Big Christmas Brew - Logistics of 70 gallons

[geezer_brew]

I'm considering brewing beer for my clients at work as a Christmas gift. The company I work for is great, it's a creative shop; we have plans to make it a good story. I've run the numbers and logistically I can brew, ferment, keg and bottle 50 gallons before mid December - but the current Mrs Geezer_brew quite rightly wouldn't be best pleased with the mess I'd make for something we aren't drinking. I'm in the San Francisco bay area (North Bay). Does anyone know if there a contract brew option for this amount? I'd also be open for paying for a bunch wort and fermenting / kegging myself if there's a legal issue.

Thoughts, contacts, etc would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Geezer_brew

[geezer_brew]

Quick followup - I found a place, Diving Dog Brewhouse in Oakland. http://www.divingdogbrew.com/brew-on-premise/. Booked in for next week.

Geezer_brew

[norfire0]

thanks for your post. I am looking to do something similar

[Ozwald]

Looks like they offer half-barrel batches. Did you reserve 3 kettles?

[geezer_brew]

Well, that was a fantastic day out. We did the brew on Thursday afternoon, all 6 kettles, 90 gallons (to yield 75) , 15 co workers (I had a no douchebag policy) at a brew your own bar which also had 30 local beers on tap. Rob the owner was great, as was John and the other guys helping on the brew. We had three groups, four people for every two kettles - everyone had a blast. the kettles are steam; looks cool, it's a sweet looking setup. No prior brewing knowledge needed.

I'd say that if you do it, don't sweat the brew day. You aren't going to do all grain (Liquid Extract for base / mini mash for this) no water modifications or big starters, chest freezer fermentation control, oxygen blah blah - it's not really practical at this size, and for me it's more about the story, the day out rather than being a picky bitch on the finer process points. I had some great beers and helped teach a few people how to brew.

These guys have a really clean process so I'm sure it'll turnout great. And it's my first brewday in history where I haven't had to clean anything. I'll be back there in about three weeks to bottle though, and we all know that sucks - hopefully those 15 people will show up for that as well.

Cheers.

[geezer_brew]

Looks like they offer half-barrel batches. Did you reserve 3 kettles?

One kettle would be a half-barrel but the yield would be less, I think we worked it out to 12.5 gallons.

[BDawg]

Sounds like fun.
Bottling 90 gallons is gonna SUCK with a capital S.
You gotta pitch it so that anybody who doesn't show won't get any of the beer.

[Ozwald]

Looks like they offer half-barrel batches. Did you reserve 3 kettles?

One kettle would be a half-barrel but the yield would be less, I think we worked it out to 12.5 gallons.

Gotcha. Usually when they say half-barrel system, it means it can crank out a half-barrel of finished product. And awesome they had 6 kettles. I must've been drunk or something when I looked at their site. I thought they only had 3 for some reason.

Sounds like fun.
Bottling 90 gallons is gonna SUCK with a capital S.
You gotta pitch it so that anybody who doesn't show won't get any of the beer.

2 words. Dual-wielding beerguns. Not that it'll make your life any easier, but you'll look 35% cooler doing it.