Planning and logistics

[Aussiekraut]

Do you have a plan for what beers to make or is it fairly random? I do write down a few beers I want to make but this isn't a schedule as such, just a list of things to make and it can change at a whim. 

I've run into some logistics issues lately and need to address them. Namely, I have the wrong beers for the season. While all was going according to plan, I started drinking a few less and as such, all my previous plans went out the window. Kegs lasted longer, I couldn't brew because I ran out of room to store the kegs, etc. Now I am sitting here and the only beer suitable for the weather is the mixed berry sour I have on tap. The mid strength pale ale keg has just blown and there is nothing suitable to drink for the next 2 or 3 weeks. The Irish Red and the Nut Brown are not suitable beers for the current heat and the Märzen doesn't cut it either. I have an Aussie Lager that goes in the keg on the weekend but it still needs time to mature enough to drink it. I have another cube with more of the Aussie lager if needed and will make a beer more suited to summer on the next brew day, followed by a double whammy of the mid pale.

So as you can see, I am in dire need of change. Once the routine is broken, things go pear shaped.

I ordered two more kegs and have 6 cubes all up I can keep around as FWKs to make when needed. That's what we have a big brewing system for after all. I also want to take some of the beers and keep them around for the right season. The Nut Brown for example can sit in a corner until cooler weather comes around, so it doesn't use up space in the kegerator/lager keezer. I'd like to get a couple of 9.5l kegs, so I can split a batch into two small kegs and only have a small keg on tap for a faster turnaround and more variety. The problem with the little kegs is their price. Kegland asks $89 for a small keg, just 10 bucks shy of the cost of a full one. I have two of those Kegland 8.5l PET kegs but after what I have heard, I haven't even used them. Of course, I can just take kegs off the tap before they run out and keep them for later. 

It'll take me a while to get back to where I need to be but I see the need to deal with, or better prevent this situation in the future. I need to get a little more flexible but also keep the flow of suitable beers going. It's funny how it all works fine and if only one parameter changes, it all goes down the gurgler. 

So, back to the original question: Do you have a plan? How strict or flexible is it? How do you plan ahead? How do you ensure you always have the right beers at hand without running out when they're needed the most? 

[Classic Brewing Co]

Good topic AK, I decided to change my thinking this year & kicked it off with 2 k & k brews on the 17th of Jan which will be kegged on Wednesday, purely to give me some stock, I was hoping to follow it up with an AG brew in a day or two, but other stuff got in the way.

I will be starting an AG brew this week & again the week after to keep the flow going & ensure a steady stock. I think it is important to have a few cubes backed up as well so that you always have a steady production. So far, I haven't been able to do that.

Planning is important but unless you put it into action it's worthless. Having a strict routine would be far better in my view, as then you would always have beer on tap. I am sick of buying cartons & six packs to see me through.

The other thing is I get a lot of visitors, some of the regular, which also drains your kegs, it is my fault for opening up a bar/taproom. 

Regarding those 9.5l Corny Kegs, I took that up with Keg Land & they said it costs just as much to make the small one as the big one. I can't really see that but that doesn't mean the price will come down either. I will be getting another of them as they are good to add variety.

My plan is to brew more often, keep the wheels turning & increase variety a always have 2-3 kegs on tap, I can fit 4.

Cheers.

Phil.

 

[iBooz2]

3 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

So, back to the original question: Do you have a plan? How strict or flexible is it? How do you plan ahead? How do you ensure you always have the right beers at hand without running out when they're needed the most? 

AK, I pretty much use Microsoft Outlook calendar to plan my year ahead, family birthdays, anniversaries, when regos are due, when to pay bills, holidays and WE away etc.  I also use it to plan when to plant seeds for vegetables etc. so that we can harvest them at the best time of year.  I have a beer brewing schedule also in my calendar with colour coded times when I would like to be drinking a certain beer and from that have reminders set in say the month ahead to brew a lager for example.  I do not specify which actual brew it should be, just a lager or an ale and I decide on the reminder date depending on what ingredient inventory I have at that time.  Up until now I have not brewed a stout but that may be about to change.

When you log in to check your emails, reminders will pop up and twig you into making sure you have the grains, hops and yeast at the ready and prepare for your lager or ale or stout, whatever.

So, if I was wanting to drink a stout or two during the colder months, June July, I would set the reminder to brew / ferment one, say in early December to give it time to condition in the keg.

The forecast brew schedule dates are colour coded to show me which ones are ales and which ones are lagers.  When I look at the month or year ahead, I can see when I need to organize one or the other.  I Know there are scheduling gizmos in brewing software, but I don't log into that each day, usually only when I am adding inventory or brew day.  Outlook on the other hand I log into that several times per day.  Just an idea for you - AL

3 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

I'd like to get a couple of 9.5l kegs, so I can split a batch into two small kegs and only have a small keg on tap for a faster turnaround and more variety. The problem with the little kegs is their price. Kegland asks $89 for a small keg, just 10 bucks shy of the cost of a full one. I have two of those Kegland 8.5l PET kegs but after what I have heard, I haven't even used them. Of course, I can just take kegs off the tap before they run out and keep them for later. 

