What's Your Fermentation Capacity?

[Piperlester]

Curious what others have for capacity.

For my setup, I can fit a single bucket or carboy in my chamber, so 5 gallons every 3 weeks. Planning to increase capacity when I find some time.

[Edit: temperature controlled capacity]

 

[eric19312]

I can do 15.5 gallons in the 60 liter spiedel which fits in my refrigerator fermentation chamber.

 

[C-Rider]

Usually 2 gallons, but I can do 5.

 

[waldoar15]

100% temp controlled? I can do 2-5 gallon brews. But I can do more at cellar temps if I want to wing it. I only need to produce one keg a month though.

 

[PADave]

5 gallons in the fermentation chamber.

 

[estricklin]

It was about about 45 gallons but I lost a deep freeze a few weeks ago, so I'm down to about 20-25, but that is fine, I mainly use 2 separate fermentation chambers for lagering or different temps. I ferment in cheap 5 gallon plastic buckets, I like to be able to ferment lots of beer at a time when I want to.

 

[aprichman]

My fermentation chamber only fits one carboy - 5.5 gallons in the carboy for 5 gallons of finished kegged beer.

 

[mongoose33]

Three fermenters in ferm chambers, two more in swamp coolers if I wanted to.

I haven't wanted to.

 

[C-Rider]

I use either an apt. sized fridge of which I have 4 or a 7 cu.ft. freezer. I can put one 2 gallon bucket in the fridges or two 5 gallon buckets in the freezer. I could also "stuff" the freezer w/5 of the 2 gallon buckets. Being in Hawai`i I only have to worry about bring things DOWN to fermenting temps.

 

[Horseflesh]

I can do two temperature-controlled 5-gal batches in parallel.

 

[RM-MN]

Curious what others have for capacity.

For my setup, I can fit a single bucket or carboy in my chamber, so 5 gallons every 3 weeks. Planning to increase capacity when I find some time.

[Edit: temperature controlled capacity]

Unless you live in a place where the normal temperature is extreme, your beer only needs to be in the controlled temperature chamber during the early time of the ferment, when the heat given off by the yeast wants to drive the temperature up. Normally be the 5th day the temperature doesn't need controlled, maybe even by the 3rd day if you pitch a massive amount of yeast to minimize the lag time. Take a read on this article:

http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

That means that you could be brewing a new batch every 4 or 5 days if you could find the time and had space to store several fermenters as the beer finishes and gets ready for bottling.

 

[thehaze]

I have 5 Speidel fermenters which can do 5-7 gallons each. When I brew, I brew 5 batches in the course of 14 days.

 

[Smellyglove]

I've got 3 fridges I usually do for ales, then one little bigger fridge where I can fit 3 lagers at the same time (need to brew them three days in a row though, so the temperature will work for all of them) and one fridge dedicated to lagering which is set at -1 degree C, can toss something in there too if I need/want it for fermentation. Everything is controlled by STC1000+ or Inkbirds 310/308. I don't like the idea not being able to controll every fermentor individually, like putting several fermentors in a chamber and relying on ambient.

 

[kh54s10]

I have moved recently and most of my large gear is in storage, so I have a swamp cooler and one batch at a time.

When I get my gear back I can cool 3 in a plywood and foam insulation, minifridge chamber and another 2 in a chest freezer.

 

[brewcat]

Mine can fit a couple big mouth bubblers. But I haven't been able to brew back to back. Realistically it is let one beer ferment a week, remove to room temp and add next fermentor to the chamber. Usually kegging first beer around day 10.

 

[MrBJones]

Chest freezer and a Cool Brewing cooler. Each can fit a 6.5 gallon carboy.

 

[Manfish]

Currently we have 2 60 gallon conicals, and 2 35 gallon conicals (190 gallons). Fermentation room is 8 ft x 8 ft, so all of those plus I think we could get another one in there as well, if we had it, which we don't right now.

 

[Derp]

40 gallons if all 3 of my Speidels are in use at the same time.

 

[Cevan65]

Two 4 gallon Anvil fermenters with temp controllers and a 3 keg keezer.

 

[parrothead64]

I can fit one carboy in my fermentation fridge. I switched to fermenting in corny kegs. I can fit two in there so now I can make 8 gallon for very close to the same as it cost me to make 5. It also allows me to do closed transfers to reduce oxidation.

