now that I have a fermentation chamber, how can I make more than 2 beers in a month?

I only have room for 2 buckets in my chamber. Those of you with similar chambers, how long do you primary inside of the chamber (ale yeast, for argument's sake)? Does anyone take them out after x amount of days? Does it depend on the yeast? The beer?

I'm at a loss right now, I don't want to waste all of the happy yeast and tasty beer I'm making because of the good temperature controlling by impatience and wanting to put in another fermenter.

Once active fermentation is complete, temperature is not nearly as critical. As a (very) general rule, once the krausen has fallen you can move it out of the fermentation chamber and to some other place that has less temperature control.

I'll leave it in there until the next brew needs the space, but will pull out a brew as soon as 7 days for anything that's not really high gravity.

By the time I stop seeing airlock activity at 5 days, fermentation is within a couple points of finishing. Usually by 7 days it's finished, but I haven't had 3 consecutive readings 1 day apart to be certain at that point.

There's some slow strains, but the main ones I and many brewers here use (Chico/WLP001/WY1056/US-05, Whitbread/WLP007/WY1098/S-04) finish fast and flocculate out anywhere from good (the former) to like-a-brick (the latter).

I'm pretty careful during the active fermentation, so that's 7-10 days, usually, at most. Then I don't feel bad about raising the temps.

With room for 2 fermenters, you should be able to rotate 8-10 beers through that.

Like others have stated, i move mine out of the chamber after active fermentation is done. A week or so for the few batches that i've gotten to use mine on.

You can brew every week. By the time you rotate out a brew it will have been in he chamber for 2 weeks. Plenty of time for the yeast to have done it's job. You can pull them out and let them sit at room temp to finish.

Natewv, thanks for asking the question, i'm working on a chamber that will also only fit two carboys and was wondering the same thing

The REAL trick is when you want to make a lager. In that case, I prefer to just make as many as will fit in my fermentation chamber, since it's going to be tied up for a while anyway.

For ales, I generally keep them in the fermenter for 10-14 days before packaging. After packaging, for bottles, I keep them at room temperature for at least a few weeks.

beergolf said:

You can brew every week. By the time you rotate out a brew it will have been in he chamber for 2 weeks. Plenty of time for the yeast to have done it's job. You can pull them out and let them sit at room temp to finish.

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This.

weirdboy said:

The REAL trick is when you want to make a lager. In that case, I prefer to just make as many as will fit in my fermentation chamber, since it's going to be tied up for a while anyway.

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Oh, how timely that comment is to me. I've got my chamber tied up right now for another 2 weeks doing a maibock I brewed a week ago (at 48-50*F now, then D-rest, then cold crash before kegging) so I'm having to put off doing the ESB that I have ready to brew. Poor planning on my part.:smack: Lesson learned.

Oh, how timely that comment is to me. I've got my chamber tied up right now for another 2 weeks doing a maibock I brewed a week ago (at 48-50*F now, then D-rest, then cold crash before kegging) so I'm having to put off doing the ESB that I have ready to brew. Poor planning on my part.:smack: Lesson learned.[/QUOTE]


I did a lager when I first got my fermentation fridge working, haven't done one since. I can't tie the thing up for weeks at a time on one or two batches. I will not do any more lagers until I have at least 1 more fermentation fridge, better yet would be 2.

weirdboy said:

The REAL trick is when you want to make a lager. In that case, I prefer to just make as many as will fit in my fermentation chamber, since it's going to be tied up for a while anyway.

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What I have decided here is to use my serving fridge as my lagering fridge. On second thought it's an old piece of **** and I guess I haven't really tested it's ability to keep the temperature within a few degrees. Is this precision as much an issue at lower temps as it is with Ale yeasts at higher temps (I'm assuming the answer is yes.)

natewv said:

What I have decided here is to use my serving fridge as my lagering fridge. On second thought it's an old piece of **** and I guess I haven't really tested it's ability to keep the temperature within a few degrees. Is this precision as much an issue at lower temps as it is with Ale yeasts at higher temps (I'm assuming the answer is yes.)

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It's not the lagering you need to worry about. It's the fermentation, which takes WAY longer for lagers than it does for ales. You really need to plan around it. E.g. get yourself a pretty deep pipeline of ales, and then throw in a couple of lagers, and maybe you can do something while the lagers are still fermenting that doesn't require the fridge, like a saison or something.