AK just buy the 19 L kegs, there is no law against 1/3 or 1/2 filling it as that what I do.  I have only 1 x 9.5 L keg and my grandson has taken over that for his sparkling water ha ha.

The 9.5 L kegs take up the same floor space in your kegerator as a 19 L so nothing really saved.  I run 13 x 19 L kegs and 4 x 20 L cubes and that is about right for doing double batches of your beers on brew days.  I also have those PET kegs but only use them if going to a BBQ or such.

[John304]

I don’t have a routine as such, l have a list of brews I like, ie darks for cooler weather and lighter beers for summer. I randomly go through my recipes and order two brews at a time from lhbs . Only having one fermenting fridge can cause a problem if consumption out ways production, which is most of the time 

[Back Brewing]

I use the KISS principle I only drink ales and some lagers in the summer and stout in the winter it's pretty simple and works for me

I always have at least one and half kegs going and one conditioning 

[RDT2]

I think I have adhd when it comes to what I brew! I can change my mind three times between the house and shed and then end up brewing nothing I have a coopers commercial yeast on the go at the moment so I am going on coopers beers at the moment going to a sparkling today hopefully 

[Back Brewing]

7 minutes ago, RDT2 said:

I think I have adhd when it comes to what I brew! I can change my mind three times between the house and shed and then end up brewing nothing I have a coopers commercial yeast on the go at the moment so I am going on coopers beers at the moment going to a sparkling today hopefully 

I know the feeling I have hum and arrred the last week what to brew and FINALLY yesterday made the decision so went and got the grains before I could change my mind lol

[Aussiekraut]

My problem was that just around Xmas, I had 4 kegs in the kegerator and two in the keezer. Another two were occupying the ferment fridges, so I couldn't brew. Besides the two in the ferment fridges, all kegs were in various states of empty. So I was desperately waiting for kegs to blow, which they of course didn't. Then I had 3 go within a few days of each other and while I had room for more, I hand nothing to put in. It's messy. Atm, I have one fairly full keg, two half and one, I am not sure about. But all are beers that aren't suitable for the weather. Maybe I need to brew up a storm and just cube them for when I need them. 

I'd always had a steady supply and always had suitable beers at hand until recently. Currently on the short term plan are a honey lager, which I'll hopefully make tomorrow and a double batch of a mid pale ale, followed by a double batch of Helles. 

But I need to plan longer term and have standby beers I can just throw into a fermenter when needed or a couple of kegs on the side that can be chilled quickly and put to use. I'll see how I go when the new kegs arrived. 

[John304]

6 minutes ago, Back Brewing said:

I know the feeling I have hum and arrred the last week what to brew and FINALLY yesterday made the decision so went and got the grains before I could change my mind lol

Living at Mawson lakes I presume you use granarium or brewcraft

[Back Brewing]

4 minutes ago, John304 said:

Living at Mawson lakes I presume you use granarium or brewcraft

Granarium we might come across each other there

[Back Brewing]

19 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

My problem was that just around Xmas, I had 4 kegs in the kegerator and two in the keezer. Another two were occupying the ferment fridges, so I couldn't brew. Besides the two in the ferment fridges, all kegs were in various states of empty. So I was desperately waiting for kegs to blow, which they of course didn't. Then I had 3 go within a few days of each other and while I had room for more, I hand nothing to put in. It's messy. Atm, I have one fairly full keg, two half and one, I am not sure about. But all are beers that aren't suitable for the weather. Maybe I need to brew up a storm and just cube them for when I need them. 

I'd always had a steady supply and always had suitable beers at hand until recently. Currently on the short term plan are a honey lager, which I'll hopefully make tomorrow and a double batch of a mid pale ale, followed by a double batch of Helles. 

But I need to plan longer term and have standby beers I can just throw into a fermenter when needed or a couple of kegs on the side that can be chilled quickly and put to use. I'll see how I go when the new kegs arrived. 

Looks like you need an extra fridge for conditioning problem solved

[Aussiekraut]

1 hour ago, Back Brewing said:

Looks like you need an extra fridge for conditioning problem solved

That's what the keezer is there for  

[Classic Brewing Co]

2 hours ago, John304 said:

Living at Mawson lakes I presume you use granarium or brewcraft

I live at Glenelg North, but I use the Granarium for a lot of AG stuff as well as Country Brewer, Kilburn, I find the other a lot dearer.

