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

[bronzdragon]

During these last three years (after brewing for 20), I have brewed less and less. Kegs were lasting my wife and I a long time. I was losing interest in a beer before we could finish it. I usually have four on tap at any one time. I still enjoyed brewing, just didn't get to do it enough. So this year I have made the decision to brew 2.5-3 gallon batches instead. I would agree with the others who have said this.
/cheers

 

[Br3w4u]

Thanks mate! Comma positioning is a pain when having a German background. Germans are obsessed with commas and commas are used way more often than in English. On top of that, the rules change all 5 years so even most of the Germans don't know how to use them properly. That's why my comma "guesstimation-work", writing in English, is not as good as it probably should be. I might have a look into a book or two covering this topic.

I thought it made sense even though it was a little off. I wonder what that says about me. Now that you say German I can totally hear a German guy saying it. Like Flula or something haha.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I thought it made sense even though it was a little off. I wonder what that says about me. Now that you say German I can totally hear a German guy saying it. Like Flula or something haha.

Br3w4u, bis Du ein Deutscher?

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

For those of you who say efficiency doesn't matter, I will say this. If you want to brew big beers (12% RIS, for example), you better be getting at least 70% on a 6% beer or you'll never be able to make your numbers. Why? Efficiency goes down as you add more grain for any given batch size. So you're going to get worse efficiency with the huge grain bill. Just add more grain? Guess what, you just dropped your efficiency even more. You can get to the point where you can't get there from here without adding DME or something.

So....does it matter whether your getting 78% or 72%? Not really as long as it's consistent. Does it matter whether your getting 70% or 60%? If you want to brew a high gravity beer it most certainly does. If all you're ever going to brew is 4-6% beers, then it is indeed a "don't care".

 

[Br3w4u]

Br3w4u, bis Du ein Deutscher?

Nein, Ich komme aus America. Ich will mochte Deutschland . I think that’s close. Probably sounds like an American said that Lol.

 

[Miraculix]

Nein, Ich komme aus America. Ich will mochte Deutschland . I think that’s close. Probably sounds like an American said that Lol.

Most definitely

 

[homebrewer_99]

Nein, Ich komme aus America. Ich will mochte Deutschland . I think that’s close. Probably sounds like an American said that Lol.

HAHA! I got it. I'm originally from NJ. I did 2 tours in Germany for a total of 9 years.

 

[Griffin495]

I'll chime in along with the others and say brew smaller batches. What size is up to you. I've got 1G glass carboys and while it generally only nets about 9 bottles, its great for experimental beers. I just brewed a pale ale using my normal grain bill for pale ales and tossed in a bunch of German hops I had laying around from other batches and just targeted the IBUs. Will it be good? Is there such a thing as a German Pale Ale? I don't know, but I'm just out a few dollars in grain and I wasn't doing anything that day anyway.

I've also got a 2G bucket from Lowe's that will get me a 12 pack (1.5G batch).

Two 2.5 Gallon icing buckets that I got from a bakery which will get me an 18 pack (2G batch).

Two 3 gallon glass carboys that will get me 21-22 beers (2.5G batch)

To brew these, I use a 2.25G stock pot and a 5G stock pot and I can brew these on my stove or if the day is nice, get out my propane burner. For the most part, my 10G kettle and 5G fermenters just sit there in a corner in the garage looking sad and lonely.

And I brew every 3-4 weeks. Just did a 2.5G batch of pale ale yesterday and was done and cleaned up by 11.

 

[Br3w4u]

HAHA! I got it. I'm originally from NJ. I did 2 tours in Germany for a total of 9 years.

Thank you for your service.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Thank you for your service.

You're welcome. I did 7 years active and 30 years Civil Service.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I'll chime in along with the others and say brew smaller batches. What size is up to you. I've got 1G glass carboys and while it generally only nets about 9 bottles, its great for experimental beers. I just brewed a pale ale using my normal grain bill for pale ales and tossed in a bunch of German hops I had laying around from other batches and just targeted the IBUs. Will it be good? Is there such a thing as a German Pale Ale? I don't know, but I'm just out a few dollars in grain and I wasn't doing anything that day anyway.

