Scheduling for the month

Hi all,

we are trying to get a good rhythm going for our brewing month but are having trouble conceptualizing - any ideas on how to go about this or even how to think about this?

we are currently fermenting in a 400L chest freezer with a temp. controler on it. the freezer has room for 2 20L fermentation buckets and about 3 - 4 5L glass carboys. We are currently running on a schedule of 3 batches of more or less 15L each per month, brewing once a week for 3 weeks out of the month.

That means that we can do 2 "big" batches in the freezer and 1 final big batch split between the carboys. I want to figure out a schedule that would allow us to maximize the use of the freezer so that it can be set for all beers. the problem is we would prefer to cold crash before bottling/kegging and need to figure out how we can optimize the use of the freezer.

Right now, we are letting the first brew out of the month sit for about 2 - 3 weeks in primary and then sticking it in a clearing tank - this is the point where we would like to cold crash. however, that means that we also have another 2 batches that are still in primary - one which is 1 week into primary and one that is 2 weeks into primary.

I guess the question is a lot less clear than i expected in my head, but was hoping for some general feedback/advice/experience from other people who have similar issues. how do you plan your brewing month, how does style (eg. high grav. vs. low grav) play into it, and how to you take each individual batch the the necessary temp ranges without upsetting the rest of your brews.

we generally brew ales, but am open to suggestions on how to combine/stagger ale and lager batches in order to get the scheduling x fermentation temp. issue dialed.

thanks

Your ales only need temperature control during the first few days of the ferment, usually 4 to 7 days. After that it is OK or even beneficial to let them come to room temperature to complete the ferment and let the yeast clean up the intermediate products of fermentation. While cold crashing seems to be popular, time will do the same thing at room temperature or you could put the fermenters back in the chest freezer for a couple days prior to bottling.

Cold crashing doesn't take too long. The hardest part that you're looking at here, is ramping up the temp from fermentation temps to crashing temps and juggling things around. I see two options in this. You can wait until all of your ales have gone through the majority of their fermentation, then place the oldest one in the chest and crash it quickly, then decrease the temp and place them all back in and continue to do this until they are all done. This is a lot of manual labor.

The other option is just to start planning your brews better. If you brew beers that have the same general fermentation lengths and temps based on gravity, style, and yeast, then you can brew them a day or two apart. When the first one finishes, just leave it a few more days until the next one finishes, then the next, etc. When they all finish just crash them at the same time. Just keep doing what you're doing, but don't stagger the brews. Hit them all at the beginning of the month, end of the month, etc.

Thanks Termous - that sounds about right to be honest - it's just not "the answer i wanted" the second option is what i was thinking as well, but i feel i am looking for a solution that does not exist since my freezer cannot be at 3C and 19C simultaneously...

the problem with the latter suggestion is that it condenses all of my brewing fun for the month into the beginning of the month. and i am trying to keep going as regularly as possible in order to get the practice and precision in process rather than just having a lot of beer around. i guess it is about trying to find the balance between what is fun and engaging for the month but still giving the beer what it needs to have an optimal fermentation. it's tough! maybe i could do my 2 big batches within a few days of each other at the beginning of the month and then just do a few small batches throughout the rest of the month as experiments (probably to see what we could do for our next batches!). but then i would be doing the small batches and big batches under different fermentation conditions anyway.

the only real problem with fermenting in the room itself is that i'm in a fairly old apartment with bad insulation. it doesnt get too hot necessarily, nor too cold, but there is always quite a big temp. differential throughout the day between morning and night. I work full time so i can't maintain manually with fans and/or heaters or anything.

you guys have definitely given us plenty to think about though! thanks for the prompt responses! I think i will try as above (2 big batches, followed by small batches throughout the month)

excuse the typo-
*Teremous

For rooms that have large swings in temps, you might want to consider looking into making a swamp cooler. It's basically a large container with water, with wet towels placed over the tops of the carboys. Some people use a fan to keep a constant temp on the carboys, and people will put frozen plastic water bottles to help keep the temp down as well. It's a make-shift method but it works pretty well at keeping things constant.

Here's some examples:
A thread.

Bobbi Meyer also made one in her HBW video. She's a forum member here as well:

thats awesome! for some reason i would not have thought to use this for stability, but rather just to drive temps down when much too hot. might be worth looking into!