How to brew regularly without having a warehouse of beer on hand?

[kh54s10]

Then there are those that say you need to get into BIGGER batches. 10, 15 or 20 gallon batches. There I say that is too much. I would rather brew 2 different 5 gallon batches than to have so much of only one style. The argument could then go that you could brew two 2.5 gallon batches. But that would mean brewing too often for me.

 

[kh54s10]

You always HAVE to brew again.

I don't have to do anything that doesn't involve keeping myself alive. And I wouldn't HAVE to brew the same thing again.

 

[SanPancho]

Oh, ok. Now youre gonna be literal. Wow.


IF YOU WANT MORE HOMEBREW THAT YOU MAKE YOURSELF WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS THREAD IS TALKING ABOUT-

then you will HAVE to brew again whenever you finish a batch.

Regardless of being good or bad, regardless of recipe, regardless of original batch size, etc.


Is that specific enough for you?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

How to brew regularly without having a warehouse of beer on hand?

How about matching batch size to consumption (the homebrewer and those people the homebrewer shares beer with) and taking into account the period of time that the beer remains enjoyable?

 

[kh54s10]

Oh, ok. Now youre gonna be literal. Wow.


IF YOU WANT MORE HOMEBREW THAT YOU MAKE YOURSELF WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS THREAD IS TALKING ABOUT-

then you will HAVE to brew again whenever you finish a batch.

Regardless of being good or bad, regardless of recipe, regardless of original batch size, etc.


Is that specific enough for you?

Well you obviously didn't read through the responses where it diverged into many different paths of making small batches, making the same thing over again etc.

Is that general enough for you?

 

[SanPancho]

Well you obviously didn't read through the responses where it diverged into many different paths of making small batches, making the same thing over again etc.

Is that general enough for you?

Actually im the one being as general as possible if you actually bother to think about the first post and the second.

Its bare logic. Doesnt depend on details or multiple pathways or any other BS.

If you’re gonna be a smart ass knowitall you you should try harder.

 

[kh54s10]

Oh, ok. Now youre gonna be literal. Wow.


IF YOU WANT MORE HOMEBREW THAT YOU MAKE YOURSELF WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS THREAD IS TALKING ABOUT-

then you will HAVE to brew again whenever you finish a batch.

Regardless of being good or bad, regardless of recipe, regardless of original batch size, etc.


Is that specific enough for you?

Actually im the one being as general as possible if you actually bother to think about the first post and the second.

Its bare logic. Doesnt depend on details or multiple pathways or any other BS.

If you’re gonna be a smart ass knowitall you you should try harder.

Talk about smart ass knowitall........ Look at the rest of the thread!!!!!

 

[mongoose33]

Because then you HAVE to brew it again. This was aimed at people who advocate always brewing small batches. If I am trying something I am not sure will be good I too will do a small batch. But I don't go too far outside the box so I expect my beer will be very good and I will have more than 12 bottles.

There's an interesting element to this. We've had discussions in the past as to when a new brewer no longer is considered a newbie. Nothing objective there, but I like the idea that when you expect an outcome in brewing and are able to hit it, then you're no longer a newbie. It means you have the process down, and now it's just making adjustments (or rebrewing a favorite).

 

[SanPancho]

There's an interesting element to this. We've had discussions in the past as to when a new brewer no longer is considered a newbie. Nothing objective there, but I like the idea that when you expect an outcome in brewing and are able to hit it, then you're no longer a newbie. It means you have the process down, and now it's just making adjustments (or rebrewing a favorite).

But thats not actually what im saying. What im saying is that beer is a consumable. Once you drink it, its gone. If we define a homebrewer as someone who brews AND drinks their own, then what does one do when the beer is all gone? Brews more.

So if you consider yourself a homebrewer, under this definition, you HAVE to brew again.

Otherwise you become a former homebrewer.

We can quibble about the frequency between brews, thats fair and debatable, but when you stop brewing it, you stop being a homebrewer.

