Pipeline

Posted on 07.11.10 9:27PM under Uncategorized

Pipeline: the backlog of home made beer supply you have.

A good pipeline is three full kegs sitting there at cellar temp “conditioning” while waiting for space in the keg fridge, while two more batches ferment getting ready to be kegged in a week, perhaps even before kicking one of the active kegs. (The IPA has come to what I call the “bottomless keg” portion of the keg where I expect it to pull nothing but foam any time – for about a week now)

The key to keeping a good pipeline is brewing faster than you can go through the beer. For me the main motivator has been brewing to fill the gap that will be created when I get to making the Oktoberfest party beer. I know that there are six batches (three brew days) that will be dedicated to serving for the enjoyment of others. In order to compensate for that, it’s become important to make more beer more often so that over those 6-8 weeks of lost brew days I will have enough overage to make up for the lack of fresh supply.

It’s amazing the amount of planning and preparation that goes into maintaining the pipeline. I have spreadsheets for brew day scheduling, and spreadsheets for pipeline maintenance. I plan my brew days to make sure I have an appropriate variety on tap at any given time. I’ve found that if I just brew whatever I feel like, I can end up with three oddball experimental beers on tap and only one really good one. Hopefully moving forward I can keep a good strong pipeline going – both plenty of beer and a good variety.

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