Brewing to Capacity

So I have reached a sad state of affairs.  I'm out of homebrew.  Well, not completely out, but with only about 4 bottles mixed between stout and that "turned out too dark brown Irish Red" -  functionally, I'm out.  I DO have another five gallons of the Irish "Brown" in a carboy ready for bottling, but nary a drop to drink.  Oh, and while my mead from a few years ago has aged quite nicely, it is not a session beverage in the slightest.

It is this utter dearth of beverage that caused me pause to consider - how much could I possibly have at once?  Given that I only have five gallons in any state of progress, how much could I actually max out?  Turns out, the answer is about 50 gallons.  With 4 carboys, 2 kegs, and 8 cases of bottles, I do have room to produce and store a quarter of my limit at once (limit in the U.S. for those playing at home is 100 gallons a year for an individual of 200 gallons a year for a household with two or more individuals over the age of 21.  More adults does not increase the personal consumption limit above 200).  Now, were I to be maxed out, I would run into a consumption bottleneck rather than a production bottleneck, but that's a problem I could try to work through.

Since I'm not FULLY keg capable yet, we'll call my maximum capacity 40 gallons - which means with only 5 gallons I'm at a meager 12.5% of my available load.  With one day off of work (today), the question was, how do I pump so much into the front-end of the production line that I fill up more more more of that capacity to last me throughout the summer.  The answer?  A 20 gallon brewday.

What?

A 20 gallon brewday.

Now, while I could theoretically start at 7:30 AM with boiling and mash in around 8:30 with the first of two 10 gallon batches, that just wouldn't be my lazy procrastinative style (yes, I think I made up procrastinative, but I like the way it rolls).  Rather, I didn't truly PLAN to brew until last night, meaning that I don't actually have any ingredients, which also limits my start time, since my Homebrew store of choice does not open until 10:00.  This leaves me with the dilemma that there is no way to do two 10 gallon all-grain batches by a reasonable time this evening.  So I made some plan adjustments.  The new plan is: one 5 gallon batch of something experimental (I'm trying a Black IPA or CDA or whatever you want to call it), that I will source primarily with extract.  Then one 10 gallon batch of a standard (we're doing the American Brown).  Then, for my last trick (after clearing a carboy by bottling), I will be attempting 5 gallons of hard cider (another test, using some tips from this site).

After all that, I'll have 5 gallons bottle conditioning and 20 gallons fermenting.  62.5% of my carrying capacity of 40 gallons.  Much much better.  One more 20 gallon (double 10g batch?) psycho-brewday in a month or two and I'd be loaded up for the rest of the year, most likely.

I'll be live tweeting my exciting day, along with posting updates and recipes here on the blog,  Hope you enjoy it.  Oh, and such a carefully constructed day requires carefully constructed timing.  So I have a strict down-to 15 minutes schedule.  Here it is:

Time	General	10G Brown Ale	5G Black IPA	Cider	Red Bottling
7:00 AM	WAKE UP
7:15 AM	WAKE UP
7:30 AM	Donuts & Water
7:45 AM	Donuts & Water
8:00 AM	Load Propane,Take Dogs
8:15 AM	Get Propane
8:30 AM		Measure Chemicals
8:45 AM				Buy Apple Juice?
9:00 AM	Get Equipment Out
9:15 AM	Prep/Clean
9:30 AM	Drive to HBHQ
9:45 AM	Drive to HBHQ
10:00 AM	HBHQ
10:15 AM	HBHQ
10:30 AM	HBHQ
10:45 AM	HBHQ
11:00 AM	Drive Home
11:15 AM	Drive Home
11:30 AM			Boil 8 G/Steep Grains
11:45 AM		Boil 6.25 G Water for Mash In	Boil 8 G/Steep Grains
12:00 PM	Eat	Boil 6.25 G Water for Mash In	Boil 8 G/Steep Grains
12:15 PM		Boil 6.25 G Water for Mash In	Boil
12:30 PM		Boil 6.25 G Water for Mash In	Boil
12:45 PM		Boil 10.5 G for Mash Out	Boil
1:00 PM		Mash	Boil
1:15 PM		Mash	Transfer to Carboy
1:30 PM		Mash	Transfer to Carboy
1:45 PM		Mash	Transfer to Carboy
2:00 PM		Sparge	Transfer to Carboy
2:15 PM		Sparge	Pitch Yeast
2:30 PM		Sparge
2:45 PM		Sparge
3:00 PM		Heat to Boil			Sanitize Bottles
3:15 PM		Heat to Boil			Sanitize Bottles
3:30 PM		Heat to Boil			Sanitize Bottles
3:45 PM		Heat to Boil			Transfer to Bottling Bucket
4:00 PM		Boil			Transfer to Bottling Bucket
4:15 PM		Boil			Bottle
4:30 PM		Boil			Bottle
4:45 PM		Boil			Clean Carboy
5:00 PM		Transfer to Carboys		Fill & Pitch
5:15 PM		Transfer to Carboys
5:30 PM		Transfer to Carboys
5:45 PM		Transfer to Carboys
6:00 PM
6:15 PM
6:30 PM
6:45 PM
7:00 PM
7:15 PM
7:30 PM
7:45 PM
8:00 PM		CLEAN
8:15 PM		CLEAN
8:30 PM		CLEAN
8:45 PM
9:00 PM