I brew 12 gallon batches. The brewery churns it out pretty consistently without capacity bottlenecks. Why such a departure? It’s easier to brew “extra” so what goes into the cornies has little to no sediment. Usually then I have a nearly clear beer on the second glass upon tapping a keg.
Plus, I have a gallon or more to play with- random carbing up a PET’s to sample the beer still will leave me with full kegs on kegging day and fresh beer to drink.
That’s me. What about you guys? Method to your madness?
Usually 5.5 gallon batches. That’s about the max my system can handle since I only have a ten gallon kettle. No real desire to brew bigger batches at the moment either since it’s mostly just me drinking it and I like to brew as frequently as I can and keep the pipeline full.
I always try to brew more than I really want and typically for the same reason as Euge. But with that said its also to get the most in my fermenter so I can siphon without worrying about getting the last dregs from the carboy to fill the keg as I don’t typically bottle anything.
11 gallons here . . 2 full cornies after losses. That and it’s too hot to brew in the summer. Oh, and a lot of friends who came out of the woodwork when they learned I BYO. :
I normally put 11 to 11.5 into the fermenters depending on how much hop matter is in my kettle. If I have more than what will fit into secondary, I’ll run the leftover into a plastic bottle, squeeze the air out, and throw the carbonator on top to carb it up. Gives me something esle to try other than the 3 beers on tap.
I usually do 5.5 gal. at a time. My brewing system can handle more, but I can’t really control the fermentation of more than one 5ish gal. batch at a time.
I have moved away from 11 gallon batches except for my house beer for the purposes of variety. I like to have alot of different beers on tap and bottled. I just can’t drink 11 gallons of any beer fast enough.
I am getting up to 13 gallon batches anymore. I have been taking a few gallons and boiling on the kitchen stove, then adding when there is room in the kettle. I really need to start kegging, I have 44 gallons ready to bottle now, not to mention wine
I brew the larger batches because it only adds 30 minutes to an hour to my brew day to brew twice as much beer. Which is certainly worth it. I like variety too, so I’ll normally just put the second keg under the basement stairs until I’m ready to drink that style again…
Yep done that too, or other little tweaks. For example two totally different dry hop schedules, or if it’s a stout I might add coffee to one of the kegs.
I brew mostly 5 gallon batches, with the occasional 3 gallon one. It’s mostly the wife and myself drinking it and that size keeps a decent selection around. The smaller batches are styles she doesn’t like that don’t lend themselves to aging, like a bitter.