I've also got a 2G bucket from Lowe's that will get me a 12 pack (1.5G batch).

Two 2.5 Gallon icing buckets that I got from a bakery which will get me an 18 pack (2G batch).

Two 3 gallon glass carboys that will get me 21-22 beers (2.5G batch)

To brew these, I use a 2.25G stock pot and a 5G stock pot and I can brew these on my stove or if the day is nice, get out my propane burner. For the most part, my 10G kettle and 5G fermenters just sit there in a corner in the garage looking sad and lonely.

And I brew every 3-4 weeks. Just did a 2.5G batch of pale ale yesterday and was done and cleaned up by 11.

I get my small buckets at WallyWorld's bakery (also held icing)...only $1 with lid. I use them to hold my pre-weighed grain for future batches. I just put a label on the lid and stack them up in the corner for when I get ready to brew.

 

[Griffin495]

I got mine at Tom Thumb for free. I also stick my grain in one if I am not brewing immediately.

 

[homebrewer_99]

For those of you who say efficiency doesn't matter, I will say this. If you want to brew big beers (12% RIS, for example), you better be getting at least 70% on a 6% beer or you'll never be able to make your numbers. Why? Efficiency goes down as you add more grain for any given batch size. So you're going to get worse efficiency with the huge grain bill. Just add more grain? Guess what, you just dropped your efficiency even more. You can get to the point where you can't get there from here without adding DME or something.

So....does it matter whether your getting 78% or 72%? Not really as long as it's consistent. Does it matter whether your getting 70% or 60%? If you want to brew a high gravity beer it most certainly does. If all you're ever going to brew is 4-6% beers, then it is indeed a "don't care".

I thought efficiency was affected by the mash temp and volume of water used. (The grind too, but I'm assuming everyone's grind is consistent to their liking).

I've always use these for my guidelines:

MASH TEMPERATURE:

Low T: 140-150F, for lighter body.
High T: 150-160F for a (fuller) maltier body.

WATER VOLUME:

THIN MASH: 2 qts of water to 1# grain, slower conversion, produces more fermentables and a drier beer.

THICK MASH: Less than 1.25 qts to 1# grain, faster conversion, produces fewer fermentables and a maltier beer.

 

[schematix]

Mash efficiency really should always be discussed in 2 distinct parts.
1. How much of the starch you convert to soluble sugars (a.k.a conversion efficiency)
2. How much of those soluble sugars you transfer to the boil kettle (a.k.a lauter efficiency)

There is really no reason why you shouldn't be able to obtain near 100% conversion efficiency in a mash. The key factors are:
-Reasonably good crush. A surprisingly large range of crushes will work. Smaller is better up until you have lauter troubles.
-Your grain has to be wet. This means stirring and/or recirculating. Dry grain won't work.
-Mash temp - IMPORTANT: you need to be above the gelatinization temp of the grain you have. This changes yearly with different crop conditions. Normally for barley its in the mid to low 140s, but i've seen it as high as 150F. If you are mashing below this point you will not get the starch into the liquid and it won't be converted.
-Mash rest temps - this has more to do with final attenuation.
-Mash thickness - might change the conversion speed a little bit, but unless you're trying to mash in under 20 minutes the enzymes will have plenty of time. It's more important to hit your pH.


Lauter efficiency is mostly focused on how much of your liquid stays behind. This comes from either grain absorption or equipment losses. If you are fly sparging you should be able to get 95% efficiency with little effort. If you are doing no sparge the best you can do is to reduce dead space (e.g. bottom drain MLT). Grain adsorption is hard to change sort of squeezing, but that's not ideal.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I thought efficiency was affected by the mash temp and volume of water used. (The grind too, but I'm assuming everyone's grind is consistent to their liking).

