Dry Pipeline!

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brewbama

brewbama

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Has your pipeline ever run dry? It happened to me yesterday. I thought I was good on the German Alt until the Winter Warmer was kegged and carbed but I under estimated my holiday cheer. Thank goodness the Winter Warmer was ready to go for today's pizza and football.
 
My pipeline is clise to being dry. Bad estimate on my part over how long it would last.
 
This has been a constant problem for me as I shared a freezer for fermenting and serving.....

That said SWMBO hooked me up with a kegerator so hopefully I can avoid this.

I too have many times underestimated my holiday cheer only to kick a keg way before I thought I would!
 
I haven't gotten that disciplined with brewing yet for that not to happen.:(
 
brewbama said:
It happened to me yesterday. I thought I was good on the German Alt until the Winter Warmer was kegged and carbed but I under estimated my holiday cheer. Thank goodness the Winter Warmer was ready to go for today's pizza and football.
Click to expand...

Wait … so you're saying you went almost 24 hours without beer? Is everybody OK?

As difficult as it is to hear such ghastly horror stories, let this be a lesson to us all as to what can happen if you get too careless.
 
myelo said:
Wait … so you're saying you went almost 24 hours without beer? Is everybody OK?

As difficult as it is to hear such ghastly horror stories, let this be a lesson to us all as to what can happen if you get too careless.
Click to expand...

Absolute not! My son gave me a 6er of mixed beers for Christmas. I broke those open. I tapped the keg today and all is well in the universe again.
 
My pipeline has yet to get fully wet! Have done four brews so far, still haven't tasted the first. Got a week or so to go.
 
Just finished my ready-to-drink pipeline last night while brewing. I bottled sixty or so beers also last night and have 12 gallons fermenting, so hopefully getting close to a stacked fridge.
 
Been drinking a steady mix of commercial brew and homebrew for the last 2 months. Bottling up a nut brown ale in 2 weeks, but even before that's bottled I'll still have at least 100 bottles in surplus. Gotta' be safe!
 
eadavis80 said:
Been drinking a steady mix of commercial brew and homebrew for the last 2 months. Bottling up a nut brown ale in 2 weeks, but even before that's bottled I'll still have at least 100 bottles in surplus. Gotta' be safe!
Click to expand...

I don't know what I was thinking...All 3 of my girls are 21 now the youngest just turned on the 29th...I had 150 bottles one week before Christmas but less now less then 30 left .I didn't calculate into the equation boyfriends and fiancee coming and going for a week. Ill have 250 ready next year for sure.

In-laws are coming on the 6th so I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel.. Should have had a brew day 3+ weeks ago instead of last week. Fudge!:(

I'm starting to see the value in kegging.
 
alexacuna said:
Just finished my ready-to-drink pipeline last night while brewing. I bottled sixty or so beers also last night and have 12 gallons fermenting, so hopefully getting close to a stacked fridge.
Click to expand...

I have four cases bottled in the wine vault (fancy name for the closet under the stairs) and two cornies fermenting. I got to within 3 bottles two months ago and decided to get my butt in gear! :mug:
 
I like to keep 30-45 gallons in fermenters, 10 kegged, and 150-250 bottled if possible. I am taking a break from brewing, just to get the system switched to electric. I am still going to do some mead and cider though.

But ya, if your not careful, pipeline can go dry before you know it!
 
That's a dream. My roommate wants to get into kegging, but I'm content with my current setup and like the portability of bottles, so i'm gonna let that be his thing. 40 gallons sounds like a dream.
 
beergolf said:
My pipeline never runs out. Right now I could probably go several months without brewing and still not run out.
Click to expand...

I have to be prepared for a hurricane, zombie apocalypse or my father-in-law stopping by.
 
alexacuna said:
That's a dream. My roommate wants to get into kegging, but I'm content with my current setup and like the portability of bottles, so i'm gonna let that be his thing. 40 gallons sounds like a dream.
Click to expand...

If you brew 5 gallon batches it probably is. I used to always be out, not really because I drink like crazy, I mean ya sometimes I do, but because half of every batch I'd give away or the wife would drink it. Now I brew anywhere from 10-15 usually, and I usually have more sitting around than I know what to do with!
 
estricklin said:
If you brew 5 gallon batches it probably is. I used to always be out, not really because I drink like crazy, I mean ya sometimes I do, but because half of every batch I'd give away or the wife would drink it. Now I brew anywhere from 10-15 usually, and I usually have more sitting around than I know what to do with!
Click to expand...