So as i said originially, you always HAVE to brew again.

I assumed it was understood that this applies to us as homebrewers since this place is called “homebrewtalk”.

But then you get a statement like this

I don't have to do anything that doesn't involve keeping myself alive.

Profound.

 

[Blazinlow86]

But thats not actually what im saying. What im saying is that beer is a consumable. Once you drink it, its gone. If we define a homebrewer as someone who brews AND drinks their own, then what does one do when the beer is all gone? Brews more.

So if you consider yourself a homebrewer, under this definition, you HAVE to brew again.

Otherwise you become a former homebrewer.

We can quibble about the frequency between brews, thats fair and debatable, but when you stop brewing it, you stop being a homebrewer.

So as i said originially, you always HAVE to brew again.

I assumed it was understood that this applies to us as homebrewers since this place is called “homebrewtalk”.

But then you get a statement like this


Profound.

The man has a point. Cheers

 

[mongoose33]

But thats not actually what im saying. What im saying is that beer is a consumable. Once you drink it, its gone. If we define a homebrewer as someone who brews AND drinks their own, then what does one do when the beer is all gone? Brews more.

I think you may have me mixed up with someone else. I was responding to kh54s10's post, not to yours. He noted that he would "expect my beer will be very good". It just struck me as perhaps that threshold where one no longer is a newbie, but has become an experienced home brewer.

There was a long thread on HBT about, oh, a year or so ago about when someone changed from being a newbie to being...well, whatever the next category is after newbie. This just struck me as relevant not only to this thread, but that one as well. If you're not very experienced you might not be willing to commit a 5-gallon batch. Or you might. Depends on your risk tolerance and your brewing ability.

Everybody gets to make their own choices. That's what's great about this--there are no rules we must follow, and we can decide how much or how little we want to brew. Maybe someone who makes 1-gallon batches savors every bottle and that's what turns their crank. More power to them. Or maybe they aren't as sure of themselves. Or....maybe they're trying some weird thing and want to see how it turns out before they commit money to a brew that may not turn out.

People like what they like. And they can do what they want to do. I'm certainly ok with that.

 

[SanPancho]

Ah, thought you were referencing my statement to talk about newbie vs experienced.

Id have to disagree a bit with your criteria. A newbie could make a bunch of extract or partial mash kits, expect them to be good, and see them come out well. But they could still be a newbie- just a fleshy robot following a program.

Id say “experience” should require enough knowledge to truly do it yourself. Build the recipe and then brew it.

When you can do that, with the expectation of quality, you’re experienced.

Not trying to put down extract brewing, partial mash, etc. Just saying that if you use a kit, you are actually expecting someone elses beer to be good, i.e. whoever made the kit recipe.

 

[kh54s10]

Ah, thought you were referencing my statement to talk about newbie vs experienced.

Id have to disagree a bit with your criteria. A newbie could make a bunch of extract or partial mash kits, expect them to be good, and see them come out well. But they could still be a newbie- just a fleshy robot following a program.

Id say “experience” should require enough knowledge to truly do it yourself. Build the recipe and then brew it.

When you can do that, with the expectation of quality, you’re experienced.

Not trying to put down extract brewing, partial mash, etc. Just saying that if you use a kit, you are actually expecting someone elses beer to be good, i.e. whoever made the kit recipe.

I agree with this... Somewhat! If you stick with kits you are somewhat relying on things falling into place that you get the same results. That said, a beer that I would still rate in the top 15 of my 102 batches was my second. It was a kit from Northern Brewer. Their Patersbier extract kit. At that time I had learned to reduce oxygen, post boil, as much as possible and to regulate fermentation temperature... That is about it, and it was still a great beer. I was still a newbie but......

 

[day_trippr]

"Thread Drift Happens"
Anyone actually recall the OP's predicament?

Cheers! (bottom line: if you're brewing crap, brew small batches until you've figured it out!)

 

[GoeHaarden]

(bottom line: if you're brewing crap, brew small batches until you've figured it out!)