I've always use these for my guidelines:

MASH TEMPERATURE:

Low T: 140-150F, for lighter body.
High T: 150-160F for a (fuller) maltier body.

WATER VOLUME:

THIN MASH: 2 qts of water to 1# grain, slower conversion, produces more fermentables and a drier beer.

THICK MASH: Less than 1.25 qts to 1# grain, faster conversion, produces fewer fermentables and a maltier beer.

efficiency is affected by mash temp some. The amount of water alone isn't the factor, it's mash thickness. If you're brewing a high gravity beer, the volume of water doesn't go up proportionally to the amount of grain, so you're essentially forced into a thicker mash and/or a smaller sparge volume if you want the same volume into the kettle. There's some extra water for grain absorption, but not enough to be able to go with the same mash thickness and sparge volume.

So, adding more grain to account for lowered efficiency lowers the efficiency more, meaning that every extra pound of grain lowers the efficiency until you can, potentially, get to the point where you can't realistically mash/sparge with that grain/water volume combination. This is especially true when you start with poor efficiency that forces you to add more extra grain to account for the efficiency drop than someone starting at 70%.

One thing that helps (especially with big stouts) is to plan for extra volume into the kettle and simply boil longer. That way you're not reducing the overall grain/water ratio as much. This is what I did with my big stout. I was getting about 72% with 6.3% IPA's, and got 71% with the huge stout. I did a 3 hour boil with 9 gallons into the kettle to get there though. If I had started at 61% for a 6% IPA, I doubt I'd have been able to get to the 12% with just the grain.

 

[Br3w4u]

If you go electric you could probably boil in half the time. My 5500W element makes my kettle boil like crazy. I have to turn the power down to 50% once I reach a boil just so that the evaporation rate stays where I want it.

 

[ba-brewer]

How do you guys manage to brew so frequently in the early stages? It would be easier to give away a bunch of beer if I loved what I was making, but i'm not ever fully happy and I don't really want to start gifting beer out that I'm not proud of. I know its $30-50 a batch, but do you guys just dump what you don't like? I would love to brew every 6-8 weeks to keep refining my skills but I really don't know the best way to do that without having a warehouse of beer.

I seen your post about doing 2.5gal batches, but I would suggest 1.5gal to get 12pack. Pick a style or two of beer you like then find know proven recipes from the many on this site and brew them over and over until you can get it right. Takes lots of notes and tweak accordingly.

I did a lot of small batches in the beginning to get the process down and help identify yeast and hops that I liked. Description don't always match everyone taste buds. This is mostly for hops choices but if there are commercial beers you like look at their website to see if they have clues to the ingredients they use. Works for beers you don't like too.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Brak23 said:How do you guys manage to brew so frequently in the early stages? It would be easier to give away a bunch of beer if I loved what I was making, but i'm not ever fully happy and I don't really want to start gifting beer out that I'm not proud of. I know its $30-50 a batch, but do you guys just dump what you don't like? I would love to brew every 6-8 weeks to keep refining my skills but I really don't know the best way to do that without having a warehouse of beer.


How do I brew so frequently? I retired at 55 (it'll be 8 years come June). I can brew any day I want and cost is not an issue. I keep about 300# of assorted grains on hand and a couple dozen yeasts. About half of the are dry.

Most of the time I brew on Sundays while the wife is at church. I haven't brewed in 2 weeks, but I have 7 batches ready to keg and/or bottle, but I'm in no hurry.

Flavored brews (coffee stouts, root beer, etc.) get tapped with "dedicated" picnic taps. To keep flavors separate, Stout has it's own tap as does Root Beer. Only Pale Ales get tapped in the kegerator. I have about 18 cases of German 1/2 liter bottles and racks (plastic cases) I brought back from Germany years ago for Weizens. Over half of them are "flippies". I use wine bottles for ciders. I probably have 150 of them.

