How often do you brew

[AndrewF111]

I have been pondering my storage for my bottled beer and am curious as to how often you guy's brew a batch? I was thinking of doing 1 a month.

for 30 bottles brewed I would like to have:

15 stored for 12 months,

15 stored for 6 months

but to keep a continuous stock pile I would need to get 2nd fermentor and do a brew every 2 weeks thats 720 long necks a year before I start to recycle my longknecks.

[PB2]

I rotate through 5 kegs at home (about 1 keg every 3 weeks, depending on beer drinking visitors) + Dr Tim's and Mild Ale cans in the fridge at all times + other commercial beer for tasting/testing (3 x 6pack per month).

 

A brew is normally filling a keg plus 2 to 3 PET take-aways (these normally go to people at work who like to taste something different).

 

At work, I put down about 5 brews per week, on average.

[Luke]

I try to brew every 3-4 weeks and do probably 2 kit brews then an all-grain. I've got 3 kegs in rotation and brew enough to fill a keg & six pack.

I just chucked out about 50 longneck bottles (don't worry, they were VB screwtops) because they were taking up too much space!

[ChrisK]

I think I got a bit enthusiastic.

 

Originally I was brewing every two weeks (i.e. the fermenter would only get a day downtime between brews). Then I went and bought a second fermenter (somehow I thought if I brewed more, it'd condition faster or something)

 

Then it got really cold and only one fermenter fits in my fridge at a time, so I'm back to one at a time. I've had the Coopers Lager that came with my kit going for about two and a half weeks now, haven't found the time to bottle it yet. I was originally going to keg it but kegging has turned out much much harder than I anticipated, so it's going into bottles. Maybe tonight.

 

I then anticipate starting my Smoty Ale tonight in the other fermenter.

[Muddy Waters]

I usually do a brew every 2 weeks. I usually leave my ales in the brewing fridge for about 2 weeks (Longer for lagers of course) so that means something is always on the go. I usually keep my second fermentor for bulk priming but will occasionally do a ginger beer in it under the house where the temp is pretty stable.

 

We usually go to Thailand for a month or so at a time at different times of the year so I usually kick my brewing schedule up a notch in the months prior. It is much easier to age beer for longer if it is another country to me [biggrin]

 

I just threw away about 12 cases of clean stubby bottles because I A) Got sick of bottling in small bottles B) Got sick of tripping over them. I spent ages cleaning all the labels of and making them pretty [crying] . Not sure why I bothered [pinched]

[AnnM]

I have 2 fermenters in rotation. I used to have them in "parallel" but it takes too much time on the weekend to bottle 2 brews (60 longnecks), so now I've got it organised so I bottle one brew every 3 weeks ('cause that's how long I leave a brew in the fermenter, especially now it's colder!) Each fermenter only gets a rest for long enough to sanitise it (1 hour).[cool] I've now got stockpiled about 5 brews (that's 150 longies), which won't last long the way MOH downs them! [devil] Ann

[AndrewF111]

Thanks for the advice. I think the hardest thing with brewing is keeping your hands off while they mature. I will have to keep buying longies until I get the rotation going.

Somewhere I read a bench capper will cap twist top bottles is this true? if not, what commercial beer still has non twist tops bottles?

[PB2]

We sell Original Pale Ale, Sparkling Ale and Best Extra Stout in 750ml glass bottles (prise off not twist-top) specifically designed for re-filling

 

[biggrin] [biggrin]

[AnnM]

Thanks for the advice. I think the hardest thing with brewing is keeping your hands off while they mature. I will have to keep buying longies until I get the rotation going.

Somewhere I read a bench capper will cap twist top bottles is this true? if not, what commercial beer still has non twist tops bottles?

 

About half my supply of longies are ex VB twist-tops - they cap just fine with a bench capper![happy]

 

[AndrewF111]

Thanks for the info, I will still enjoy drinking coopers longies and use them to brew in. I made an awesome label on the guild label maker, but may just label the crates and write on the lids. [biggrin]

[THIRSTY MATT]

Righto , im interested again (even if this site is in swahili).

Paul, you say you put down 5 batches a week at work?

are they POSSIBLE NEW KITS MADE FROM ALL GRAIN OR LIQUID MALTS?

or AVAILABLE KITS WITH ADDITIVES TO MAKE NEW RECIPES?

or ALL OF THE ABOVE?

thanking you in advance for sharing coopers secrets!

[lol]

cheers

matt

 

[PB2]

I ferment up everything and anything I can get my hands on - with the focus on perhaps bringing out a new beer kit, recipes, testing new equipment, etc. Unfortunately, I can't go into specifics [ninja]

[Trusty1]

A brief answer is "as often as I can." With 2 boys - a 1 year old and a 3 year old (who thinks he is Fui-Fui Moi-Moi[biggrin] - google him if you are not an NRL fan) brewing time is scarce. Having said that, I have brewed 7 batches since my first 1, which was bottled 27 Feb this year. The hard part has been emptying all the Coopers Sparkling Ale Longies to re-fill with my own beer!

 

My latest batch to find it's way into the bottle is the SMOTY Ale, with an Extra Smooth Bitter now in the tub. I have two Original Stout kits waiting to come together to form the best Stout since, well, the previous one[love] .

[RichardE]

One brew every 8 days, with a overnight soak of EVERYTHING in Coopers Sanitizer, then back into the brew spot in kitchen to fill-er up again...

 

We both fight over who will be brewing next and what were making...

 

[roll]

[Muddy Waters]

A brief answer is "as often as I can." With 2 boys - a 1 year old and a 3 year old (who thinks he is Fui-Fui Moi-Moi[biggrin]

 

I love Fui-Fui theres nothing better than Yelling "Moi-Moi" every time the big fella takes a big hit (and I'm not even a Parra fan but as Ch.9 don't have the decency to put any Manly games on this year I need a substitute team).

 

Does your 3yr old change his hair every week Trusty? [biggrin]

 

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

Right now I brew every time I empty my primary, and I rack out of it every 4 days. I just started home brewing again and need to get the pipeline going. I just scored 37 more swing top bottles, still need to get some PET bottles for questionable brews. This reminds me that I need to rinse my primary out tonight and put down another brew, I might try the fancy all grain one I bought yesterday, or I might just put down another good ol' dependable Coopers. The fancy one I got came with Coopers yeast, so they do have good taste[cool]

[Luke]

but as Ch.9 don't have the decency to put any Manly games on this year

 

I noticed in the paper that Pittwater Pharmacy have a few Manly cheerleaders working there.... A regular, Muddy?

 

[AndrewF111]

I got a second fermeter so when I get set up I can do every 2 weeks

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

I have 1 fermenter and three carboys, and an old fermenter that I don't have a lid for, Ive turned it into a bottling bucket. I rekindled my love for home made beer on may 8th. To date I have three batches in bottles and I just put two more down to ferment. I think once I get to the point where I'm drinking beer that has been aged for at least a month I'll settle down a little, but for now I'm brewing like a mad man [biggrin]

[Trusty1]

Does your 3yr old change his hair every week Trusty?

not quite, Muddy, but he does wear Fui Fui socks and a Fui Fui shirt everyday. Anything yellow will do the trick...Do you know how hard it is to buy footy socks (they have to be pulled up past his knees) to fit a 3 year old that has looong skinny legs and big feet? [alien]