[Back Brewing]

55 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

I live at Glenelg North, but I use the Granarium for a lot of AG stuff as well as Country Brewer, Kilburn, I find the other a lot dearer.

I find Granarium really good on prices I have actually compared grain bills and Granarium were way cheaper than most

Edited January 30 by Back Brewing

[Shamus O'Sean]

I brew for 4 people including me.  I tend to brew 30 litre batches, so can get 1 & 1/2 kegs per batch.  I mostly rely on the half kegs to keep me going.  This gives me lots of variety.  The full kegs go to the other 3 drinkers.

I am usually planning 3 - 5 beers ahead.  Sometimes the other 3 request a style or a specific brew that I slot into the schedule.  Otherwise, I brew what I am inspired to make.  At the moment I have a Coopers Sparkling, Aussie Lager, Low Carb Lager, Mexican Cerveza and a Lime Gose lined up.  That is a lot of lager/pale styles in a row.  Hopefully one of the other guys requests something to change it up a bit.

My schedule will be thrown out for a while too with losing one of my fermenting fridges.  Lagers also take longer to brew, so supply will be reduced for a little while to come.

[Aussiekraut]

10 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

I brew for 4 people including me.  I tend to brew 30 litre batches, so can get 1 & 1/2 kegs per batch.  I mostly rely on the half kegs to keep me going.  This gives me lots of variety.  The full kegs go to the other 3 drinkers.

I am usually planning 3 - 5 beers ahead.  Sometimes the other 3 request a style or a specific brew that I slot into the schedule.  Otherwise, I brew what I am inspired to make.  At the moment I have a Coopers Sparkling, Aussie Lager, Low Carb Lager, Mexican Cerveza and a Lime Gose lined up.  That is a lot of lager/pale styles in a row.  Hopefully one of the other guys requests something to change it up a bit.

My schedule will be thrown out for a while too with losing one of my fermenting fridges.  Lagers also take longer to brew, so supply will be reduced for a little while to come.

I only brew mainly for me and whoever comes around. The father in law gets the odd keg when he runs out but besides, it's mine, all mine *evil laughter* 

I like the idea of half kegs as it will allow for variety as you said but unless I can find some for a reasonable price, I'll just take kegs off the tap, after a while and replace them. I guess the beer in the kegs will last a while. If I had 10 taps, it'd be a different story altogether  

I plan a few batches ahead but then I see something interesting and see if I can slot it in, at the expense of something else. Or I get inspired when somebody here brews a beer I haven't made in a while and it gets slotted in, regardless of the potential consequences. If I hadn't made the brown ale I was inspired to make, I'd probably have a pale ale or a lager in a keg. If I had picked up a Pacific Ale FWK instead of the Irish Red, I'd also have a pale or a lager sitting there and all would be fine. It's ok to sneak a batch in but if all you do is sneak batches in, you end up where I am. So now I need to come up with a regime that is strict but also allows flexibility. Getting those two under one hat isn't easy  

Another problem is of course that I make a lot of lagers lately. A lot more than I used to and the turnaround time for lagers is a fair bit longer. They claim NovaLager reduces maturity time down to just a couple of weeks but it depends on the lager. A "run of the mill" lager, I don't necessarily give the six weeks I would normally give a lager but when I make a Helles, I tend to give it the time it needs. If I had another spot in the fridges would be handy but I don't and another fridge isn't an option. Maybe I can hint at a RAPT chamber for Xmas. It'll be a while but it's something to look forward to  

[Beerdo]

On 1/30/2024 at 7:59 AM, Aussiekraut said:

I'd like to get a couple of 9.5l kegs, so I can split a batch into two small kegs and only have a small keg on tap for a faster turnaround and more variety. The problem with the little kegs is their price. Kegland asks $89 for a small keg, just 10 bucks shy of the cost of a full one. I have two of those Kegland 8.5l PET kegs but after what I have heard, I haven't even used them. Of course, I can just take kegs off the tap before they run out and keep them for later. 

Hi Aussie.
You might know already I have the 8l PET kegs. I don't use them any more mainly due to their size. They were tying up my gas line during the carbonation period (I only have 1 gas line split with a T piece ie. no manifold) and I was finishing one keg before the next was ready to drink.
They aren't completely useless though and they could assist you without you having to spring $$ for 9.5l steel kegs. On occasions instead of carbonating with CO2 I'd prime them with sugar. It helped me build up stock levels without tying up the CO2 tank. This isn't ideal if you're seeking no sediment in your beers but maybe you could do stouts or cloudy style beers in them.

[Beerdo]

4 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

Another problem is of course that I make a lot of lagers lately. A lot more than I used to and the turnaround time for lagers is a fair bit longer. They claim NovaLager reduces maturity time down to just a couple of weeks but it depends on the lager.

I've only used Novalager yeast once. It worked OK but I found the flavour less cleaner than other lager yeasts.