I've never done anything except 5 to 6.5 gal batches since I started brewing in 1994.

I've dumped before, but they were infected. I've even dumped beers that have "turned". It's something that doesn't really bother me. It just is. What I do is try to determine why it went bad so I can correct it later.

 

[Brak23]

I seen your post about doing 2.5gal batches, but I would suggest 1.5gal to get 12pack. Pick a style or two of beer you like then find know proven recipes from the many on this site and brew them over and over until you can get it right. Takes lots of notes and tweak accordingly.

I did a lot of small batches in the beginning to get the process down and help identify yeast and hops that I liked. Description don't always match everyone taste buds. This is mostly for hops choices but if there are commercial beers you like look at their website to see if they have clues to the ingredients they use. Works for beers you don't like too.

This makes sense. I think the problem I face is that my tastes in beer have changed a lot as I learn to brew over the years, and each time I want to make a completely different style I haven't done before. I've repeated a recipe only once and looking back I think I shot myself in the foot by always trying different styles rather than trying to refine some solid starting points.

Though I must say i just made a recent change in my mashing strategy (finer crush and slower lauter) and my mash efficiency went from 64-65% to 83% on the IPA im brewing. So im super proud of that. But now im going to work on making it consistent with the mash efficiency and work on refining some solid core beers.

One follow up question to your suggestion is scale with equipment. I have a 60 qt mash tun and a 15 gallon brew kettle. Can I do 1.5 gallons in those? I have smaller 4.5 gallon kettle and a 5 gallon mash tun too if needed - just wasn't sure about if it can be too big with little volume.

 

[ba-brewer]

This makes sense. I think the problem I face is that my tastes in beer have changed a lot as I learn to brew over the years, and each time I want to make a completely different style I haven't done before. I've repeated a recipe only once and looking back I think I shot myself in the foot by always trying different styles rather than trying to refine some solid starting points.

Though I must say i just made a recent change in my mashing strategy (finer crush and slower lauter) and my mash efficiency went from 64-65% to 83% on the IPA im brewing. So im super proud of that. But now im going to work on making it consistent with the mash efficiency and work on refining some solid core beers.

One follow up question to your suggestion is scale with equipment. I have a 60 qt mash tun and a 15 gallon brew kettle. Can I do 1.5 gallons in those? I have smaller 4.5 gallon kettle and a 5 gallon mash tun too if needed - just wasn't sure about if it can be too big with little volume.

Scaling is fairly straight forward, just divide maybe subtract a few points from your efficiency as losses add up quick with small batches.

Your 4.5gal kettle is fine for 1.5gal, the 5gal mash tun is a bit big even if you do a full volume mash but may be OK. The 5gal cooler would work for a 2.5/3gal batches but your 4.5gal is too small and your other kettle is too big(may have excessive boil off). I have a small 2gal cooler I use for 1.5gal batches and boil in a 5gal kettle. 3gal batches I do/did in a 5gal cooler and boil in a 8gal kettle.

A refractometer is helpful to determine full conversion of starches. Looking for full conversion made the biggest difference for me in efficiency consistency. A refractometer also save beers when looking for final gravity.
​

 

[bleme]

Join a homebrew club. Not only will they help you drink your beer but they will be able to tell you what you did wrong. You will also get to drink their beer. When you find one that you really like, talk to the brewer to see how his process differs from yours.

Some of my best friends now are from the homebrew club. I have brewed shared batches with 4 of them so far and learned something from all of them (even if that something was what NOT to do! ).

 

[C-Rider]

Hey guys,

Ive been into all grain for about the last 5 or 6 batches I've done, and I think all but 2 have turned out poorly (low efficiency and perhaps some oxidation flavors). For me, repetition and frequency are the ways I am going to get better at this process, however, with 5 gallon batches I'm making more beer than me or my friends can consume to be brewing anything more than every 3-4 months. I got so frustrated the last time that I haven't brewed in about 7 months, but working on doing a batch of NE IPA this weekend. But I feel rusty now and second guessing myself on things.

