Shift Work Brewing

[doglet]

Hi all

I have just accepted a mining role on a fly in/out, 2 weeks on - 1 week off roster, at a site in the middle of outback South Australia. Fingers crossed in a year or so the roster will change to 8 day on - 6 days off. It's a career change that will impact on family, relationships, footy watching and of course brewing! I just have to do it smart and manage them all.

I'm just wondering if there's any other keen brewers out there on a similar roster and how they go about their brewing on their days off? Somehow I don't think the company would be too happy for me to brew in my "donga" although a micro brewery would be revolutionary. :beerbang: Unfortuantely your everyday shift worker probably wouldn't appreciate a nice fresh micro brewed beer so those plans will have to be put on hold!

My plans are to brew on the first day or so I get back home (All Grain), put into temperature controlled fridge, rack into secondary before I leave and depending on final gravity either leave at fermentation temp or reduce temp for conditioning. After two weeks away I could then rack into a keg for drinking.

I'm also considering getting a conical fermenter. My thoughts are that I would only need one fermentation/conditioning vessel and I could teach my partner or brother how to remove the yeast and reduce the fridge temp once fermentation has stopped.

I'd probably need to make up some starter worts so my bro and partner could get some of my divided liquid yeasts I keep up and running. Alternatives to this is to use a whole Wyeast activator pack, a couple of whitelab test tubes or rediscover the growing range of dried yeasts out there.

Any thoughts or experiences?

 

[glenos]

Congrats on the new job

Unfortuantely your everyday shift worker probably wouldn't appreciate a nice fresh micro brewed beer so those plans will have to be put on hold! wink.gif

You'd be surprised, a lot of shift workers appreciate the finer things in life, they have the extra income to afford them, shift penalties and overtime are wonderful things.

Can't help on the how to manage front, I gave up shift work before I was a brewer.

 

[Stuster]

Congrats on the job. Hopefully the week off will make up for the 2 weeks in the middle of nowhere.

I think the way you are thinking of managing it will work fine. Alternatively, you could make your starter the day you come back, brew a few days after and then just leave it in the primary till you get back. There's really no problem with doing that for 2-3 weeks in my experience. You can then just keg it from there. I'd guess your brother can turn down the fridge after a week or ten days. Seems pretty easy to me. What do you think?

 

[razz]

Well done Doglet. Sounds like the new job will pay well, i say go for a conical. I've had one for 2 years and I find it's money well spent. Just a comment on your planning, you could try brewing on the day or two before you fly out. That way when you get home you can rack to keg, build a starter and do all the other things in readiness for the next brew. Also you can teach your mates how to rack the trub after a week in primary.

 

[doglet]

Thanks for the congrats and advice.

With the way the roster is set I'll have Wednesday night to Thursday morning off. Brewing at the start or end break would suit as it'd keep the weekend free to be with my working partner, family and footy.

razz - I'll PM you about your conical fermenter to keep this thread on track.