 

[jwelch1103]

I ferment in Sanke kegs and can fit two half kegs and at least two possibly three tall quarter sanke kegs in my fermentation chamber all at the same time.
Most I ever had in it was two half kegs and two 6 gallon better bottles. Only one temperature zone though so future iterations might change that.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

I have a 37gal mash ton.
10gal aluminum brewpot
6gal turkey trier pot (for heating strike water)
1 seven gal glass Carboy
4 five gal glass carboys.

 

[Calder]

I use a swamp cooler for both high and low temps. As noted earlier, you only need to control temp for a week, so I could do 6.5 gallons a week. I don't go thru that much homebrew, and generally brew every 3 or 4 weeks.

 

[JohnSand]

Strictly, ten gallons. Five each in the chest freezer and cool brewing bag. But I only use those during warm weather. Most of the year different parts of the basement hold pretty steady. Some in the low 50s, some low 60s, about 67 near the furnace. I have six fermenters, but have never had more than three full.

 

[Cyclman]

10g.

 

[Dcpcooks]

2 1/2 bbl temp controlled conicals.

3 15 gallon barrels for sours
2 10 gallon bourbon barrels for RIS
1 30 gallon solera

 

[RuffRider]

I can ferment one 5 gallon batch at a time in my 7 gallon SS brewbucket in a small, temperature controlled, chest freezer. That's enough for me right now.

 

[CJ-3]

I can fit one Fermonster in my DIY chamber (Son of Fermentation Chamber) so for me its 5.5 gallons.

 

[philly224]

Ten in my chest freezer. Usually only have five in there though.

 

[swampbrewcrew]

I only control the temps during active fermentation so 15 gallons there. As far as bulk conditioning in carboys it’s 60 gallons. That’s only restricted by the number of carboys and space SWMBO will allow for carboys.

In my experience with ales, once active fermentation is over I can pull it from the chamber and condition at room temperature with no ill effects.

 

[swampbrewcrew]

I consider active fermentation done when I get three hydrometer readings with no change.

Edited for clarity.

 

[BowAholic]

I use a 28.5cf chest freezer that could hold 6 or 7 fermenters, but I usually only do 4 at a time.... 2 for me and 2 for my wife.

 

[RM-MN]

I consider active fermentation done when I get three hydrometer readings with no change.

Edited for clarity.

You are getting the fermentation complete, not just the active part. When the krausen drops the active part is over. The yeast will have eaten the easy sugars, the flavor is set, and the yeast are just cleaning up the intermediate compounds and settling out after that.

 

[BrewZer]

16 gallons in 3 batches... a 6 gal Mr Beer, 6 gal plastic bucket, and an 8 gal HDPE conical. But I'm relying on ambient temperatures since I don't have a controlled temperature environment.

 

[ed007]

I have two temperature controlled refrigerators used as fermentation or lagering chambers (heaters included). Each one can fit one 7 gallon SS Brewtech bucket. I usually do 5 gallon batches so one chamber is for fermenting and the other one for conditioning or lagering kegs.

 

[Staylow]

I've got two chambers, both chest freezers that I use for temp controlled fermentation. One can fit two 5 gallon batches, while the other can fit four 5 gallon batches, or my 60L Spiedel for a 10 gallon batch. Additionally, I have wall space in the man cave for up to four 5 gallon batches of sour beer. I also have a fridge from a commercial kitchen that I use for cold storage of kegged beer. I've had up to 45 gallons waiting to go in there, but there's space for more beyond that.

 

[Sammy86]

I can do 15 gallons between the chest freezer (10) and the Cool Brew Bag (5)

 

[dstockwell]

One temp controlled fridge with 4G fermenter, stays busy.

 

[Nebraskan]

58K in the white fermenters and about 3x that in the red fermenters for wine.... but... can also ferment probably another 60K in various tanks with water cooling rings. This is at the winery, of course. at home I have capacity to ferment about 40 gallons at any given time.

 

[brick_haus]

If I used only 6.5g carboys and could ferment everything at only 3 different temps, I could have 75g fermenting simultaneously in 3 separate temp controlled chambers.
Way more if I were to use 6g buckets.
But I use 2ea. 20 gallon conicals and one 14.5 conical.