Pipeline

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

benzy4010

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2011
Messages
1,136
Reaction score
9
K I know the answer I'm going to get from many( never too many). I am about to build a keezer most likely a 4 tapper. How many kegs do you need to keep a goods yeast flow? I have four but I'm think 6 is plenty?
 
Lowes has a good deal on a 14.8 for around... well here, $395 :) I'm very tempted...

Lowes148.jpg
 
I have 4 kegs in fridge and 5 kegs outside of fridge! Potentially if u have a 4 out and you drink them evenly; You will be empty on 4 kegs at the same time, making your pipeline shrink!
 
This is kind of a question no one can answer but yourself. There's too many variables in play, and everyone's life and drinking style is different. How many people are gong to be drinking your beer? How fast do you drink? How much variety do you want to have at any give time? How often do you plan on brewing? Do you EVER intend to bottle age some beers? Stuff like that. There's no rule of thumb for this.

I live alone, but I do brew a lot for fun, and even do a lot of small batch brewing , I have a lot of brewing friends and family that enjoys good beer so I nlike to share, but ultimately I will be drinking most of the beer myself. Lately I've been not drinking during the week, at least monday, tuesday and wednesday (and eating only meat and greens those days as well + working out.) I like variety, BUT I'm realistic enough to know that i'm the one who's going to be drinking most of the beer.I also believe that some beers can ONLY be bottle conditioned, so I still plan on bottling many batches, mostly big beers that need months and years to age.... I opted for a kenmore 7 cu freezer from Sears, it can hold 5 kegs with my 10" collar, but I chose as of now ONLY to have 3 beers on tap at any given time. This gives me room to cold crash or lager a fermenter in the keezer, OR just have 2 more kegs in reserve when my main kegs kick...

2c777ec4.jpg


Eventually I might add a nitrogen tap for stouts, which will cut down my extra space by 1 keg. Which still would be ok.

There's no right or wrong answer to this. You're kinda gonna have to just figure this out for yourself. You can always have a bunch of full kegs stacked up in your closet full of beer and maturing while you drink whatever's in your keezer. Hit them with a little co2 to protect it and you're golden. It's no diifferent then bottling and having a pipeline.
 
At first I got 4 kegs and I thought that would be enough.

Then I thought I might need some kegs for long term conditioning.
So I bought two more.....that should be enough.

Then I decided to do my primary fermentation in kegs.
So I bought 4 more.....that should be enough.

I'm starting to think with the shortage of kegs, that I could probably use 4 more.
Then I would have all the kegs I need....that should be enough.

Then again..... :cross:
 
fwiw, I run 6 faucets, and after a couple of years have my keg collection up to 14. Between kegs in the keezer, kegs carbing up, kegs conditioning, I rarely have an empty keg. Today I have one empty, and it's just waiting on a wheat beer that should be ready to keg next week...

Cheers!
 
If you drink regularly you should have an idea of your consumption. I keep 2-3 stouts, porters going that don't get drank as fast here in the heat. I run 6-8 sessions as well as Ed's pale ale, and 2-3 lagers (right now it's Schwartz, Spotted calf, and a new recipe I am tweaking. That said I have 12 taps with 2 cold conditioned waiting for something to kick. Have 3-4 outside kezzer waiting for room inside. My rule for a good pipeline is to have half as many outside as in with fermenters ready to fill the kegs as they kick. I call it Hurricane prep.
 
Back
Top