Swimming in beer

[DuncB]

Glad to know I'm doing my part by passing it through my kidney's first.

~HopSing.

Kidneys won't process it much, it's your liver doing the work and the more you drink the better it gets at doing that. Upto a certain point.

 

[AlexKay]

It’s not binge drinking, my liver is doing interval training.

 

[DuncB]

UK batches and recipes tend to be 23 litres or about 6 of your gallons. I think it was a fermenter size thing and it was 40 pint bottles in a batch which was a nice round number.

 

[bwible]

Call me weird, but I like my occasional 1/4-gallon batches. Bottling is practically done before it starts: everything goes in a single 1-L EZ-cap bottle. I can try off-the-wall recipes (for example, smoked braggot) or weird hops without getting stuck with more than the one bottle. Boil-off is so significant, though, that scaling up recipes again can be tricky.

There was an article published in Brewing Techniques magazine years and years ago, this is going back to the 90s. It was a sort of tongue in cheek article about brewing one pint at a time at work using the office coffee maker for hot water and sparging, etc. I thought it was funny. I have the magazine but my scanner isn’t working and I’m not sure if the rules would allow uploading something like that even though the magazine has been out of business for awhile.

 

[AlexKay]

I did 5 12-ounce batches once when I was taste-testing Pilsner malts from different maltsters. SMaSH lagers, very boring, happy to not have more than a glass to drink. I hadn’t considered the coffeemaker approach … I do have a thermostatted coffeemaker, though I don’t know that it’ll do mash temps. Hm.

 

[DuncB]

Somewhere I read about brewing a batch of beer using the facilities in a hotel room during a managed isolation. It was an extract and steeping recipe with the beer fermented under pressure in a large PET bottle.

 

[bracconiere]

Somewhere I read about brewing a batch of beer using the facilities in a hotel room during a managed isolation. It was an extract and steeping recipe with the beer fermented under pressure in a large PET bottle.

where there's a will, there's a way!

 

[DuncB]

@bracconiere
Over here some people who catch covid are moved into managed isolation for a couple of weeks. It would be a bit of a rush getting all the kit together but I'd give it a go all grain, robobrew, kveik, hops and a keg to ferment and serve in. Would be a right laugh. Might be the most watched ferment in history.

 

[bracconiere]

@bracconiere
Over here some people who catch covid are moved into managed isolation for a couple of weeks. It would be a bit of a rush getting all the kit together but I'd give it a go all grain, robobrew, kveik, hops and a keg to ferment and serve in. Would be a right laugh. Might be the most watched ferment in history.

damn, i'm an alchie...i'd keep a pack of 24 hour turbo in the cupboard....just in case! figure i wouldn't be showering, so as far as swimming in beer...you know what the tub would be used for!

 

[mashpaddled]

That was the main reason I started scaling down batch sizes early on. A five gallon batch took forever to drink and even if it turned out well I wanted to brew so much more often. I think it's good to brew a lot early on and have fun exploring and experimenting but inevitably you'll end up with too much beer no matter how small the batch. Distilling will help reduce liquid volume but it's the same alcohol so unless you only care about calories you haven't solved any problems--just given yourself a secondary hobby to brewing.

I've slowed way down on brewing for years to the point that I'm only brewing a handful of times per year which makes me sad but I still have homebrew going back to 2011 and commercial beer slightly older than that. I'm sitting on about forty cases of beer in my house despite slowing both brewing and buying. I don't have a good answer to this problem.

 

[Protos]

In the last year, I brewed 82 batches 5L /1.5G each. 5 dumpers because of acetic / diastatic infection (discarded them by pouring on the ground in my backyard). Gave out like 2 batches, the rest gulped myself.

Before taking on the hobby I'd never imagine I'd drink so much beer

 

[GoodTruble]

Too much beer can be a good problem to have. Just share beer with people who will enjoy it. It doesn't last forever and is meant to be to be consumed and enjoyed.

I've probably given away half the beer I've brewed. I've also often been surprised by who liked what. A beer that I thought was "meh" turned out to be my brother in law's favorite beer (ever). So I just share it with anyone who is interested. If they don't like it, oh well. It was free beer.

