It's a sad day....

So, 2 weeks ago I kegged a traditional bock and last week Saturday kegged the Deception Stout. I also had a 5 liter mini keg of Spaten, just to have a "light" beer available. Tonight all of my kegs are empty..... FML..


~having a big brew fest tomorrow~

Whoa, you killed the pipeline. What did you do, invite the whole town over for a beer?

I am scared that I am going to have the same situation when I get home from my holiday.

The only two kegs of beer I had left after Christmas were in the beer fridge when we left and my brother in law has been house sitting for us for the last two weeks.

It could be a dry few weeks.....😞

PrestonShed said:

I am scared that I am going to have the same situation when I get home from my holiday.

The only two kegs of beer I had left after Christmas were in the beer fridge when we left and my brother in law has been house sitting for us for the last two weeks.

It could be a dry few weeks.....dde1e

Click to expand...

You need to invest in a lock on your fridge

You just need to brew more often my pipeline gets hurt but I always have some fresh brews bottled, fermenting and contidioning. I brew every week need to do some heavy drinking if a want to keep brewing every week for the next couple of months. Well it´s a hard job but someone has to do it

Obliviousbrew said:

You just need to brew more often my pipeline gets hurt but I always have some fresh brews bottled, fermenting and contidioning. I brew every week need to do some heavy drinking if a want to keep brewing every week for the next couple of months. Well it´s a hard job but someone has to do it

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was thinking these would have lasted a bit longer than 2 weeks, was I wrong.. Right now I only have a vanilla porter in the fermenter.

I have pretty decent pipeline, but I have got in the habit of pulling off a sixer of each keg as soon as it is carbed. I stash these and use them as an insurance policy in case I suddenly find all six kegs dead. I like to think of the stashed beer as my highlight reel.

Yeah, to keep my pipeline full, I generally brew 2 batches each month. Since most of my beers are 8% and higher, I don't drink them too fast.

I was brewing 4 times a month since I wanted to do some longer aging beers but gave up on that since a litre of 13% stout in a swing top (which is how I store beers I want to age) is a lot of beer.

My setup is like this:

4 Kegs on tap (1 being soda for my GF)
2 Kegs in the cellar usually maturing beers like my 13% oaked stout
4 Carboys full (I have 4 full right now..may do a 5th one next week)

Once you have 60 gallons of beer at any given time in your house, you never run out.

I hear you, my wife and I had some friends up for the weekend. It ended with my keg of Apfelwien, English pale, and most of my graff.

Dang luckily I have an apa, ipa, coffee porter, and a huge ris in the pipeline.

The only reason I broke the pipeline was because I decommissioned my kit to modify it into a 2 tier setup that has ended up taking a lot longer to complete than I expected.

You guys are inspirational. Would be awesome to have that kind of beer laid up. I'm doing two in a week for the first time, oatmeal milk stout last weekend and Belgian farmhouse tomorrow. I do have one more keg, think I've been convinced to fill that one up sooner than later.

Finally got to brew today myself. I was really starting to freak out, it had been 4 weeks since I had last brewed and the pipeline was down to 1 keg that wasn't tapped and 3 Corny kegs tapped that each are at least 3/4 full. That's the lowest I've been since October, after starting brewing in August. It will be nice to hear the bubbles again from the airlock. I think my cats even miss it. They come down to the basement and look around like something is missing.

garrett_8 said:

You guys are inspirational. Would be awesome to have that kind of beer laid up.

Click to expand...

Inspirational alcoholics lol.

Inormally have at least 35-40gal of beer in kegs and can brew up to 3 x 5gal batches in a day. Wait until you start brewing for other people and for their parties. You can easily get into the habit if brewing two or three batches a week

garrett_8 said:

You guys are inspirational. Would be awesome to have that kind of beer laid up. I'm doing two in a week for the first time, oatmeal milk stout last weekend and Belgian farmhouse tomorrow. I do have one more keg, think I've been convinced to fill that one up sooner than later.

Click to expand...

I feel you. I think it comes down to committing to getting it done and having a SWMBO that is understanding of your hobby. My entire house smelled like Citra and Galaxy hops today...I LOVE IT but my girlfriend hates it. She hides in the upstairs bedroom watching lifetime while I brewed for 7 hours. That's commitment!

Make the time, get it done and have some beer on hand. I brewed 5 gallons yesterday and another 5 gallons today..my entire weekend was spent making beer and I'm proud of it. but I know a lot of guys don't have that sort of situation.

