Hit a wall tonight (maybe before now)....

[GoodTruble]

Too much beer is usually a good problem to have. But yeah, production needs to roughly equal consumption. Decrease the former or increase the latter.

I keep a small, flexible distribution group for large bottles and a couple of friends that keep my beer on tap at their house. I usually brew two 5-7 gallon batches per brew day (pseudo-partigyle) but only brew once a month.

It usually balances out with production slightly ahead of consumption. If I reach a point where inventory backs up too much, invite people over for a 'tasting party'. You can clear out inventory really quickly hosting even a small tasting party.

 

[lumbergh]

Split the 10g into 2 or 4 fermenters with different yeasts.

 

[jturman35]

I brew 5 gallon batches and also in my mid 40's with a 4yr old. My advice would be to dial it down a notch so you can enjoy this for years to come rather than have to be forced to stopped due to health reasons. I hope to still enjoy beer with my son when he is old enough.


Just remember it's a marathon not a sprint!

 

[HopSing]

You could keg condition it w sugar and yeast. Would keep well that way. Let it sit at ambient two weeks to carb up sitting 6 weeks should be fine. First pull or two will clear the yeast.

Thanks 505. Is there a benefit of doing a "bottle carb" in the keg vs. putting it on a CO2 tank other than using more CO2? Sounds like a good opportunity to do a side-by-side test.

~HopSing.

 

[Brewdog80]

Would be pretty bad to have to totally stop drinking if your liver fails. Or worse. I would say sell 25 of your 5 gallon kegs and buy 5, 2.5g kegs. 10 total beers in line max. 37.5 gallons of beer max in the process. That is 4800 ounces or 400 bottles of beer. One a day is over a year. No ONE person needs 150 gallons in process... I try to keep my intake to an average of one beer a day, and sure, I drink several on a weekend. But I skip a day or two every couple of weeks. Gout, I've had a couple of instances where I'm seeing potential symptoms and beer alcohol can exacerbate it. Slow down the intake by slowing down the brewing. I have 6 kegs and keep one or 2 on tap. And I drink 90% of it. Enjoy the hobby.

 

[staffordj]

Find a brew partner to split batches with. You can use the opportunity to get your homebrew club more active. Even find some friends that don't brew, invite them over to brew and split the batch with them. Grow the community.

 

[BarryBrews]

7) Use the brewday frequency lever.

10 gallon batches give twice the beer for only a little extra work over the 5 gallon route. Brew based on your current and future drinkable (properly aged) inventory. Purchase locally for shortfalls.

For me, each brew is actually two days, the actual brewing day and then the kegging and keg/fermenter cleaning day. At 8 -10 batches per year, that's up to 20 brew related workdays a year. I enjoy brewing as much as the drinking and 10 gallon batches are my happy balance. When I first started brewing, I did 5 gallon batches for the first eight months and since then it's been 10 years of 10 gallon batches! I also occasionally use different type yeast in the two 5 gallon fermenters to give some extra variety to the batch.

 

[khannon]

Thanks for all the input..

You have convinced me to keep going, so the outcome rests squarely on your shoulders.

All kidding aside, there are some helpful suggestions here. I think mostly I was tired and didn't want to clean kegs, and that isn't really something one can sub out to a neighbor kid like mowing the lawn.

I do love it, I think I just need more in-person sharing, so maybe I'll just work on finding ways to expand the homebrew club as a first start, and bottling more to share with co-workers.

Thanks again

 

[GoodTruble]

Also, if you bottle, you can easily give away excess inventory as birthday/christmas/house warming gifts.

I like to use liter-sized flip tops. Easier to bottle, clean and distribute. (And people are usually good at getting them back to me).

 

[lumbergh]

What is your keg cleaning process? Do you have a bucket blaster, mark's keg/carboy cleaner or homemade equivalent?

 

[Komodo]

I’m currently retooling my whole process using 3G kegs as my “unit”. It was born from many factors, space concerns, new fermenter (long story), switching to kegs only, blah blah. I’m actually having fun doing it, and the goal was less beer, brew more often/consistently. Previously I was brewing in spurts, with large volumes of high gravity and it just wasn’t working out.

 

[NightFlight]

I haven't brewed or drank in months. I learned to make great beer a few years back, But I've had enough accidents where I wake up on the floor halfway between the living room and the kitchen. I've gone keto and taken up light cardio and resistve bodyweight training. (100 pushups/etc). Lost bunch of weight and have an awareness and lightness of foot again, not seen in 30 years ago in my early 20s. Throwing clothes three waist sizes too large.

Beer is fantastic, but brewing and tap on hand for some people is dangerous. I'm great with moderation, I used to moderate my drinking all day. :/

 

[Grizwold1]

Previously I was brewing in spurts, with large volumes of high gravity and it just wasn’t working out.

I was much the same--not necessarily high gravity but 10-gallon batches. As the only beer drinker in the family it ended up being several months between brews. In the interim I would forget much of the process, etc. so each brew session was almost like the first. Long story short, Anvil 6.5 and brew small batches more often=better consistency. And variety.

 

[HutBrew]

I haven't brewed or drank in months. I learned to make great beer a few years back, But I've had enough accidents where I wake up on the floor halfway between the living room and the kitchen. I've gone keto and taken up light cardio and resistve bodyweight training. (100 pushups/etc). Lost bunch of weight and have an awareness and lightness of foot again, not seen in 30 years ago in my early 20s. Throwing clothes three waist sizes too large.

