Serious question regarding brew lengths.

[polymoog]

At the risk of being shot down in flames by everyone on the forum. i would very tentatively like to ask a serious question.
I enjoy making beer as much as drinking it. I make 5 gallon batches and 4 of those go into a cornie and i bottle the last gallon to give away or to lay down to mature.I also like to have a choice of beers, if i drink 2 pints EVERY day ( not including my turbo cider or wine) then a keg will last 2 weeks or slightly longer.
This allows me to make beer every two weeks so i can refine and alter recipes and also experiment with other off the wall brews.
Now a lot of people seem to brew much more than 5 gallon and im very envious of some of the bigger set ups than some have BUT... does this mean that you only brew once every 3 months as this seems such a shame if you have spent a lot of time and money on your set up or do some of you drink a lot more than i do.
some one recently mentioned upgrading from 100 to 200 litres WOW! thats nearly 380 pints!
So.... What is the most popular brewlength on this forum, 5 or 10 gallon or more???
Who's got the biggest !!!!

[haz66]

For my homebrew i just do 5 Gallon brews.
The reason i`m setting up a 200ltr one is so i can start small scale brewing to sell to local pubs,
when i eventually get it all set up and running i`ll be brewing some to keg and i`ll keep the left overs
for my own consumption, but if i dont have any to brew to sell i`ll probably just brew 10 gallon for myself
at a time, as at the moment i seem to be brewing on average once a week so i can cut this down to once every
2 weeks, and over the summer i could do a 20 gallon batch and then not have to brew for a month, leaving more
Saturdays free to do other things.
So even if i dont brew a lot to sell i then have the options of doing big or small brews for myself.

[polymoog]

Haz66 do you think that the majority of people brew 5 gallon brews then or is it im not pulling my weight by not supping enough?
Selling to pubs is some serious home brew set up, well done i hope that works out for you.

[haz66]

I would say the majority of people do 5 gallon, well thats the impression i get looking at the recipes section,
If i do a 5 gallon batch a week i have more than enough to cover a weeks drinking, plus whats left just mounts up
into my beer stock, so i can give some to mates and also swap some with other people on here.
If you are happy with your 5 gallon setup then i wouldn`t change it just because you felt you had to.

Selling to pubs is some serious home brew set up, well done i hope that works out for you.

Cheers, so do i, but i`m trying to do it with as little outlay as possible, well i`m not going to borrow to do it, so at the end
of the day if it doesn`t work out, i still have a setup for doing my homebrew in, just a rather large one, without owing anyone
anything, start small and build up

[wren10]

Personally I do 5 gallon batches, and sometimes smaller runs of unusual brews. With a household of only two (and one mainly a wine drinker) it's a balance between having a ready supply, but not too much of the same variety of beer. I suppose if you're gregarious and have a healthy number of friends (rather than being a miserable git like me) , larger runs are useful - but I'll stick to 5 gallons!

[Trunky]

[WishboneBrewery]

I don't (don't think) I drink that much, between 1 & 3 500ml bottles on an evening usually. That is at most 1 Crate a week of 20 bottles, so I mostly brew a 12L brew-length which fills just over 20 bottles, give or take losses to trub, hops and yeast etc

This lets me brew every week if I really want to, more sensibly it lets me brew every two weeks and keep the variety and stock of beer fresh and new.
Obviously I do stockpile a bit which eventually needs to be run-down to free up bottles for future brews, and the odd 23L batch of a favourite brew takes up extra conditioning space and slows down the brewing schedule.

The only problem with 12L brew length is that when you brew something that tastes blooming fantastic its not going to last long and don't want to give them away to friends etc

[Aleman]

I run a 1/2BBL (18 Gallons) Brew length at max capacity, but will often pass on a corny of wort/beer to other local brewers, as I just don't drink it all . . . and eventually then end of a corny often goes down the drain.

I'm currently building a smaller electric plant based on Thermoboxes (24.5L for Mash Tun and fermenter and 38.5L for HLT and Boiler), so that I can brew smaller batches of different beers more frequently, but I will still use the big plant for my house brews

[Andy]

haz - will you be allowed by HMRC to keep back some of the beer you brew on a commercial basis for your own consumption ? I thought HMRC were uber-strict about tracking where brewed (and therefore taxable) commercial beer ended up.

[Garth]

haz - will you be allowed by HMRC to keep back some of the beer you brew on a commercial basis for your own consumption ? I thought HMRC were uber-strict about tracking where brewed (and therefore taxable) commercial beer ended up.

yes, they'll let him keep it for himself but they still will want the tax from it

Ingredients have to be accounted for as well.

[jubby]

23 litres for me. I am still experimenting with the huge selection of hops and grain available and if you don't like the end result, you only have to drink 23 litres There are a few tried and tested beers that i would like to brew in bigger quantities, but I keep resisting the temptation to increase my brewlength. One day i will probably give in!

Aleman wrote:
I'm currently building a smaller electric plant based on Thermoboxes (24.5L for Mash Tun and fermenter and 38.5L for HLT and Boiler), so that I can brew smaller batches of different beers more frequently, but I will still use the big plant for my house brews

That's the ideal set up in my view.

[wmfd]

20-23 litres for me, at first aiming for 20 to fill about 40 bottles (and also because of the size of my mash tun).

I'm wondering whether to step up to 30 litres - as I've just gone for a 37.5ltr shiney tun - that way I can fill a cornie and have a few bottles to give away.

David

[EoinMag]

I've gone up to brewing 12 gallon brews simply for the convenience of brewing less. I have enough ingredients for brewing another 25gallons and am gonna lay that down for a while as I won't be drinking for 6 months or so just to take a break, I'll come back to some nicely matured beer though

[TC2642]

I just killed my boiler by turning on the element with no water in it and it burnt through the plastic kettle (I had to use a bit of cork tile to act as a washer, hence my last brew being Old Boiler bitter). On the plus side this does mean I now have to get a new setup and I'm going to double my capacity from 25 to 50ltrs most likely going with Chris's mashtun idea and getting a plastic boiler with twin elements. That should mean I only need to brew once a month rather than twice. I'll still use two fermenters so I can also experiment with using different yeasts in the same beer.

[Horatio]

I've only just set up my AG system and can brew 10 gallons. So far I have only made a 23l kit and a 19l extract with it! As soon as the LHBS opens and I can get some grain I will start a 10 gallon brew; don't know what it's going to be yet though.