Weak Pipeline

[Picobrew]

Damn. Everybody always says "what the hell are you gonna do with all that beer?", and I keep thinking WHAT BEER.

I have 5 things fermenting, most of which won't be ready for 2 months.

I have Apfelwein and a half-batch of hef bottle conditioning. Gonna be months for the Apfelwein and the hef won't last long.

All my previous batches are gone or are so low that I don't want to drink any more before it ages.

I need some better pipeline management!! I find myself today with nothing to drink!!

My only hope is that I'm a week away from bottling my Oakmeal stout and I could probably bottle Mr. Squinty today, but I think i would rather secondary it and let it clear a week. Sounds like im at least 3 weeks away from any sort of homebrew.

What a corner I have brewed myself into. I think I need to start alternating a turbo cheap pale between serious batches, just to keep up with my drinking crew.

 

[GunnerMan]

I hear you, I brew for the whole family just about. I can only brew 5 gal batches at a time, I have 3 fermenters and ive been brewing as fast as possible, even bottled one after only two weeks. The even if I only drink 1 a night it still ends up disapearing in no time. 5 gallons seems like a lot of beer untill its in the bottles

I have great ambitions of buying a couple rain barrels(made from 55 gal food storage drums) and securing a couple large kettles and doing 30-50 gallons batches. Someday..when I have the money to make a fermentation chamber that big and a keggerator and kegs to store it.

 

[Braid]

I have 5 6.5 gallon fermenters. I try to brew (2) 10 gallon batches at a time. One being a fairly quick finishing beer and the other being quick or one that needs some aging. I use the 5th fermenter to rotate the batches into for secondary purposes or will do a mead or apfelwein to use it during the 6 or so weeks it's not in service. Having some simple and quick pale ales or hefes going through the pipe tends to keep the glasses full most of the time.

 

[Brewer_Steve]

I feel your pain.

The only thing I have to drink is a rather green pale ale. It's carbed, but it could use another week in the bottle.

On deck, I have an imperial stout in secondary and I want to let it sit 2 months.
I have 2 batches of Apfelwein and a lager fermenting. All these beers will take a lot of time. In a couple months, I should have a lot of beer. Right now I don't.

 

[velotech]

I had this problem for the last few years. This year, my goal is to keep a pipeline. I did it by keeping a detailed brewing schedule in Outlook, including all primary/secondary transfers and bottling/kegging. I found I needed to brew a few session type brews in a row, then brew a big beer to keep the rotation going. I had to increase capacity, though. Now I have 7 fermentors and 12 kegs.

 

[Yankeehillbrewer]

Brewing every other week seems to be getting it done for me. But I have yet to brew anything that requires a lot of aging, and I can't do lagers. Pretty much all my beers are on a 6 week schedule 3 in the fermenter and 3 in the bottle.

 

[Grinder12000]

I think this is the weak spot in the year for many people. What you have now was made Dec and Jan and if you are trying to age longer (4-5 months for me) it's getting thin.

 

[PavlovsCat]

I've been recently thinking that kegging your favorite house brew and then bottling other batches may be the way to go. You've always got your old standby cold and ready to go, but if you feel like something different or have people over with different tastes then you have the bottles. Saves on water, always rinsing the bottles after you pour.

 

[xxdcmast]

I just started in december and have tried to keep a decent supply going for myself. I agree that if possible brewing every other week does help. I think im at 5 5 gallon carboys, 1 6 gallon, and a 15 gallon barrel for apfelwein.

Right now I think my main problem with backing my pipeline is bottling. I just dont really like it that much. I have two beers that I could probably bottle today but bottling is my least favorite part of brewing.

I think im getting very close to buying a kegging setup (hooray for tax return). I am brewing my first batch of edwort haus pale this weeekend and Ive read thats is a rather fast finishing beer. So Im looking forward to it.

 

[Grinder12000]

I think it is interesting how 50% of people find bottling easy, quick and not a job while others hate it.

Takes 1 hour of real work. Kegging is nice but it's tough to carry a keg around and I have 8 different beer styles bottled - I would need a LARGE kegerator with wheels.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

In just over a year of brewing this is the first time I have had a pipeline of any kind. Even that is very tenuous. It scares me.

 

[Homercidal]

I can usually brew much more than I can drink. I'm thinking about going to half-batches and bottling just to brew more often and have more variety. I'm thinking about doing a nice porter next time. I have most of a Wit on tap with the remains of an IPA kegged as well. Plus a keg of Apfelwein, a half-batch of barleywine and an IPA in secondary and a blonde in primary.

Before that Wit was ready, I only had the boughten IPA on tap. It's either feast or famine for me. Just spent too much time working on house and garage to brew last fall.

 

[chumprock]

Went from two on tap and a couple in the fermenter to none on tap and only 1 in the fermenter. I went on vacation for two weeks and it really dented the pipeline!

I just drank half a flat-green brown ale last night...

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I'm finally getting the pipeline full. I have eight of my nine kegs full, or mostly full. I have been doing a lot of quick fermenting ales, so now it's Lager Time!

I have an extract light testing the new fermentation cooler, with an AG Pils and AG Amber following.