Everyone has their own personal goals!!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/

The first two posters...

Hahaha!

 

[tennesseean_87]

But they are in the right order - it makes perfect sense, in British English at least, although a comma afterwards and optionally a "that" before would clarify "one does not even like" is a subclause.

We Americans don't enlgish too good. Your wording was perfectly fine to my eyes.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

Id say “experience” should require enough knowledge to truly do it yourself. Build the recipe and then brew it.

When you can do that, with the expectation of quality, you’re experienced.

Not trying to put down extract brewing, partial mash, etc. Just saying that if you use a kit, you are actually expecting someone elses beer to be good, i.e. whoever made the kit recipe.

Recipe building isn’t that hard and extract isn’t that easy. If you are a good brewer you do the things you want and don’t do the things you don’t want. Those brewers that grow their own barley and hops and malt themselves are few and far between. However much automation and pre-prepared ingredients a brewer wants to use is their prerogative and it doesn’t make it less or more their beer because they do it one way or another.

 

[SanPancho]

oh, really. ok. so if i buy a rack of Tony Roma's ribs at the store and follow the instructions to make them at home does that mean i am a bbq master? if i worked in a three star michelin restaurant on the line, and cooked the food, does that make me a an award winning chef? does building ikea shelves makes me a furniture maker? using turbo tax makes me an CPA?

well, they either paid for a kit- i.e. someone else does the mental labor of developing the recipe- or they created/developed the recipe themselves and did their own mental labor. its one or the other. the recipe had to come from somewhere.

i dont believe you can consider someone an "experienced" brewer if all they know how to do is the physical labor of brewing and not the mental labor of building their own recipes.

it has nothing to do with whether your keg is full of a pre-packaged kit/clone beer, extract beer, all grain, great granpa's old country potato beer, or anything else at any given time. it doesnt matter if you grew your own grains and hops or if santa delivered them for xmas. irrelevant. it could be extract, partial, all grain, gluten free, whatever. doesnt matter.

if you are capable of creating your own recipe and having it come out reasonably close to what you expected it to be- then that makes you "experienced" in my book.

 

[kh54s10]

What about someone who has no desire to be an all around brewer but wants to brew good beer. That person could brew kits or recipes for decades. If he/she can brew those and come up with consistent results that satisfies them, then I would call them "experienced". Professional, master, award winning chef? - no. But very few brewers fit that description anyway.....

 

[ong]

I’ve been doing 5 gallon batches of beer I’m confident I will enjoy drinking, which tends to be more conservative recipes, and then 1-2 gallon “weirdo” beers that I will be fine throwing out if they’re not great. I find these small batches take much less time, because the various temp changes happen in a few minutes, and I can easily just direct fire on my stove to maintain mash temperature. They’re really fun, and I don’t even worry about bottling them — I just rack into a few 1l soda bottles and force carb with a carbonation cap. This way I can brew 4-5 times a month without being up to my ears in beer.

 

[SanPancho]

you're making me think about that one.....

brewing beer= brewer. and technically speaking, if they brewed a hundred times it would be hard to say they're not experienced at the physical aspect of brewing. although if they only ever followed someone else's recipe/kit its hard to say they created anything themselves in terms of the recipe/planning/mental aspect of brewing.

so maybe "experienced" isnt the term that best describes what we're talking about. i'll concede the point. maybe there should be differentiation between the physical aspect of brewing, and the creative aspect.

but as i think about it, it seems to me if we focus on the mental part, then you can ignore the physical part. you could buy a pico zymatic and just press buttons for the rest of your life. no physical brewing required. now if you were writing the recipes, and they came out pretty close to what you had in mind, then to me that's experienced. so maybe that's a more refined definition of what i consider to be the "experience" here. crafting the recipe. since robots gonna replace us all sooner or later it would make sense to me to focus on the knowledge that powers the Brewbot 5000 v2.0(TM) anyways....