Beer is fantastic, but brewing and tap on hand for some people is dangerous. I'm great with moderation, I used to moderate my drinking all day. :/

Along your lines @NightFlight, ethyl was a little out of hand for me too…

I cut out drinking 6-7 days/week mid July- I reserve beer/alcohol for Friday and Saturday. Trying to lose weight plus be more clear for the workday (I teach kids).

I’m figuring out my pipeline now- I love non alcohol beers and will be attempting to have one on tap to enjoy through the week. Tastes better than soda to me.

Gonna try clawhammer’s psedo-party-gyle method for NA beer next brew day in October.

 

[Cgeern]

I'll echo what a lot are saying. Small batches are fun, plus gives more ability to experiment and get more brews for experience.

 

[The Mad Brewer]

I have 3 kegs and may move up to 5, if santa is good to me. .
I usually only drink home brew on the weekends, it's not because I'm worried about my liver, I usually just punch that and it gets back in line , Kidding,
its Just too many calories and I have to keep up my title as trophy husband haha.

But seriouslly I had to overcome, just because I have it on tap doesn't mean I have to drink non stop,
It doesn't go bad in a week
yes smaller batches or open a tap house

 

[evolutionary]

5 gallons would be the easiest way to drop the issues you mention. I never thought about this issue prior to starting brewing, but a friend I just introduced to brewing said the problem that frequent homebrewing is the accumulation of all that beer. You can give some away but you'll lose a decent # of bottles along the way. We do 5 gallon batches and do a few at a time and even some parti-gyles and thats about right for 2 people to split and share with others with our frequency, and we still have about 100+ bottles sitting around on top of our taps.

 

[Mikent]

Sounds like it's time to throw a party dude! If you don't have enough friends just tell the ones you have to bring another!
People are dying for want of community right now, plus, a party fueled by homebrew might intice some people to get started!

 

[kc0rdf]

I think I either need to:

1) find more friends that drink.
2) brew smaller batches.
3) brew what I like and bottle some for aging.
4) develop a relationship with the college renter around the corner so I can provide them with sixtels 1-2 times per month.
5) more taps, more kegs(!!!).
6) find a different hobby.


I brew 10g(ish) batches. I love the process.. I do pretty well, happy with my brew, won a few medals etc.. My "pipe-line" has been pretty good since I got back into it in earnest post(?)-Covid. Pre-covid, I used to clean kegs ~once a year, I have ~30.. Just went and filled 2 kegs, and they were 2/3 of the last kegs clean, and realized I only have 8 empties to clean.

So, I ask you, noble home-brewers, what do I do? Are there options to the above I have not considered? I'm in my late fourties, kids help with some brewing, have expressed interest(one even went to homebrew-con).., but my liver may not be able to handle 10g/mo(and I love my Belgian triples..).

Or do I just hang it up and say "There are some good breweries where I live, buy the 4-packs and move along"?

I'm also looking at ways to expand our home-brew club (Western MA, SPARGE Homebrew Club or find us on facebook)(dm me, I'll send you a sticker..), maybe that will help?

Kevin

Why don't you open a brewing school and make sure that they're all of age and send them home with part of it and keep part of it? You still get the big blue batch you get students you get some that might love it but don't want to brew You could always get a liquor license sell it You can **** small batch and sell private label.
Kris

 

[khannon]

Why don't you open a brewing school and make sure that they're all of age and send them home with part of it and keep part of it? You still get the big blue batch you get students you get some that might love it but don't want to brew You could always get a liquor license sell it You can **** small batch and sell private label.
Kris

Funny, I have had similar thoughts, but don't want to quit my day job (pension and the like)..

What I have done, some has been motivated by this thread:

I have started doing festivals pouring my beer. I get feedback, and get to give away some beer, so it's like a 5 gallon batch that I give half away for feedback and get to keep some myself.

I brew much closer to 10G final product.

I have enrolled in some courses to learn a bit more on the science part of brewing. I should get to do some experimental batches to learn more on the process.
I invested in some distilling equipment(for distilled water only.). This may sound like a step in the wrong direction, but as I don't drink hard liquor, I will be able to distill batches to learn that side of things and I should have no issues giving that stuff away/learning about the aging process.

I still have thoughts about opening a "center for brewing" that offers an on-prem 1 week brewing course like a rock-camp, maybe that will have to wait till the lottery comes in.

 

[pvpeacock]

I stopped drinking during the work week and both my sons moved away to college, so my brewing is based on: 1. what's already in the pipeline, 2. future need and 3. the type of beer I'm brewing. I typically brew 5 gallon batches 1-2 times a month for me and friends who pop by on weekends. If I know I have a party or other event coming up, I will brew 10 gallon batches specifically for the event. In addition, if I want to lager/age a batch like a lager or stout, I will brew 10 gallons since I won't tap it for quite some time (I have aged stouts for over a year). There is no real science to my brewing schedule. If I seem to have too many kegs for what is upcoming in my life, I don't brew for 3-4 weeks. If I am suddenly running low because I just went through 20 gallons at one of my son's fraternity father-son weekends, then I brew 10 gallon batches every 2 weeks until I catch back up. I actually enjoy the ebb and flow of the pipeline.

P.S. to save my liver and keep my weight down, I also keep 2 kegs of sparkling water on hand and sometimes make hop water to spice it up.

 

[MikeScott]

I was in much the same boat, but already only brewed 5G batches. I lucked out in that I have 2 friends I brew for, one of which can go through some beer. The only downside is that they only like certain styles, but I'm expanding their pallets. A lot of time I'll brew a batch for one of them, and draw off a gallon into a 1.5G torpedo keg for me. They also reimburse me for ingredients which is awesome.

 

[barry.hastings]

I thought I was bad with 20!

26 here son !!