What's Your Fermentation Capacity?

[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.

 

[Jtk78]

I have a chest freezer with an Inkbird 308 controlling the temp that can fit four Fermonsters in. I've had all four in twice, usually only two.

 

[beermanpete]

One 5 gallon batch in the freezer and one in a water bath.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I have a full sized fridge with freezer on top with a dual temp controller.
worked great in the summer to keep things cool but now I need to add a heat source for winter.
have an old waterbed heater and a small ceramic heater I may use for heat.
I can fit a 20 gallon cook pot in there so I believe a BRUT 20 gallon can will fit also so i'll say 15 gallon capcity to allow for head room.

 

[estricklin]

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.

And if he's not quite brewing a little less than once per week, he could cold crash the other days!

 

[spittybug]

Upright freezer with temp controller. I have a ~15 gallon plastic conical in a home built stand. 2" butterfly valve for dumping trub, side mounted racking port (need to make it rotatable.....). Temp probe. I pop the Tilt in there and use an old cell phone to relay it to the wifi and then off to google sheets. I'm also in the process of modifying an old corny (rubber handles were all destroyed) into a custom 5 gallon SS fermenter that I may dedicate to wild/sours. I want to allow the violent fermentation to rise up into a second chamber and dribble back down so as not to simply blow it out.... still working on details.

 

[TheBrewBrotha]

I have a 7.1 cu ft chest freezer I use with an InkBird for temp control. Can fit two 7gal fermonsters inside at a time

 

[govner1]

Between my Ale chamber (24g) and lager chamber (36g) a total of 60g but the most I’ve ever had going at once is 24g.

 

[Braufessor]

I can do 2 x 5 gallon batches of lager at a time in my small chest freezer with temp control. I have a separate fridge for lagering after primary. I can do ales at ambient temps though pretty easily. So, I can ferment another 4-6 batches with the fermenters I use for ales at one time So, I suppose I could have 8x5 gallon batches in primary at one time if I wanted to. Usually have 2-4 batches going at any one time as far as primary fermentation stages.

 

[JimRausch]

I have 4 buckets and 4 carboys. My choke point is bottling. I need to accumulate enough bottles to bottle one batch freeing up a fermenter. I have 15 Styrofoam-lined boxes each holding 42 bottles, and 5 boxes each holding 12 howlers. All but 2 out of the 15 are full. I did give a lot away around the holidays, and should get those empties back, and am bringing a box to a party next weekend, so I should have some room soon.