Shoot, need more taps

[BrewMehr]

I bought a new freezer and made a keezer a couple months ago. It tightly holds 4 5 gallon kegs and I thought this would be plenty for me.

I'm pretty much the only one to drink the beer I brew. I work a lot and between work and family I don't really do the friend scene like when I was younger. I brew 5-10 gallon batches and typically brew once or twice a month. When I was younger, my friends would easily drink all this beer for me but now there is no way I can drink that much.

But on the other hand, I really love variety and I could easily see having 4 more taps for a total of 8 varieties always ready to go. Buying and building a new keezer seems like a shame since I just bought/built this one. But now in hindsight I realize my keezer should be big enough for at least 8 tapped kegs, a couple untapped kegs and a cold crashing fermenter. This means I should have picked up a freezer 3x the size.

One thought I've had is to bottle the last 1/2 of each keg when I'm ready to get something new into the rotation. Perhaps this would allow me to get by with only 4 taps.

If I did actually have 8 varieties on tap, I would likely be swapping out one keg per month (based on my consumption) meaning kegs would stay tapped for up to 8 months.

Brewing smaller batches doesn't really seem like an option as my setup is 15 gallons and I really like brewing 5-10 gallon batches. Sometimes I actually think I enjoy the brewing more than the drinking -- I could easily brew every other day if I could actually drink that much.

What do other solo drinkers who love variety do? I've never kept a keg tapped for 8 months, would this be a problem with any varieties?

 

[Mar10]

8 taps for one person? I'm jealous! I have 2 taps and adding 3 more, some kegs are conditioning and some batches I bottle for aging. You could start entering competitions, multiple bottles needed for each round. It could help your creative side but spare you mass amounts of beer to drink by yourself. You could also join a regional brew club and host an event to share your love for brewing.

 

[BrewMehr]

I could probably get by with 6 but eight just seems right

Space for a at least one to be conditioning would be nice also.

I like the brew club idea but not sure I have the time to commit. Another idea would be to install a tap room at work and share with the employees.

 

[day_trippr]

The downside of having a broad and deep drinkable inventory with a comparatively modest rate of consumption is all those wonderful hop-forward characters will get lost with time. If you're heavily into malty, modestly hopped brews, that would mitigate the aging issue to some extent, but a months-old hoppy beer won't be the same as fresh.

And the ten gallon batch size only aggravates that production/consumption mismatch. Consider doing split-boils with different hop schedules to create some "easy" variety, and maybe using 2.5-3 gallon kegs...

Cheers!

 

[BrewMehr]

I definitely favor the hoppy IPAs. I have 2 on tap now and 3 finishing fermentation. Maybe the bottling concept is right for me...

 

[hottpeper13]

I built a 4 tap kegerator, and have a similar opportunity here,lol. Just so happens at the club(you need to join one)Xmas party I won the beer gun with acc kit. I do just what you were thinking,when I get tired of a beer or need the space i bottle. Also bottle my big beers like RIS and double bocks. I just scored a free side by side to convert into a ferment and conditioning box,but that is a winter project. Good luck with your opportunity!

 

[gnef]

I went the route of more kegs and more taps. I am currently at 14 taps from the walk-in, and I've been contemplating adding more!

 

[aryoung1980]

I'm in a similar boat. I love to brew more than I can drink. I also don't hang out with people like I did when I was younger so it's basically me who drinks the beer. I gave out growlers for gifts with the caveat that they could fill it whenever they want. One 64oz growler is 10% of a keg. It definitely helps me empty a keg so I can keep brewing once a month.

 

[iijakii]

I bought a new freezer and made a keezer a couple months ago. It tightly holds 4 5 gallon kegs and I thought this would be plenty for me.

I'm pretty much the only one to drink the beer I brew. I work a lot and between work and family I don't really do the friend scene like when I was younger. I brew 5-10 gallon batches and typically brew once or twice a month. When I was younger, my friends would easily drink all this beer for me but now there is no way I can drink that much.

But on the other hand, I really love variety and I could easily see having 4 more taps for a total of 8 varieties always ready to go. Buying and building a new keezer seems like a shame since I just bought/built this one. But now in hindsight I realize my keezer should be big enough for at least 8 tapped kegs, a couple untapped kegs and a cold crashing fermenter. This means I should have picked up a freezer 3x the size.

One thought I've had is to bottle the last 1/2 of each keg when I'm ready to get something new into the rotation. Perhaps this would allow me to get by with only 4 taps.

If I did actually have 8 varieties on tap, I would likely be swapping out one keg per month (based on my consumption) meaning kegs would stay tapped for up to 8 months.

Brewing smaller batches doesn't really seem like an option as my setup is 15 gallons and I really like brewing 5-10 gallon batches. Sometimes I actually think I enjoy the brewing more than the drinking -- I could easily brew every other day if I could actually drink that much.

What do other solo drinkers who love variety do? I've never kept a keg tapped for 8 months, would this be a problem with any varieties?

I didn't lose any money on my keezer when I sold it on Craigslist. Just sayn.

 

[BrewMehr]

Thanks for all the input and ideas! Right now the way I am leaning is to build another Keezer exactly like my current one. That will give me capacity for up to 8 taps between the 2 keezers but I will also be able to control the temp in each Keezer individually allowing for some flexibility with temps between the taps. The 2nd Keezer can also serve as a lagering chamber, conditioning chamber and/or cold crashing chamber depending on what I'm currently brewing up. So chances are I wouldn't be using all 4 of the taps in it at most times.

I will probably also start bottling more of my larger beers after they have been on tap for a while. It will be interesting to drink them slowly over time without them tying up a tap.

Between the new keezer/cold crashing/conditioning/lagering chamber and bottling the larger beers, I should have plenty of space for variety. It seems in the warmer months more variety is necessary. In the winter I'm not that interested in a Saison or lager but in the summer it seems I need all my usual large variety of heavy ales along with some lighter lawn mowing beers which makes 4 taps simply not enough.

I don't know what I like most about home brewing. Is it drinking the beer, brewing the beer, the science, the planning, the gardening (hops), the DIY projects, the community or just all of it. So far I love all of it.

 

[BrewMehr]

I'm in a similar boat. I love to brew more than I can drink. I also don't hang out with people like I did when I was younger so it's basically me who drinks the beer. I gave out growlers for gifts with the caveat that they could fill it whenever they want. One 64oz growler is 10% of a keg. It definitely helps me empty a keg so I can keep brewing once a month.

Isn't it a funny thing to have our problem being that we can't get rid of the beer fast enough?