Whats the longest amount of time you've gone between brews

So I recently have been unable to brew for about 5 months due to finances. It's a serious bummer. So I was wondering what the longest amount of time you've had between brew days and how you dealt with it.

5 weeks

Around 15 years or so.

I had a gap from November to February (out of the country), followed by brewing 15 gallons in March for my wedding (Ginger Lime PA). Right now I'm in a 5 month rut as a result of work and moving and renovating our kitchen/LR. I have been taking the time to start compiling the various components needed for my next upgrades (eBIAB, CFC, keezer) and just picked up everything I need for my return batch (Palisade Patersbier).

Ugh, talking about it makes it worse. Off to fantasize about my eventual eBrewery basement...

Close to a year. Life caught up to me and I let the stress end pretty much anything I did for fun. Back at it now though.

15-16 years. I had a ton of cornie kegs and two keggles along with a lot of other stuff including a pretty good yeast lab with a laminar flow hood. I sold everything except two 10 gal coolers, a two handle beer tower, a brand new pump, a fridge thermostat and some other misc hardware. BTW, I started back in 2009 and I'm using all that stuff except the tap (I bought 12 TAD bottles and two dispensers). This forum and most other resources did not exist back when I was brewing in the 1990s. Williams Brewing was around back then and I did buy things from them.

30 days ... and it nearly killed me!

1Mainebrew said:

So I recently have been unable to brew for about 5 months due to finances. It's a serious bummer. So I was wondering what the longest amount of time you've had between brew days and how you dealt with it.

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Since November of last year.

I managed to brew myself into a corner. Have 6 products on tap that have proven to not be quaffers but are very good thus would be sacriledge to dump.

I usually brew a few batches close together, and then go on a dry spell for a couple of months. I brewed a few times between 91 and around 98. Then picked it up again more seriously.

More than a year. This was mainly due to lots of moving and lack of space in small condos/stuff in storage.

I just got back into brew this year after 8+ years of being away from it. Missed brewing and very glad I'm back.

about 6-7 months for me at the moment, between moving and setting up the new house, i couldn't touch brewing

16 years and counting. But hey, making ginger beer at the moment so...

Just over 2 years.

The begininning of the recession put the company I had worked for for 17 years out of business, and losing your job at the exact same time that companies are laying off rather than hiring is the absolute ULTIMATE in crappy timing. Lost my house, and since I wasn't finding anything in my field, we decided to go ahead and move in order for my wife to accept a better job. A good friend was generous enough to offer the two car garage at one of his rental properties as a place for us to store some things for awhile at no charge.

Unfortunately, that was a rough couple of years and since the kids get crabby if they go for more than 3 or 4 days without food (exaggerating there... ), we weren't quite able to scrounge up the spare cash to rent the second u-haul plus all of the gas money to go get the last load. Altogether, that would be about a $500 trip at a time when finding $20 for groceries was a challenge. My friend also eventually found himself in a financial bind as well, and had to put the rental property up for sale. He gave me plenty of warning, plenty of notice, and plenty of time, but I just couldn't scrape up the spare cash to make the expensive trip to get my stuff, so I gave him my blessing to have a garage sale, keep the stuff, throw it away, or whatever.

Unfortunately, all of my brewing gear was amongst the items I was storing there.

So I'm starting from scratch again after having had a pretty elaborate setup, but I guess that's life. I still have my family, we haven't ever had to be homeless (yet), and there's food on the table every night. Losing a bit of brewing gear isn't really something I can bring myself to cry over, given how bad things could have been there for awhile.

Life goes in cycles, you have your good years, and you have your bad years. I know a guy who lives in a $7 million dollar, 3 year old house, and he's also struggling to put food on the table and gas in the tank. (Translation: 3 years ago things were going well enough for him to build a 7 million dollar house. Today he can't buy groceries....)

So I guess if a rich guy is struggling just as much as I am, well, how much can I really complain? ****'s hard everywhere.....

I was burnt out between January and July this year. Brewed up a fantastic Wit on the 4th of July that started everything back up again. Brewing my 6th batch since the 4th on Saturday.

