Moving- Brew or Stop

I have decided to sell my house, and move closer to my family. I do not want to move a bunch of beer, but would like to continue brewing. It is sort of expected that when i show up, I'll have a few beers for friends and family to sample.

Has anyone moved with beer? I am guessing what is already bottled will be fine after a few days settled into the new house, but am concerned about the fermenters.

This wil be a one way move about 1 hr away. Throwing away all furniture, buying new stuff and having it delivered to new house. The plan is to rent a U-haul type truck, and whatever doesn't fit in the truck doesn't go.

Should I stop now, drink what I got, and start again when I get there?

Or, keep brewing, and have everything bottled before I go

What would you do?

This could happen as early as next month, or as late as early summer.

1 hour should be perfectly fine. I would just make sure that fermentation has died down and put solid stoppers on them and secure them so tehy dont fall over.

kegs work great for transporting beer. if you don't already keg now this might be the impetus you were looking for!

I moved (8 hrs) all the stuff in bottles with no problem I wouldnt have moved anything in a carboy or bucket though. I wouldnt even move it an hr if it waqsn't bottled to much chance it gets sloshed and aerates.

john from dc said:

kegs work great for transporting beer. if you don't already keg now this might be the impetus you were looking for!

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Gotta agree with that. Kegs are perfect for this. It's a great excuse as far as I'm concerned. Buy more kegs or start kegging. This is your in. :rockin:

Won't hurt for it to slosh as long as it has a nice Co2 blanket over it an an airlock. (So after/during primary fermentation, before racking to a secondary)

Just out of curiosity, would transporting a full keg violate open container laws? Certainly it won't be open, but also it's not sealed by manufacturer. I always get nervous when I take home empty bottles that people have saved for me. I would hate to get pulled over, and try to explain a case of empty bottles.

fivehoursfree said:

Just out of curiosity, would transporting a full keg violate open container laws? Certainly it won't be open, but also it's not sealed by manufacturer. I always get nervous when I take home empty bottles that people have saved for me. I would hate to get pulled over, and try to explain a case of empty bottles.

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I doubt that a keg violates the law and i am sure the cop would understand if you are in a state that is legal to homebrew in

I stopped brewing before we moved because I like to primary my beers for a long time. If it's going to be more than a month, I say get whatever you can brewed and kegged, because you're not going to have spare time for a while after you move. It took me a month to have time to brew after we moved, I was going to brew the weekend we went house shopping, so I had a 3 month "vacation" and the pipeline is slowly filling back up 5 months later.

I'm not sure I would want to move and try to brew at the same time. moving can be a big undertaking just by itself. finished beer is one thing, but no way I would choose to move with still fermenting beer IMO.

I recall moving just from one apartment to another across town and by the time I factor in packing, transporting, unpacking, cleaning the place, ectera, ectera between getting the first box packed until the time we got settled into the new place was nearly a month ...and thats before the wife and I had all the shait we have now We are in a house now and I dont even like the thought of picking up and moving anytime soon I would need a month just to prep before I even started :cross:

fivehoursfree said:

Just out of curiosity, would transporting a full keg violate open container laws? Certainly it won't be open, but also it's not sealed by manufacturer. I always get nervous when I take home empty bottles that people have saved for me. I would hate to get pulled over, and try to explain a case of empty bottles.

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in virginia if it's in your trunk it's a-ok. this requires a trunk, however.

Have you thought about brewing at one of your family members houses that will be closer to where you will be moving? It could be a learning experience for them.

I would think anything that's not currently undergoing primary fermentation would be fine to move. I might make a special "brew moving" trip to move all my fermenters at once, but anything that wasn't actively bubbling I would move. You might need to let it sit a few extra weeks when you get there, but that sounds better to me than not brewing.

Alternatively, brew something that needs to sit for a long time.