I hate pipleline

[Walker]

My only 'concern' is that I'll brew the '100 gallon legal limit' before the year is out... Since I live alone, I don't have the extra 100 gallons from a spouse, or another adult in my home/apartment... Luckily, 10 of the 20 gallons I have in process now, were actually started in 2010.

Relax. No one is enforcing that law to the letter. It's really meant to prevent people from running large bootlegging operations out of their homes.

Besides, assume you brew *and consume* 50 gallons a month. In a year, you will have made 600 gallons. Way over the limit, but at no time did you have more than 50 gallons in your house.

How on earth could anyone prove you brewed more beer than you currently have on hand?

 

[munche]

Dead by Dawn IPA??

They had me at "Dead".

Damn. a Knock off IPA could be the "I'll Swallow your Soul" IIPA

LOVE IT.

I like your style, and I'm totally stealing that name.

 

[cheezydemon3]

I like your style, and I'm totally stealing that name.

Steal away!

I'll make one too. And yes, that name RULES!!!!!.



But why stop there?

It's a trick, get an AXE Marzen

Swallow THIS Black IPA

Exmortus Necromonicon, loosely translated:, Imperial Stout

Book of the DEAD IPA

"Pillow Talk" Blonde

 

[Golddiggie]

Besides, assume you brew *and consume* 50 gallons a month. In a year, you will have made 600 gallons. Way over the limit, but at no time did you have more than 50 gallons in your house.

How on earth could anyone prove you brewed more beer than you currently have on hand?

I really like that logic... I seriously doubt I could even keep 50 gallons (right now) on hand at any time. I could see having 30 though (that's only 6 corny kegs after all)... Besides, who's to say that some are not left-over from previous year brewing, and are just aging. I actually have two beers aging on oak chips that were started last year. Plus, about 11-12 gallons of mead that is still in process (aging now, won't be ready to drink for months)... Need to get some corny's for long term aging of the mead.

I'll do my best to keep under 50 gallons on hand (in any state) that's made in that calendar year. I plan on moving to a larger place in the next 6-8 months. I'll be looking for a place where I can brew more easily. Basically, a ground floor apartment, that's at least a two bedroom. Second bedroom will be the brewery/tech-central (computers/servers/etc. in there too)...

BTW, I thought "Pillow Talk" was towards a brunet... So maybe a brown ale?

How about a Housewares Cream Ale...

Boom-Stick Stout

 

[r8rphan]

How on earth could anyone prove you brewed more beer than you currently have on hand?

This Thread?

One day, the things we say on the internet may be used against us in a court of law, by govt intelligence agencies, by our employers, and by the banking industry...... In fact, it's already happening...

 

[Monkey55]

.....
Now I've got 15 gallons in some stage of undrinkability loafing around my house mocking my unfortunate logistic decisions. I open the pantry at least once a day and yell at my carboy and kegs "F****** FISNISH FERMENTING!! I WANT TO DRINK YOU!" I don't think it's helping......

Definitely not helping.. Poor beer. Remember - the yeast are living organisms. I'm sure they have feelings too.

I think you need to give you fermenter a hug...

E

 

[Conan]

Slight resurrection here, but I was just toying with a way to figure out my brew schedule the mathy way. Here's an excel sheet I drempt up, if I can get it to post. First column is labels, second is the actual answer you'd get, and third is the formula used. Only use 2 columns in excel, as the middle one in this case was hand-typed. Couldn't paste a spreadsheet into the forum. Let me know how this works out, I was just messin around. Kyle

Gal 5 5
Glass 16 16
Frequency (per day) 1 1
Lasts (days) 40 =(C1*128)/(C2*C3)
Brewed On 1/8/2011 40551
Condition/ carb time (weeks) 1 1
Secondary 1 1
Primary 2 2
Total Beer Age (days) 28 =7*(C6+C7+C8)
Ready 2/5/2011 =C5+C9
Empty 3/17/2011 =C10+C4
Brew Again 2/17/2011 =C11-C9

 

[cheezydemon3]

Lost me Conan.

 

[Chenslee]

Hey, conan, I'm having trouble parsing that. Copy it to google docs, then publish to web and post the link here.

 

[jlpred55]

I know others will respond that their beer is ready to drink in 3-4 weeks, but I just plan on a minimum of 8 weeks from brew day for low to mid gravity brews. Between weeks 6 and 8, there is a huge change as the flavors meld and the green tang diminishes. Really, 9 weeks is just about peak flavor. I do four in primary, two in the keg at cellar temps, and two on the gas.