I usually brew every week or two, but when we go to Texas in the winter, I'm away from my brew gear for two months!

I hope to fix that this year by begging any brewers in the Corpus Christi area and in the Rockport area to let me come over.

Almost 10 years. I brewed 1 Mr. Beer kit in early 1998, then didn't do it again until Dec. 2007. Recently though, probably 3 months.

5 years.

I was unimpressed with the extract beers I used to make. When I got started again, I jumped in AG. Haven't slowed down since.

About 1 month with Mr Beer. Since I went with the real macoy with partial mash, and AG, about 1 month. I needs my beer!!

passedpawn said:

5 years.

I was unimpressed with the extract beers I used to make. When I got started again, I jumped in AG. Haven't slowed down since.

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Could you PM me to discuss this? I'm getting ready to move to AG, I think for the right reasons, but something about what you said really caught my interest.

I'd love to chat about it a bit....

37 years......but that doesn't really count, and is a story for another time. I regularly have a 3-4 month hiatus between brew sessions, because I don't brew in the heat of the Summer or in the depths of our IL winters. I stack up my brewing schedule during the Spring and Fall to compensate.

About 2 months. I have a two tap kegerator so I can only have so much on tap. Things can only age so long. Plus I don't drink much during the week. So, while I would love to brew, I have no reason since I don't need anymore beer. Going to brew this weekend though.

six months and i went crazy but that happens when you are BROKE

Next question: what was your first brew upon ending your brewing drought?

About 18 months, while I went after my Master's degree.
May 2011 was an awesome month - rebuilt my kegerator, graduated, brewed two batches....

60 minutes

sorry posted by accident at red light. I think 4 months.

About 3 months when my wife got laid off and we moved across the state.
Wife still doesn't have a job but I get to brew once or twice a month again.

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I went four months once because my job had me living in a hotel, the second I was back in an apartment I made 16 gallons of beer and 6 gallons of wine...

What did you guys brew to re-inaugurate your breweries? For example, after my drought I just made a Kate the great cole with a schwarzbier Partigyle after 5.5 months away.

Lots of my dirty blonde ale, and a Pinot Gris. I don't particularly brew that much, maybe once a month +/- it depends on how long my beer lasts me. Once I bottle this heffe, I'll be running a batch every couple weeks, until my kegs are full then brew as many times as I need to keep my pipeline full, which will probably drop to once a month again. Three on tap, with one in reserve is the goal, maybe a bottle batch too...

Also I only make wine once or twice a year, and don't really include that when I say I brew once a month, it's seperate.

About 10 months. Life gets in the way sometime.

My last bottled batch was in 09. Wife asked my to clean up my corner of the basement last night. I found a quart of Calif. ale bottled in 2-08, and a bottle of Parry (carbonated pear wine) bottled in 2-03. I put them in the refrigerator to chill and maybe will not gush so bad. Cannot wait to open them tonight. I want to brew again... M&M

10 Years

eltorrente said:

10 Years

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And counting? Or the hiatus ended with you brewing up a...

1Mainebrew said:

And counting? Or the hiatus ended with you brewing up a...

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I brewed from '95 to early 2000's (all-grain). I gave all my equipment away (including a 10 gallon brew sculpture) when I moved into another place, and for some reason, got out of it completely.

Recently I got the bug again and put together another system - a 5 gallon cooler system with all sorts of brew toys to go with it.

My first beer since coming out of retirement was a pale ale (my old specialty) and it came out great - though I made various mistakes since it's been so long. Since then I've been brewing every other week or so, and have brewed 5 since my loooong hiatus ended.

4 months over the summer as temps were too high. Completely drained the pipeline and I'm still struggling to catch up again after brewing for 3 months.

Temp controlled fridge will keep this from EVER happening again.

solbes said:

4 months over the summer as temps were too high. Completely drained the pipeline and I'm still struggling to catch up again after brewing for 3 months.

Temp controlled fridge will keep this from EVER happening again.

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So what was your first beer when you ended your drought? What did you brew when your pent up brewing ideas went from hypothetical to fermenter?

About 6 years. 2 kids and starting a buisness.