Need to brew again, what is your beer pipeline

[cmac62]

I mostly have a few beers a night, and with 3x 5 gal cornies in the kegerator and one in the lager fridge. I realized I need to brew again. 2 of the cornies are likely half done. So I need to brew again in order to keep the pipeline flowing. So, what is your brewing schedule and how do you keep track of what is in the pipeline?

 

[ong]

It’s a little challenging, especially without really knowing how much is in each keg. I have four taps, and I generally like to have a stout/porter, an IPA, and a bitter, with the fourth tap more of a wildcard. I often end up filling a few growlers to polish off the keg I’m about to refill.

 

[waldoar15]

I only go through a keg per month. But most are lagers so I'm usually five beers deep in the pipeline.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I have 4 fermenters, allowing me to brew and/or bottle just about every weekend. Or I can lager two batches while using the other two fermenters for cranking out quick-turn two week ales. I might add a fifth fermenter next fall to grow my lagering capacity, but my bottleneck now is acquiring and maintaining enough bottles to package it all. Right now I have just enough bottles to handle ~3 six gallon batches so I work hard at drinking enough to keep up with demand.

 

[catdaddy66]

I have 3 fermenters with a bucket for a fourth option if needed. I bottle so it's easy to see how many are left of each style. Typically my pipeline has 4 house beers (California common, a pale ale/IPA, a saison and a cream ale) with a couple of alternative options like brown ale or Belgian quad and a wheat/fruit beer.

I let it dwindle to nothing over six months but am building it back up over a couple months.

 

[jturman35]

I have 3 kegs on tap myself, but the tricky part is aging beer so it is ready to be tapped! I have a Nut Brown Ale, Red Ale and NEIPA.

I just purchased 2 more kegs for cellaring big beers. I have a (1.091) Belgium Strong fermenting and attempting a (1.118) Bourbon County Stout this weekend. These will hog kegs for at least 6 month min, likely a year!

I’m brewing all over the place because I’m learning. At some point I really just want to brew big beers 8-12% Scotch Ales, Belgium’s, Stouts, Porters. Beers that are expensive to purchase such as Chimay Reserve.

After all the whole point of me getting into home brewing is making big beers that I enjoy. Really depend a lot on the mood/ season I’m in.

 

[Jtk78]

I have an IPA and a stout on tap, a hefewiezen and a brown ale in the fermenter. I let my pipeline run dry over the winter. I try to brew ten gallons a month, but it doesn't always happen.

 

[November]

I make 15g batches and I have enough kegs for 11 batches at a time. So, I brew whenever I have enough kegs empty for a batch. Typically, I'll put one keg of the batch on tap right away but, style permitting, I usually store a keg or two for later use.

Having stored kegs let's me brew whatever strikes me at the time, since I usually have things around to balance out the taps.

I brew virtually all lagers, and sometimes I end up not being able to brew for extended times due to work, so I like to keep a deep pipeline.

 

[jjhakamaa]

Wow there's a lot of beer being brewed! I need to catch up.

 

[TheAleRunner]

I've got 3 taps, but sometimes I only have one or two on at a time. However, right now is a challenge. I'm a week away from serving 2 kegs at a homebrew festival, so I just kegged one of the beers and it's hooked up for testing purposes, but I can't really drink it. I've almost done with another keg, which the other beer will go into. Brewed again last night so I can have a beer ready for after the festival, and I really should brew yet another so I can replace both kegs.

I also have a keg with a barleywine I brewed on New Year's Eve just aging until the winter.

 

[eadavis80]

I try to brew up a batch every 6-8 weeks between March-November. I don't bother brewing in the winter anymore. I just try to keep 'em fairly seasonal: in November I brew a Scotch Wee Heavy for cold winter months. In early spring I'll brew a wheat and pale ale for the warmer months and then in July I'll usually do a cider, aletoberfest and pumpkin ale for football season.

 

[seatazzz]

Hi, my name is Seatazz and I have a brewing addiction. I have a two-tap kegerator and 6 cornies, of which two are empty right now, 1 is carbing, one is almost full, and the other two are about 1/2 full. And two beers in fermenters. Way back in the day I used to look at available funds and think, yeah I could hit the casino with that...now, it's the same thing but Yeah, I could hit up the LHBS and brew. I'll usually have 3-4 pints a night, the husband 1-2. I try to keep four kegs filled at all times with at least one fermenter going.