PrestonShed said:

Inspirational alcoholics lol.

Inormally have at least 35-40gal of beer in kegs and can brew up to 3 x 5gal batches in a day. Wait until you start brewing for other people and for their parties. You can easily get into the habit if brewing two or three batches a week

Click to expand...

Wait..you're doing three 5 gallon batches A DAY!?!!?

Are you running multiple burners with multiple pots? That's an insane amount of work. My brew day takes at least 5 hours with mashing.

and you have a point. Once you start promising people kegs of beer for parties, those batches go quick. For July 4th, I brewed 60 gallons of beer the month before and it was all consumed in a single day while I was on the BBQ grill and later doing fireworks...I think I got 4 glasses of beer in the 60 gallons and it was a really sad feeling. 12 batches of beer, across 6 kegs and a crap load of bottles...all of that work (close to 90 hours) and it was gone in one day. It certainly made me rethink my dreams of running a professional brewery.

Not every day but my last brew session I did 2 batches for myself and one for a mate then the next day I did 2 for a wedding and 1 for a bachelors party.

You would be surprised what you can do with two burners, two pots and a cooler mash tun. You just use the time wisely.

Actually the hardest part is staying sober enough to get through your entire brew day because brewing can't take place without drinking.

adamjackson said:

..... and it was a really sad feeling. 12 batches of beer, across 6 kegs and a crap load of bottles...all of that work (close to 90 hours) and it was gone in one day. It certainly made me rethink my dreams of running a professional brewery.

Click to expand...

BLASPHEMY! I would love to make beer for a living. Although I work in the conditioning department of a macro brewery, it would be heaven to actually get to create beers for others to enjoy. But I am too risk adverse to open my own brewery, and SHMBO agrees.

And I thought I brewed a lot (5 gallons once every 6-8 weeks), you guys make me seem like a lightweight. But I also have to drink all the free beer I get from work. It's a tough life.

adamjackson said:

I feel you. I think it comes down to committing to getting it done and having a SWMBO that is understanding of your hobby. My entire house smelled like Citra and Galaxy hops today...I LOVE IT but my girlfriend hates it. She hides in the upstairs bedroom watching lifetime while I brewed for 7 hours. That's commitment!

Make the time, get it done and have some beer on hand. I brewed 5 gallons yesterday and another 5 gallons today..my entire weekend was spent making beer and I'm proud of it. but I know a lot of guys don't have that sort of situation.

Click to expand...

A lot of it has to do with having a dedicated setup and the room to have it. My rig is stored ready to go in the garage. From wheeling it out to pushing it back takes 4 hours and not being on the wife's stove makes the proposition easier. My wife likes brew days cause it means I watch the kids play in the yard the whole time I brew and she gets some time to catch up on things or she joins us outside. I typically brew every weekend except when I am out of town.

Go to 10Gal batches. Same work, same time, twice as much result. The only extra equipment I had to get(I use keggles) was one of the 4 wheel landscape carts to wheel the mash tun back to the woods to dump it. I drain into two 5 gal ale pails. I keg 5 gals, and bottle the other. It also gives you the chance to try different yeasts in the same batch, or oak one and not the other.

adamjackson said:

I feel you. I think it comes down to committing to getting it done and having a SWMBO that is understanding of your hobby. My entire house smelled like Citra and Galaxy hops today...I LOVE IT but my girlfriend hates it. She hides in the upstairs bedroom watching lifetime while I brewed for 7 hours. That's commitment!

Make the time, get it done and have some beer on hand. I brewed 5 gallons yesterday and another 5 gallons today..my entire weekend was spent making beer and I'm proud of it. but I know a lot of guys don't have that sort of situation.

Click to expand...

My girlfriend made dog treats out my spent grain! And she drinks half the beer. Guess that means she's on board, time will tell though, my equipment doesnt take up half the house....yet

This was a first for me, running out of beer that is.. At first we all celebrated killing 2 kegs, then reality set in

Now I need to buy more equipment to keep up with demand.. I think I'll need to keep 3 on tap, 2 kegs on the ready and 2 - 3 in the fermenters considering how fast the last kegs went. I'm glad(and very lucky) that SWMBO says "that's my favorite" every brew I make.

~Calling in sick today so I can buy a couple more kegs, 40lbs of grain and brew this afternoon.