[Aussiekraut]

29 minutes ago, Beerdo said:

Hi Aussie.
You might know already I have the 8l PET kegs. I don't use them any more mainly due to their size. They were tying up my gas line during the carbonation period (I only have 1 gas line split with a T piece ie. no manifold) and I was finishing one keg before the next was ready to drink.
They aren't completely useless though and they could assist you without you having to spring $$ for 9.5l steel kegs. On occasions instead of carbonating with CO2 I'd prime them with sugar. It helped me build up stock levels without tying up the CO2 tank. This isn't ideal if you're seeking no sediment in your beers but maybe you could do stouts or cloudy style beers in them.

I have two of those PET kegs but from what I've heard, they aren't the best thing out there with people complaining about getting them sealed and things like that. I might use them here and there but am not convinced. In the meantime, I took delivery of two brand spanking new 19l kegs today  

[Shamus O'Sean]

8 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

I have two of those PET kegs but from what I've heard, they aren't the best thing out there with people complaining about getting them sealed and things like that. I might use them here and there but am not convinced. In the meantime, I took delivery of two brand spanking new 19l kegs today  

By the way, when I said 1/2 keg I meant a full sized keg (19L) but only half full.  Stick with the 19 litre kegs, it gives better flexibility.

I also have 2 x 10 litre Keg King Fermenter King Junior PET kegs.  I bought them as seconds for $30each.  I find these much better than the Kegland 8 litre brown PET kegs (which I gave up on ages ago).  Although, admittedly, I have only ran 2 beers through each of them.  They have not leaked gas.  They are light weight.  I bought the clear ones (not the opaque grey ones) so you can see how much beer is left in them in the kegerator.  The disadvantage of the FKJ kegs is their footprint is quite a bit bigger than a corny keg - an octagonal base within a 26.5 cm diameter circle compared to the 22cm diameter of a corny keg.  In my Kegland Series X kegerator, I could not fit three corny kegs and an FKJ keg.  I got around this by changing my soda water keg from a 19 litre corny to a 4 litre iKegger.  That gives me room for 2 cornys and a FKJ plus the iKegger.

[Beerdo]

@Shamus O'Sean I also have 2 x Keg King plastic 20l kegs and empathise with the footprint issue. I can fit 2 of them side by side in my fridge but it's a cumbersome exercise. All the planets have to align for me to get the fridge door closing properly when they are side by side. I also have 2 x 19l Cornies so my normal configuration is 2 Cornies side by side in the bottom of fridge and 1 x KK 20l on the shelf above. When I get annoyed enough of running only 3 kegs instead of the optimum 4 in the fridge, I'll eventually get another couple of Cornies to fulfill my beer dream.

[stquinto]

An interesting subject. I just ran out or kegs except a 9 volter Duvel, which TBH puts me on my a*se if I have more than one.

I just knocked up 3 KnK IPAs in record time to up the production. I intend to bottle  the leftover after kegging a 10 l keg from each, travelling bottles are handy. All of my Cornies have floating tubes which really helps with the clarity, but the 10l ones from iKegger don’t, although they are a convenient size.

My go-to brew is COPA, dead easy, and great results. I knock up a slab for my neighbour now and again, he’s well impressed.

For anyone who is thinking of getting into All Grain and wants to get a machine like a Grainfather or equivalent, I would highly recommend a larger volume model. A brew day is about 5 hours, you might as well brew up a double batch

 

[stquinto]

Back to the Duvel, I really ought to knock up a lower strength one (maybe 7% or so)

[Classic Brewing Co]

17 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

By the way, when I said 1/2 keg I meant a full sized keg (19L) but only half full. 

@Shamus O'Sean in your learned opinion, do you feel that a 1/2 full keg of beer on CO2 would carb any faster than a full keg, the same for a 9.5l keg holding only 4l which was the main reason for my question. 

[Shamus O'Sean]

5 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

@Shamus O'Sean in your learned opinion, do you feel that a 1/2 full keg of beer on CO2 would carb any faster than a full keg, the same for a 9.5l keg holding only 4l which was the main reason for my question. 

Hi Classic, In my experience a 1/2 full keg of beer on CO2 does carb faster than a full keg.  I leave a full keg at 40psi for 24 hours.  1/2 full kegs I either leave at 40psi for 12 hours or 20psi for 24 hours.  I think there is a relationship between pressure and time.  It probably relates to the surface area and volume of the beer in the keg.  I do not think that the headspace in the keg matters.  The relationship is not linear, because when you get down to a 9.5 L keg with 4 L of beer in it, my maths goes skewwhiff.  By that I mean it is probably not as simple as 40psi for 6 hours or 10psi for 24 hours.  For that small volume (4 L), I suggest using serving pressure for a day or two and give it a test each day until carbed to your satisfaction.