 

[madscientist451]

I'm way too cheap to dump out drinkable alcohol, and thus I have way more than I need. I've switched to 3 gallon batches, but its still too much. I'm considering a counter-pressure bottle filler to free up keg space, any recommendations? I figure I can give away beer to some guys at work and get rid of accumulated bottles at the same time.

 

[hotbeer]

128 oz is about (10) 12 oz bottles. I’ve never done it but wonder if I would even get 10 after losses to waste and such. I don’t know what I’d use for equipment, probably would have to be brew in a bag.

Now that I'm not using recipe kits, I have been able to scale recipes to about 1¼ gallons (5.2 litres) at the end of boil.

Somewhat less goes into the fermenter because of the wet solids that get left in the kettle. However I now and get a full 10 bottles and more plus have plenty to take samples for SG and dispose of without worrying about not getting that last full bottle.

I found some 5 liter jars that I use for fermenting so there is plenty of headspace for a little over 1 gallon in the fermenter to kraeusen without getting spit into the bubblers.

 

[bwible]

[EDIT -Mod]
We do homebrew club exchanges. Everybody puts out their beer, you bring your beer and we trade as we want. Its a good club activity. We also have “the travelling 6 pack”. Its one of those fancy wooden 6 pack holders you only see being sold around Christmas time every year. Every meeting somebody brings the six pack filled with their beer. We ask a trivia question, whoever gets it gets the travelling 6 pack and its their obligation to take it home and fill it with their beer and bring it to the next meeting.

 

[Oldskewl]

I scaled back to 2.5 gal for the most part. Like others have said, not as many family and freinds over to the house to help consume. And my wife seems to be drinking more wine than beer these days. I also like to buy some craft brews from time to time. I feel like I am swimming in beer at times as well.

 

[bwible]

I’m finding the lower gravity beers go quicker. I brewed a Scottish 70, an Irish Red, a Dry Stout and a Bitter recently. The 2 Irish beers are supposed to be for a club competition in March. I have about 18 left of my 30 on those already. The Scottish I brewed 5 gallons of at the end of Nov and I have about 15 left of the 50. I brewed the bitter early Jan, bottled it mid Jan in 16 oz bottles. Started out with about 22 bottles each. I have 8 or 9 left of each of those.

The bigger beers hang around. I have barleywines from 2019, 2020 and 2021 in cases now. There are 14 of the 2019, 22 of the 2020 and 24 of the 2021. I haven’t brewed 2022 barleywine yet. I also have a case of maple wine, my best guess is thats about 14%. 22 of those left. None of those are going anywhere soon.

 

[bwible]

 

[Miraculix]

Let me sing you one of my girlfriend's favourite songs which goes like:

"Why do you want to brew, you have so much beer! Who is going to drink all that?"

 

[Protos]

Some day, I had to be honest enough to confess to myself:
"Hi, I'm Protos and I have Beer Overproduction Disorder".
I embraced my disorder and accepted that I brew not so much to have more beer (I don't really need to have 20 to 40 different homebrews in my cellar at any time) rather than to try new varieties and educate myself.

 

[DuncB]

I'm way too cheap to dump out drinkable alcohol, and thus I have way more than I need. I've switched to 3 gallon batches, but its still too much. I'm considering a counter-pressure bottle filler to free up keg space, any recommendations? I figure I can give away beer to some guys at work and get rid of accumulated bottles at the same time.

@madscientist451
I have the williams warn counter pressure bottle filler which some microbreweries down here use as there bottling rig. It's quite pricey ( cheaper than canning),but does fill against balanced pressure of CO2 after purging the bottle with CO2. Very easy to use, and not messy or stressy. I cap on foam with it and have had good longevity with some beers provided they are kept cool. Big beers / barley wines I still bottle condition.

 

[Mad Hornet]

That was the main reason I started scaling down batch sizes early on. A five gallon batch took forever to drink and even if it turned out well I wanted to brew so much more often. I think it's good to brew a lot early on and have fun exploring and experimenting but inevitably you'll end up with too much beer no matter how small the batch. Distilling will help reduce liquid volume but it's the same alcohol so unless you only care about calories you haven't solved any problems--just given yourself a secondary hobby to brewing.

I've slowed way down on brewing for years to the point that I'm only brewing a handful of times per year which makes me sad but I still have homebrew going back to 2011 and commercial beer slightly older than that. I'm sitting on about forty cases of beer in my house despite slowing both brewing and buying. I don't have a good answer to this problem.