I have two five-gallon batches at work right now and an extra 1 gallon experiment batch I do with odds and ends. It might help me get to a good place by spring. I bought microbrew beer today for the first time since christmas, so it's a decent start.
 
If Brew Day is the front end, here's the middle of my pipeline, with a six tap keezer at the back end.
ab_19dec2015_01.jpg
There's two more kegged and carbed brews on stand-by lurking around, one in the keezer and the other out in the garage.
And when I keg those two fermenters I'll start two more batches.

Fear Of An Empty Tap keeps me going...

Cheers! :mug:
 
day_trippr said:
If Brew Day is the front end, here's the middle of my pipeline, with a six tap keezer at the back end.
View attachment 327197
There's two more kegged and carbed brews on stand-by lurking around, one in the keezer and the other out in the garage.
And when I keg those two fermenters I'll start two more batches.

Fear Of An Empty Tap keeps me going...

Cheers! :mug:
Click to expand...

What's that manifold with the stainless braids going to it next to the carboys?
 
Yup, both fridges equipped for carbing up to four kegs each.

There's a roughly six week window in mid-winter where I can binge-brew, start a couple of batches in the left fridge then after the critical yeast orgy phase has subsided in a week move them to a controlled (heat only) ferm cabinet, and start another couple of batches in the fridge. If I do 60-point brews up front I can keep that up for another couple of batches and double-pump the pipeline.

That works great until I end up with another four to six kegs looking to be cold-conditioned and carbed, so I mirrored the setup on the right fridge to the left. I can actually fit five kegs on each side and have ten backing up the keezer by Spring.

All that said, if you want to see the HBT Pipeline King, give @gnef a ring :D

Cheers!
 
day_trippr said:
Yup, both fridges equipped for carbing up to four kegs each.


All that said, if you want to see the HBT Pipeline King, give @gnef a ring :D

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Holy Crap..That's beyond serious. Hes has more taps then 7/8 of the pubs around here.
 
Tiling floor, holidays, pipeline almost dry(kegs are both light). Brewing Tuesday. Wife said screw working on the house brew some beer. She is the best.
 
Since I started kegging in August I've had trouble judging my pipeline. Right now I have two empty kegs, three beers bottled, two carbed, and one in primary (and another by the end of the day tomorrow). Plenty of beer, but I'm looking at a 10 day lull in in kegged booz (the horror!!!!). Answer, of course, is more kegs (and/or taps), which I'm in negotiations with the wife on.

Practice makes perfect, I guess
 
Stillraining said:
I don't know what I was thinking...All 3 of my girls are 21 now the youngest just turned on the 29th...I had 150 bottles one week before Christmas but less now less then 30 left .I didn't calculate into the equation boyfriends and fiancee coming and going for a week. Ill have 250 ready next year for sure.

In-laws are coming on the 6th so I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel.. Should have had a brew day 3+ weeks ago instead of last week. Fudge!:(

I'm starting to see the value in kegging.
Click to expand...

I'd love to keg, but I don't have the room in my house. Maybe one day. I'm pretty lucky - my son is only 9 and my wife isn't a beer drinker, so I get all my beer, minus what I distribute to others. So, it's certainly easier for my stash to stay stocked than yours! Still, nothing better than sharing homebrew with family and friends (assuming they like what you made).
 
When I went to kegs, I found that I was taking the same space as bottling since the keeper sits where a toy box once stood. Hmmmm, still is a toy box in some ways...
 
I have way too many beers in the pipeline. I already have probably 6-7 gallons of homebrew bottled and ready to go still "aging" at room temp, another 2.5 gallons chilling in the fridge ready to drink, and a batch of chocolate oatmeal stout ready to be bottled at any time. On top of that I'm planning on getting an extract batch of Black Butte Porter clone from NorCal Brewing next weekend so I can do a review for them.

Still have a ton of hops that I need to use for a giant hopstand that I'm planning to do with 3lbs of hops - just ordered a giant wilser bag to make that happen. I have experimental hops that I want to do a SMaSH with as well.

In addition to all of that I'd like to brew a few repeats and tweak a few house recipes. I also have a ton of seasonal one offs I'd like to brew.

In reality I just want to brew way more than I'm able to consume. Please feel free to stop by my place and grab some beers to help me out with this problem :mug:
 

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