consume over about a 4 to 6 week period and plan your stock holding and manufacturing capacity around this

 

[Haversham]

When I'm brewing I have a 3 barrel system - 1 drinking, 1 conditioning and 1 brewing

Can I ask you to describe this more? Honestly, I’m not questioning it but just trying to understand this. I think of brewing as a relatively short period while conditioning can be a long period. And drinking could be either short or long. Something I can’t get my head round is whether conditioning and drinking are always distinct stages — don’t they overlap?

 

[Stevieboy]

Can I ask you to describe this more? Honestly, I’m not questioning it but just trying to understand this. I think of brewing as a relatively short period while conditioning can be a long period. And drinking could be either short or long. Something I can’t get my head round is whether conditioning and drinking are always distinct stages — don’t they overlap?

It's not an exact science - but I start drinking after 30 days conditioning in the barrel, and judge when to brew next depending. I may have to wait a week or so, I'm not that fussed. Also some beers are clear after 2 weeks....and some never clear!

 

[hoppyscotty]

I saw a YouTube vid that shows you how to calculate how much you should brew to keep been on taps continuously. Obviously aimed at a microbrewery with a tap room so if you have a brewing system of x litres capacity and have 20 taps then you need to be brewing x times a week to ensure you have beer on all 20 times all the time. You could adapt this formula to calculate how often you should be brewing. Think it was this video:-



Personally I'm always running out of beer. There are 4 of us in our 'consortium' so we split each batch by 4 so yield about 4 litres each typically, and I like to give some away to work colleagues and other friends so doesn't leave me with alot for myself and I only ever have one of our beers available so would be nice to have a few to choose from and have a different beer on each of my 4 taps. I've just built up a larger system capable of 80 litres so means we can start to get some stock...but then since we primarily keg it means I don't have the space to store kegs and keep them at sensible temperatures while I'm storing them and I really want to avoid bottling again, so I've just solved one problem and created another. But hey...first world problems I can't complain really.

Just recently done our first brew with a reduced boil time to 30 mins and made no difference to the final beer so that is some saving to our brewday and I'm looking at 'investing' more money than I should on a fancy pants plate chiller so I can pitch directly into the fermenter again saving a good 40 mins to an hour per batch so this can bring brew time down so it is feasible to do a mid week evening brew too which will help the stock levels. Then I'll just need another fermenter or two!!! Who said home-brew was cheaper than buying commercial beers?!

 

[Buffers brewery]

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

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I bottle and like to have a varied type of beer in the shed. So I brew strong beer with a view to giving it a long time to condition etc. I also like brewing and generally brew every 3 weeks. This and the fact I don't usually drink very much means I have tons of beer in the shed and give quite a bit away, which while wasteful is something I don't mind doing really.