That's my kind of hoarding right there! Bourbon, beer, and banjos!

 

[GoodTruble]

@madscientist451
I have the williams warn counter pressure bottle filler which some microbreweries down here use as there bottling rig. It's quite pricey ( cheaper than canning),but does fill against balanced pressure of CO2 after purging the bottle with CO2. Very easy to use, and not messy or stressy. I cap on foam with it and have had good longevity with some beers provided they are kept cool. Big beers / barley wines I still bottle condition.

I keep seeing everyone state they still bottle big beers. Why is that? Just because it takes so long for them to age/mature?

And I use a nukatap cp bottle filler. It's hit and miss so far, but I'm still getting my process down.

 

[bwible]

I keep seeing everyone state they still bottle big beers. Why is that? Just because it takes so long for them to age/mature?

And I use a nukatap cp bottle filler. It's hit and miss so far, but I'm still getting my process down.

Because they usually don’t get drank quickly. If you keg them, they not only occupy a keg but that keg has to occupy a place in whatever cold storage you have for kegs. You really can’t leave a keg at room temp. Many of us have stories about a barleywine or a RIS occupying a keg for a year and a half or two years.

For me, I mostly only drink bigger beers in the winter when its cold outside.

 

[micraftbeer]

Pre-COVID, I was on a similar path of deciding I would go to 2.5 gallon batches. Didn't drink enough of the beer, hated pouring it out, but didn't want full kegs stopping me from brewing. Then COVID came, Work From Home started, and all activity outside the home ground to a halt and I had loads of time to brew.

I reached out to neighbors that used to occasionally get together with and share some beer when I had something spectacular, and asked if they wanted a free 6-pack from my batches. I got 4 people initially, then 5 say they would. I pick what I brew and when I brew, I brew 5 gallons, and then I share 30 bottles of that with neighbors.

I'm glad it's worked out this way because brewing smaller batches, a small variation can have a bigger result on your beer. A miscalculation of water by 0.5 gallons becomes a major ABV shifting event, etc.

I use the TapCooler bottle filler and I think it's great. I keg and carbonate in keg, then fill bottles when the beer is ready. It takes me about an hour from start of bottles soaking in bucket of sanitizer, to 30 capped bottles and everything cleaned up and put away.

 

[FunkedOut]

I drink to support my brewing habit.

 

[bwible]

Pre-COVID, I was on a similar path of deciding I would go to 2.5 gallon batches. Didn't drink enough of the beer, hated pouring it out, but didn't want full kegs stopping me from brewing. Then COVID came, Work From Home started, and all activity outside the home ground to a halt and I had loads of time to brew.

I reached out to neighbors that used to occasionally get together with and share some beer when I had something spectacular, and asked if they wanted a free 6-pack from my batches. I got 4 people initially, then 5 say they would. I pick what I brew and when I brew, I brew 5 gallons, and then I share 30 bottles of that with neighbors.

The neighbor across from me is one of the owners of the brew pub in town. And he’s one of the few neighbors here we know.

You’re right in that some of the small batch measurements can get a little silly. Scaling down some recipes you come up with hop additions that are .187 ounces or something like that. I also have found recipes don’t always scale up or down exactly and I like round numbers, so .187 oz becomes 1/4 oz, etc. Or you’re measuring out 1.5 oz of acid malt or melanoidin malt. Water salts .5 gram of this or that sometimes. Stuff like that. I bought a good accurate little digital scale.

 

[micraftbeer]

The other benefit of this neighborhood group is when I make something I don't really care for, I usually have someone that will take extra bottles of it, or will take the last 1/4 of a keg and picnic tap and finish it off. So as long as I don't have a defect/infection, and it's just something that I don't like, usually someone will be excited to finish it off.

 

[NightFlight]

I still bottle a few for family and friends if there is beer in the fermenter after the keg is filled

ALL THIS TIME I'VE BEEN THROWING IT OUT! *smacks forehead*

 

[bracconiere]

so unless you only care about calories

yeah i've been slackin on protein, but all in all pretty good......and before you try to tell me you take a pill, the reason i drink in the first place, is because i like that i won't be taken advantage of....

edit: i really should have hypeanated that filename, lol....just pretend it's "suckin-but-not-to-bad"