Ten Gallon Brews

Just wondering about you folks that brew 10 gallon batches. What in the world do you do w/100 bottles or 2 kegs of the same stuff?

Do you drink that much that you go thru it fast?? or do you have a lot of friends over that help you?

Of course you may have lots of storage room and can build up a nice selection.

Here in Hawai`i I can't see storing beer at "room temp" because my room temp varies from 80/68 in our "winter" to 85/75 during the summer in my un-airconditioned house.

Besides I just don't have all that room to store it any way.

Not saying anything bad about the big patches, just wondering.

Okole Maluna!

10 gallons of any session can go real fast. and helps out when you brew big beers that take some bottle aging.

In retrospect it takes the same amount of time to brew 10 or 5 gallons.
Some people like the larger return from the same amount of labor.
I plan on brewing 10g batchs soon and will keg half and bottle half so its more portable.
Plus i have a large crawlspace under the house that keeps from large swings between winter and summer.

I "give away" one keg and drink the other one. You are right though that unless you are giving away the beer 10 gallons is too much for one person IMO.

I like splitting a ten gallon batch and using two different yeasts and different hops for dry hopping. I may keg both, or bottle one, keg the other. I have plenty of storage space, so that helps if I want to bottle age.

Dude if you have the kind of friends that I have you should brew 20 gallon batches

10 gallons really isn't that much. what's the difference between a 10g batch & two 5g batches?

Billy-Klubb said:

10 gallons really isn't that much. what's the difference between a 10g batch & two 5g batches?

Click to expand...

Two 5 gallon batches can be two completely different beers.

jeepinjeepin said:

Two 5 gallon batches can be two completely different beers.

Click to expand...

yep. but 10 gallons is 10 gallons. having 10g of one style, two 5g of completely different styles, or five 2g batches for yeast experiments. it's still 10 gallons.

I never had so many friends until I started brewing 10 gallon batches...

Thanks for the replys. I know the time is pretty much the same even for me and my 1.75 gallon batches. I guess space is one important factor and that most of you folks "over there" have air-conditioning during the summer and cold storage spaces in the winter. Shoots I was visiting friends in Vegas a few Decembers ago and they kept the house at 65*. I was freezing even in my flannel shirts.

I only drink 1 a day most of the time and sometimes after hiking friends stay over for a few beers but even w/that my small batches sometimes stack up and I skip a week of brewing. See w/my small batches I must brew just about every week and a half and get about 16 bottles each brew.

Also if I go to our brew club meetings I'll bring a few bottles a sample of say one of each I have in the refer.

Aloha and Okole Maluna

I hate to admit it, but we drink it almost all by ourselves. I make 10 gallon batches of beers I love, and they go quick!

A keg holds something like 40 pints. And there are two beer drinkers in our house. So, even a pint of day each is less than 3 weeks for a keg. And we both drink more than one pint.

It sucks when everything comes together and you produce a GREAT beer but only have 5 gallons. I brew 5 gal now but in a year hopefully I will have the ability to do 10 gal batches.

We do 10 gal a month of our house pale ale. It goes. It always goes.

When I am 'in the mood', I can kill 10 gallons in a couple of weeks... easily...

I keg half and bottle the other half to share with others. Depending on how long the mash is, a brew session is 5-6 hrs from start to end of clean up. Not too much longer than the 5 gallon batches I once brewed.

I have four taps on my fridge. I usually have 1 or 2 taps for the staple beers that I want all the time. And 1-2 taps of whatever I'm experimenting/trying or seasonal.

I will always make 10 gallons of my staples (irish red, oaked IPA0, just because I drink those the most and don't want to have to brew those every month. The one-offs I have no problem doing 5 of. Or if a friend chips in and wants to brew with me, we split the batch.

And yes, kegging makes LOTS of friends. Plus I'll take a keg to a party if I'm feeling generous.

find a friend to brew with and split it!!!