How do you guys manage to brew so frequently in the early stages? It would be easier to give away a bunch of beer if I loved what I was making, but i'm not ever fully happy and I don't really want to start gifting beer out that I'm not proud of. I know its $30-50 a batch, but do you guys just dump what you don't like? I would love to brew every 6-8 weeks to keep refining my skills but I really don't know the best way to do that without having a warehouse of beer.

Switch to smaller batches. I had the same problem, well the volumn problem not the bad beer problem, about 4 years ago. I switched to BIAB doing 2 gallon batches (3 SixPacks). I mash in a 5 gal cooler and ferment in HD 2 gal paint buckets. I've never looked back to 5 gal batches. My signature shows I'm conditiong 3 brews, and have 4 Ready to drink. Here is a video of my methods. I'm made some improvements in the past couple of years not shown in the video, but it's the basic idea of small batches.

 

[Griffin495]

I finally organized my "beer binder" and typed up a table of contents. Last year, I brewed 21 batches of beer. Of those, only 3 were 5 gallon batches. The rest were a mix of 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 gallon batches. No way would I have been able to brew and drink 21 5G batches in a year. Have you ever thought about getting a bag and doing small batches of BIAB in your 4.5G kettle? I've got a 2.25G and a 5G kettle that I do my batches in.

 

[Shawn3997]

Use half of your wort to make your starters. Now you can brew twice as often (and save on DME!).

 

[Sparkncode]

I'm faced with the accumulating beer problem too.
I use beersmith so scaling is really easy. I had profiles setup for my eHERMS for 23L resulting beer, and 10L (2.5g) but recently added a 19L resulting beer batch size so I can fill one corny keg without leftovers. I have several 10L kegs and they are handy for smaller batches and I can put 4 of them in the space of 2 x 19L kegs in my kegerator for more variety (6 taps on a 4x19L keg kegerator). The 10L size is about the smallest batch my eHERMS can do and the amount of beer for effort is a bit low for my linking but for test batches it seams fine. Other than that I'm setting up a counter preassure bottling setup so I can give beer away easily.

I find I get an enforced break from brewing about every 2.5 months due to a bad knee and time between treatments to make it manageable so a few weeks break lets me catch up on the consumption besides beer is a natural pain killer when you knee is hurting.

 

[hsawtelle]

Don't buy a still and make whiskey or (worst case scenario) vodka, because it's illegal in the US without the necessary permits.

 

[seatazzz]

I'm going through this right now myself. I've got 4 full kegs in the kegerator, one half full keg aging, and 2 batches coming on that I brewed yesterday. I'm going to have to bottle one of those batches when it's ready as the other is a DIPA that will be kegged.

 

[Jayjay1976]

No joke I'm working on a miniature .5 gallon biab setup as a teaching tool to get friends interested in the process. While 4 disappointing beers aren't so much a crisis as a fluke in terms of failure; as a surprise success I think 4 beers are borderline enough to draw in new brewers.

My setup plan so far features a ~1lb grain bill, mini BIAB grain bag, a bag hoist, and a digital temp controller to drive the element for mash and boil. I have a mini fermenter set aside waiting for a project like this.

 

[Transamguy77]

I'm going through this right now myself. I've got 4 full kegs in the kegerator, one half full keg aging, and 2 batches coming on that I brewed yesterday. I'm going to have to bottle one of those batches when it's ready as the other is a DIPA that will be kegged.

Sounds like you need to buy more kegs! Over the last few years I've acquired 14 kegs so I don't have that problem anymore......ok there was that 1 time but when you brew 10 gallons at a time it can happen.

 

[seatazzz]

Ramping up to buy the house we've been renting for 10+ years, so buying more kegs is way out of the budget right now. I do hate bottling, but it's an option I'm looking at. And since I have tons of bottles lying around, can brew more....mwahahaha.