 

[Blazinlow86]

you're making me think about that one.....

brewing beer= brewer. and technically speaking, if they brewed a hundred times it would be hard to say they're not experienced at the physical aspect of brewing. although if they only ever followed someone else's recipe/kit its hard to say they created anything themselves in terms of the recipe/planning/mental aspect of brewing.

so maybe "experienced" isnt the term that best describes what we're talking about. i'll concede the point. maybe there should be differentiation between the physical aspect of brewing, and the creative aspect.

but as i think about it, it seems to me if we focus on the mental part, then you can ignore the physical part. you could buy a pico zymatic and just press buttons for the rest of your life. no physical brewing required. now if you were writing the recipes, and they came out pretty close to what you had in mind, then to me that's experienced. so maybe that's a more refined definition of what i consider to be the "experience" here. crafting the recipe. since robots gonna replace us all sooner or later it would make sense to me to focus on the knowledge that powers the Brewbot 5000 v2.0(TM) anyways....

Interesting I've always looked at it the other way around. The recipes the easy part and the process the difficult part. If you have the process down you can make good beer following proven recipes. If you are good at recipe design but not good at the process you'll more likely end up with something mediocre. Cheers

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

since robots gonna replace us all sooner or later it would make sense to me to focus on the knowledge that powers the Brewbot 5000 v2.0(TM) anyways....

I love my Brewbot 5000 especially the conjugal port.

 

[SanPancho]

so what about the idea of the robot brew machines? when you no longer need to bother with the actual milling/mashing/boiling/cooling/etc then where does that leave us?

are you still a brewer if the robot does the work? what if the robot does the work and you use someone else's recipe? are you even a brewer at that point?

 

[ong]

so what about the idea of the robot brew machines? when you no longer need to bother with the actual milling/mashing/boiling/cooling/etc then where does that leave us?

are you still a brewer if the robot does the work? what if the robot does the work and you use someone else's recipe? are you even a brewer at that point?

Well, sure. It’s not like it’s super challenging to set a timer and add your hops at a certain time. There isn’t a lot of manual dexterity or physical skill required to brew excellent beer (i.e., it’s not like we’re cutting sushi or brazing metal). Brewing is a kitchen craft, like making bread, not some rarified high art.

 

[SanPancho]

so you'd say that its mostly the knowledge then?

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

so what about the idea of the robot brew machines? when you no longer need to bother with the actual milling/mashing/boiling/cooling/etc then where does that leave us?

are you still a brewer if the robot does the work? what if the robot does the work and you use someone else's recipe? are you even a brewer at that point?

Your example of the Pico is I think very appropriate. There is no planning, no real knowledge of the process. I should say that I have never used one, so maybe the reality is different than the marketing, but I think that the product is meant to be like a coffee maker, you put in the ingredients from the kit and the machine does all the work.

I would say though that Pico brewers are brewers because one of the most important pieces of brewing is having a satisfying product in the end that is fresh and made in your home. I, like you however, am in this for the journey just as much as the destination and so a Pico is not for me.

I just can’t get into what is the coolest kind of brewing because what is cool is relative and fungible. What I mean is the Pico guy might look at you as a fool for spending all that time and energy. Conversely, there are people who grow barley, malt it themselves, cultivate hops, isolate wild yeasts and make their own barrels to age it in. That guy might look at you as not a real brewer.

 

[kh54s10]

Gone a long way astray from: How to brew regularly without having a warehouse of beer on hand?

 

[SanPancho]

yeah, but screw that guy. he's either a psychotic genius or a dooshbagg who plays the holier-than-thou/one-upmanship game. and as long as you have the knowledge of how to brew, you can just buy his farm and his gear off of him for pennies when he goes bankrupt.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

yeah, but screw that guy. he's either a psychotic genius or a dooshbagg who plays the holier-than-thou/one-upmanship game. and as long as you have the knowledge of how to brew, you can just buy his farm and his gear off of him for pennies when he goes bankrupt.