This is bad advice for certain types of beers. British Bitters (low gravity) for example. 4 weeks in primary is drastic overkill, unless there is something really wrong with your process and the yeast need to clean up something that went haywire (green tang)??? The beer should taste great after a week. I can make a bitter and drink it within 12-14 days. 5-7 days ferment, 7 days on gas and it is fantastic. If I waited and drank a lot of my British beers after 9 weeks I would lose all that good flavor that you get from the yeast and hops. I had a rotation screw up and lost a keg of Bitter in the rotation, found it 3 months later and it is not the same.....not even close. Same can be said for hefes and IPA's. I am drinking those as soon as they are carbed and after about 12 weeks they start to diminsh. I just don't get the homebrewers advice of give it X time in primary....that is BS.

 

[cklages]

I just don't get the homebrewers advice of give it X time in primary....that is BS.

I think that advice is meant for those who have to ask the question. Once your brewing chops get a little more refined, you are in more of a position to let the beer talk to you, or use the Force or even try tasting hydrometer samples. When a newb asks you long to primary, 3 weeks is a pretty solid standard answer. When someone is ready to ask the question why is my malt or hops expression sub-par, they probably have progressed past that particular bit of advice, and know better how to listen to their beer.

Of course for me, its still just the 3 weeks in primary

 

[Golddiggie]

I think that advice is meant for those who have to ask the question. Once your brewing chops get a little more refined, you are in more of a position to let the beer talk to you, or use the Force or even try tasting hydrometer samples. When a newb asks you long to primary, 3 weeks is a pretty solid standard answer. When someone is ready to ask the question why is my malt or hops expression sub-par, they probably have progressed past that particular bit of advice, and know better how to listen to their beer.

Of course for me, its still just the 3 weeks in primary

It also depends on what you're brewing... A moderate gravity brew, with an ABV target of 4-5% could be ready in two weeks. Something in the 4.5-6.5% range, usually benefits from another 1-2 weeks in primary. Once you pass 7-8% you'll need to let the yeast decide when it's ready to let go of the wort.

To get a decent idea of how long some brews can take, look at the clone brews book... There are more than a few that are considering in their prime months after being bottled (higher ABV typically). While others are best as soon as they are carbonated.

Personally, I can't stand fresh, high IBU IPA's... ~45 IBU is pretty much my limit there. I plan on setting aside a pair of my "Hoppy Accident" brew (was supposed to be an ESB, turned out to be an English IPA) for a month or so. I'm hoping that the hops will mellow out some, so that it's more enjoyable to me. That was in primary for 20 days, so it was probably even harsher when younger. I plan on trying out my Irish Red Ale tomorrow evening (bottled it almost two weeks ago now)... We shall see if it's on target for what I wanted.

Best advice I could probably give is to brew what YOU like to drink. Figure out how long it takes for your brews to develop into what YOU want to drink. Everyone else can get bent.

 

[bbrim]

More carboys!

 

[Conan]

Sorry for the delay, https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AkgL-9fSbx7bdFdHTEM1WUpfZU92c1BFdXpZZjNJaFE&hl=en&output=xls is the link, I hope. I was trying to figure out how to do that....never thought of Google Docs. Anyway, this is currently set up with 2 brew schedules. The only difference between them I believe is the "Lasts" amount, either 80 or 40 days. I also changed conditioning time to days. Kyle

 

[Chenslee]

Oh, man. I love google docs.

 

[Rotgut]

I need to figure out a good pipeline as well. I drank my last bottle of oatmeal stout last night. Fortunately the local liquor stores tend to sell good brew and I have several bottles of Hop Stoopid and Ruination in my frig.

I currently have a Belgian Strong Ale in the primary with a few more weeks to go before bottling. I have a Sweet Sundae Stout to rack into the tertiary this weekend (racking on top of chocolate. I only racked into a secondary already to add some DME for a little more kick after a not so efficient mash.. seems to have worked great.) Then there is the Smoked Scottish Strong Ale which still has a few more weeks before bottling. Lastly, a Black IPA is bottled but still has another week or so to bottle condition. And I'm brewing a simple Blonde Ale this weekend.

So my pipeline is currently dry. All of the above combined looks like I'll have a crap ton of beer pretty soon. But not right now. So for now... Lagunitas and Stone brews are being kept in stock. IMO.. next best thing to home brew.

 

[Golddiggie]

Labeled up my English IPA (Hoppy Accident, 42.4IBU, 5.47% ABV) and Irish Red Ale last night. Taking some to a party tomorrow, but I'll have some of both still here. Not as much of the English IPA since I split the 5 gallon batch with another brewer. The Irish Red Ale still has another week on the schedule for bottle conditioning (bottled almost two weeks ago now), but it should be good enough for the people at the party. Those two brews were started on 1/2 and 1/10, bottled after three weeks in primary. So, six weeks from grain to glass is reasonable for brews.

I would avoid secondary unless you're racking off of one flavor element, that you need to stop the contribution to the brew of, onto another one. If you need to free up a primary, and what's in it is not ready for bottles, get another primary.