Can you end up with 'too much beer' ?

[Grunaki]

I know... "There's no such thing as too much beer!"

Just something I've been considering.. Here's my logic..

I'm enjoying the brewing and I want to keep it up - otherwise my equipment will just get 'unused' dirty and I'll get demotivated again as I won't want to clean it.

(Even though it's not THAT much of a hassle, you just blow it out of proportion in your head.. When we moved house last year I did a bunch of 'fixer upper' jobs that the wife had been on at me to do for ages in about half a day as we were getting the place ready to sell.. Seemed like such a big pain to do it when it wasn't a priority though..)

Anyway.. My logic goes something like this.. It takes approximately two and a half weeks to go through the primary fermentation and the clarification in the carboy into getting the beer into bottles.. My 'big plan' is to get another batch going every time a carboy opens up, the theory being that from that point on I'll always have a steady supply of beer reaching the 'ready to drink' phase.

That in itself isn't the problem.. I'm the only one who drinks beer in this house, so basically I'm looking at having to knock back 23 litres of beer every two weeks to stay ahead of the curve.. I suppose I could try and have some mates round, but they're all settled down with kids now and are all boring and respectable, so monster pissups are probably out.. Failing that, I'm going to have to keep buying plastic bottles to keep it in, which could also end up fairly pricey..

(Actually, I did the maths and it's 1.64 litres of beer per day... What's that? Couple of pints? I think I can deal with that! If I fall behind though, the question stands..)

 

[Xian]

I do not think there is any problem with that. I drink around 20 liters every week. (don't know if I should admit to that.) Plus it is nice to age some of your brews. I have made some stouts that really take to a good taste after a year or so. If you bottle correctly and save a few from every batch, you will be able to keep up.

 

[bunkerbrewer]

I'm the same - I don't need to brew 25L batches, but I can, so I do :)

+1 to Xian's answer. Brew a bit more than you need, and you can set a few aside to see how it ages :thumb:

 

[wilsoa1111]

yeah can happen... espically to us light weights in study time, just not been feeling like losing any braincells for a few days... luckily got a big garage and dont mind spending a few quid on bottles, i do get annoyed when people then bin them though :evil:

still i expect i will manage to remove some of the surplus after the exams... :lol:

 

[PD]

I brew for pleasure...I enjoy the process of brewing, and I try and do a brew every 2 or 3 weeks, at least 23 liters per brew.. I don't drink vast quantities of beer.
My son 33 years helps me out a bit...lol...but he is a baker and up for work at 3.45am most mornings.
We have been all grain brewing since middle of last year and have a collection of several hundred un drunk beers in the brewery.. It doesn't bother us an theres always a party coming round or theirs neighbors with dire thirsts that need seeing to, so its easy to dispose of a large amount of beer quite easily without drinking yourself stoopid....
I do try and manage the output to keep in tune with the whole process of fermenting/carbonating and aging so that all the processes are in step.
Output slows down in the winter period and the stocks seem to even out.

 

[mattrickl06]

I did a stock take last weekend and I have 215 bottles of ale, lager, cider, another 46 in the FV and 38 in secondary.

I dont drink a lot so would probably last me until cristmas, but I just cant stop brewing as I enjoy the process so much.

 

[taxidiver]

Hi all
My logic works the other way round.
I have storage space for about 80 gallons of beer ie 16 weeks of 40 pint kits.
When I'm down to about my last 10 gallons or so, I start brewing again, approximately 1 kit a week for 16 weeks. This means I only have to sterilize my brew bucket the one time when I start the process.
We drink a lot of lemonade and cola in this house, so the empty bottles never get thrown away, they go into the garage storage space where I have taken a bottle of beer from, so I always have a ready supply of fresh bottles. The ones I have used for beer are what goes into the recycling.
Works for me anyway. :thumb:
Geoff