 

[cmac62]

I make 15g batches and I have enough kegs for 11 batches at a time. So, I brew whenever I have enough kegs empty for a batch. Typically, I'll put one keg of the batch on tap right away but, style permitting, I usually store a keg or two for later use.

Having stored kegs let's me brew whatever strikes me at the time, since I usually have things around to balance out the taps.

I brew virtually all lagers, and sometimes I end up not being able to brew for extended times due to work, so I like to keep a deep pipeline.

OMG you have 33 cornies (mad math skills ). You must have collected them over some time.

 

[cmac62]

I just kegged/tapped my latest brew a NEIPA. The first one I have ever brewed. It was brewed on 3/22, after primary fermentation stopped I dry hopped for a week, got it into the keg and crashed it. Then when my Juniper Rye Bock spit at me I figured I may as well put that on the tap. It is amazing, but now the only thing I have in the line is a Apricot Witt that I am thinking about saving for our HB Fest at the end of the month, so I need another fast beer to stay ahead. Perhaps I will brew the Blue Moon Clone with a thread on HBT. Any other ideas? I do have 17 lb of an Irish Stout malt a local micro gave me. I was thinking about doing a smash with this and something.

 

[cmac62]

I have 3 kegs on tap myself, but the tricky part is aging beer so it is ready to be tapped! I have a Nut Brown Ale, Red Ale and NEIPA.

I just purchased 2 more kegs for cellaring big beers. I have a (1.091) Belgium Strong fermenting and attempting a (1.118) Bourbon County Stout this weekend. These will hog kegs for at least 6 month min, likely a year!

I’m brewing all over the place because I’m learning. At some point I really just want to brew big beers 8-12% Scotch Ales, Belgium’s, Stouts, Porters. Beers that are expensive to purchase such as Chimay Reserve.

After all the whole point of me getting into home brewing is making big beers that I enjoy. Really depend a lot on the mood/ season I’m in.

I understand. I also love the big ones. The Wee heavy is one of my favorites. I have beers every night so after awhile I started brewing some sessionable beers as well. Also, the first beer I put on tap was a 13% IRS and that was dangerous. I usually don't keg anything bigger that 8% anymore. I have also made some really good 80 schilling Scottish Ales (4.5% or so). Still the Scottish taste and feel with a lot less alcohol.

Also, with all of the grain you are using you may want to think about doing a small beer/partigyle beer where you do your first batch full volume and then sparge into a separate kettle and use the second runnings for a smaller beer. For a while I was doing three batches in a day. I would make a big beer (Wee Heavy, BW, Dopple Bock), then a medium beer of about 5 ABV and put all of the grain together and sparge that into a second kettle for the small beer. Some of these have come out great and some not so much. But it is worth a try.

 

[cmac62]

I understand. I also love the big ones. The Wee heavy is one of my favorites. I have beers every night so after awhile I started brewing some sessionable beers as well. Also, the first beer I put on tap was a 13% IRS and that was dangerous. I usually don't keg anything bigger that 8% anymore. I have also made some really good 80 schilling Scottish Ales (4.5% or so). Still the Scottish taste and feel with a lot less alcohol.

Also, with all of the grain you are using you may want to think about doing a small beer/partigyle beer where you do your first batch full volume and then sparge into a separate kettle and use the second runnings for a smaller beer. For a while I was doing three batches in a day. I would make a big beer (Wee Heavy, BW, Dopple Bock), then a medium beer of about 5 ABV and put all of the grain together and sparge that into a second kettle for the small beer. Some of these have come out great and some not so much. But it is worth a try.

Third, it seems that some glass carboys may be in order so the bulk aging can be done in those instead of hogging your kegs for so long.

 

[November]

OMG you have 33 cornies (mad math skills ). You must have collected them over some time.

I use Sankes, and it's a mix of 1/6bbl (5 gal), 30L (8 gal), and half barrels (15 gal). I switched from cornies to Sankes a couple years ago and never looked back. I never had anything but problems with cornies.

I treat buying kegs like buying guns, always buy, never sell, and figure out the logistics later...