Just sayin’ that it’s an awfully big coincidence that a “real” brewer happens to look just like you.

And this discussion pertains to the OPs original question in that, the brewer must define what he/she is trying to accomplish to be able to balance their output with their goals. For example, if she doesn’t feel like a real brewer unless she’s doing 5 gallon 3 vessel, then she needs more friends to help her drink it. Or if he lives in a hermitage and doesn’t give a rats ass about what anyone thinks, then he needs to make smaller batches.

 

[SanPancho]

Just sayin’ that it’s an awfully big coincidence that a “real” brewer happens to look just like you.

i dont look like a brewer- cant grow a beard.

 

[Dland]

Lookin at the original title to this thread, see no reason for contention or argument. Brew often enough so you don't run out. Got plenty of beer conditioning in your kegs or bottles, with more on the way? relax, running low, brew more.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

i dont look like a brewer- cant grow a beard.

This is about 3 days growth.

 

[FleEsq]

Ok..... so first I will give a potential answer to the original question; when I develop a backlog of brews I start looking at beers that require longer fermentation/rest time. For instance I start to look at barrel aged beer. Now the reality is that I drink ALOT of beer so that rarely happens.

Now. I think what Pancho brings up is an interesting question. What classifies you as a brewer, are you a baker if you bake from a box..... I would say no. Are you a baker if you follow a recipe, maybe. Baking is technical, measurement is important. Understanding why the ratio's are the way they are is important. do you need to create a recipe out of thin air to be a baker, I say no. Cooking can be done by feel or taste, so creating a recipe out of your head is important.

So the question is...…. is brewing technical or creative. My answer would be yes. it requires both, and understanding of the technical and the creative. So a kit can train you on how to be technical, and trial and error can train you on the creative.
The creative is much more fun,,,, especially when you have a backlog of beer.

So look at the backlog of beer as your opportunity to be creative. your opportunity to fail! Your opportunity to learn. ……….OR Not

have fun.

 

[juggaleo]

Does not compute

 

[SanPancho]

Brewbot5000 v3 is going to come with urinal accessory. It monitors your urine and when your 7 day cumulative peepee average gets below .05BAC it loads up your next brew.

Problem solved. End of thread.

 

[BigBlueBrad]

Start tailgating at your local university. I made a trashcan kegerator and I take whatever I have left in my two kegs to the game. After a day of tailgating, I’ll bring home two empty kegs. For example, last week I took a summer saison which was about half of a keg and a funky farmhouse ale which was about 75% full.

When I got home I cleaned the kegs and now I have a pumpkin saison and an Oktoberfest on tap.

 

[bleme]

Start tailgating at your local university. I made a trashcan kegerator and I take whatever I have left in my two kegs to the game. After a day of tailgating, I’ll bring home two empty kegs. For example, last week I took a summer saison which was about half of a keg and a funky farmhouse ale which was about 75% full.

When I got home I cleaned the kegs and now I have a pumpkin saison and an Oktoberfest on tap.

You could probably just mix your partials all together and they wouldn't notice/care....

 

[BigBlueBrad]

Late in the day you are spot on.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

oh, really. ok. so if i buy a rack of Tony Roma's ribs at the store and follow the instructions to make them at home does that mean i am a bbq master? if i worked in a three star michelin restaurant on the line, and cooked the food, does that make me a an award winning chef? does building ikea shelves makes me a furniture maker? using turbo tax makes me an CPA?
.

If you cook the ribs really well every time, yeah you'd qualify as a grillmaster. If you worked in a restaurant and cooked good food you'd qualify as a good cook. If you do your own taxes correctly yeah you qualify as decently knowledgable on your taxes(CPA is a certification).

If you work at an advertising firm and are an expert at graphic design software, but don't come up with the ideas, are you experienced at graphic design?

If you brew beer from kits and make consistently good beer yeah you qualify as an experienced brewer. And who says the person who does that for years doesn't understand all the technical aspects, even if they don't sit down with brew software and formulate their own recipes.